How to use StairDesigner to build a platform and horizontal railing
Several people have asked me how to draw platforms and mezzanines with StairDesigner.
In reality StairDesigner is not really made to draw these parts and only calculates and draws the stairs, but with a little twist you can turn StairDesigner into a very useful tool for building a platform or mezzanine of any shape. The idea is simply that you build a stair with zero height. In this case StairDesigner flattens the stair down to a platform and adds the horizontal railing with all the parameters that you can give to a stair.
Of course StairDesigner doesn’t draw the beams and joists but you do get all the railings spindles, posts etc. drawn up and listed in the cutting lists. The drawing can be exported in 2D and 3D DXF to be loaded into Autocad or Progecad for detailing and 2D presentations.
Here’s a video that shows how to do this.
Once you have built the stairs and the platforms separately you can assemble them in Autocad or Progecad to make the working plans or build really nice 3D presentations.
I’ll be making a short video to show how easy this is in the near future.
The full 3D version 2010 has the same functions as Autocad for less than 1/10th of the price of a full Autocad. You can buy the full version here.
Click here to register for more resources and expert stair advice
Please note, we now have a new version of StairDesigner available which makes stair building even easier.
Here comes a stair designer by which one can draw a 3D diagram and can design of stair cases and horizontal railings. This will help the stair designers.
Autocad 2007 is fine for editing stairs from StairDesigner.
@Autocad
Thank you for sharing it. But asked what version to use with Autocad. I now use the 2007 version to help me.