Custom staircase using Sketchup. How difficult in Chief? Complete with all details?

[Gene Davis]

I'm a Sketchup user, so it is my go-to tool if I need a new symbol I cannot find elsewhere. I am pretty good, but not a power user capable of doing surfaces such as in bathtubs and automobile bodies.

If I want to get creative with something like a staircase, I build the stairs using Chief to see how everything fits in my house model, then take a few measurements to get the overall bounding box for the unit, and build it all doodled up in Sketchup. You can see in the attached what I get. The staircase symbol is made with the V7 SU file, and snapped into place. Materials are easy, and actually easier to do for me in the SU file before the import.

This one is pretty straightforward. Box newels with tapering tops capped with a pyramid, slat balusters every other one with a keyhole hole detail. The balustrade base is a buildup that includes the skirts in the staircase, and flat trim boards. In Sketchup I can fiddle with the spacings exactly the same way a trim carpenter or millwork shop does, to get the thing just right.

How much work would this be in Chief, to do it all as I show here, and not using the Sketchup crutch?

Want me to model your special staircase? I probably can do it.