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Design Questions: additional newel posts and straight tread|Page 6|Forum|WOOD DESIGNER
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Hi Ness,
Well, I didn’t realise I could ask that many questions. I will take some photos and measurements and post them. In the meantime I am attaching the latest v7.04 version of the staircase I’d like to build.
At the moment I am struggling to find a way to ensure the intermediate posts line up exactly with the central post that carries the turn. I have made it 12cm square section while the others are current 9cm square but may well go up to 11cm square. So by ‘lining up’ I mean that they should have the same central reference point and that they should be square to each other in that regard.
As I told your colleague, I intend to stand the first flight and turn on the floor(bolted down) and the 2 higher newels will accept the tenons from the second flight. This is being done because the wall construction is not up to bearing much weight or adding much stability. that is the reason for the 2 intermediate newels.
Cheers
Andy
October 4, 2012
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Hi Andrew,
Unfortunately you don’t get the sizes of the individual parts I’m hoping that this will be added in future versions.
For the moment, the only way to get detailed sizes is to export in DXF and use CAD to measure.
You should be able to open the DXF file I attached to my last post in a CAD program like Draftsight and use the dimension tools.
I’ve exported the PDF plan with the global dimensions that you can look at, tell me if you need any specifics and I’ll dimension the DXF plan for you.
A better way to use the revision element of our StairFile service would be to post a dimensioned drawing of the stair well you are trying to build into.
This would help us advise you as to best sizes and design options.
For instance although your general stair design seems to work, it’s not clear to me how you will be assembling the last stair post to the landing. It’s also not possible for us to check if the stair is the correct size to fit your stair well.
To resume, the best way to use StairFile design service is to post, as well as your StairDesigner model:
– a dimensioned drawing of the stair well
– a detailed description of the stair you would like to build.
– sections and thicknesses of wood you are planning to use
– description of how you are thinking of building the stair, hand tools, CNC, subcontracting etc.
To this information you can add lots of photos so that we get a good overall view of the project and it’s context.
Hope this if helpful,
All the best,
Ness
Hi Ness,
OK I got that. Sorry, not sure why not before. Thanks
Anyway, if I select Stringboard mode and do the same thing, I cannot see dimensions of the individual member. Is that how it is supposed to be? I tried with a step and if I hover over an end point I get x and y axis values which I cannot relate to a length.
My intention is to order the stairfile service cutting list when I am sure the stair is well dimensioned. But I cannot find a way to be sure. And I don’t want to go around that circle several times.
As I say, it would be good to be able to see the dimensions to reassure myself that I have not done anything silly.
Cheers
Andy
October 4, 2012
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Hi Andrew,
I’ve tested this on the free version and it seems to work. You have to double click the bold line so that it shows the end points as squares. Then hover over the line to see the length.
cheers,
Ness
Hi Ness,
When I do that, I see the stairwell diagram in plan and as you say, when I hover over the line(any of the outside lines) they become bold but the tooltip just gives the name of the element, eg, ‘Flight #2’ If I click or double-click on it the properties box shows the properties for that element…but no length.
Is this perhaps to do with the fact that it is a demo version?
Cheers
Andy
October 4, 2012
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Hi Andrew,
A nice feature of StairDesigner v7 is that you can select the side of the stair well and get the length information.
To do this best select the “Stairwell” in the mode drop down list first.
This will enable you to work only on the stair well dimensions.
Double click to select the side of the well, once selected the side will display the line and it’s 2 end points. Hovering the mouse over the line will display it’s length.
It’s easy to see what this length refers to.
To see the newel position click the newel post and in it’s properties you’ll see it’s position:
If the “offset>longitudinal” parameter is on “center on reference” this dimension refers to the position of the center from the beginning of the stairwell.
I’m posing the DXF file that shows this:
StairDesigner is a great stair calculator but the difficulty is to know what each parameter refers to.
Hope this is helpful.
All the best,
Ness
Hi Michel,
2 more questions please.
As there is no scale and I have no way of checking the dimensions of the individual members until I request a cutting list, I am struggling to know that I am going in the right direction. I don’t even know if the stringers are included in the overall width of the stair which I have specified as 850mm.
As I have chosen an essentially free standing stair which has multiple newel posts for support, it would be good to have some kind of ‘snap-to’ grid that would ensure they were correctly lined up(particularly the intermediate newels). I cannot see a way of checking that they are correctly positioned without any measurements.
Hope you can help
Cheers
Andy
Hi Michel
Thanks for that.
I downloaded and installed Stairdesigner 7 (v7.04) and tried to open the file I was using in v6.52a but it appears that v7 is looking to open files with extension .stair not .sds files. I tried opening the .sds file and changing the extension to .stair but in both cases v7 fails to open the old file.
perhaps there is a conversion tool or some other help.
For the time being I will start to create the stair from scratch in v7, but if you can help me getting my old file into play then that would be good.
Thanks
Andy
August 7, 2014
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Hi Andrew
I made your stair with the new stairdesigner 7. You can download this program and check. Stringers are never passing trough the newels even in version 6 but version 7 allows to define tenons in the stringer and in the 3D view the parts becomes much more clear for you as you can select them and view it.
Also look at the introducting video about stairdesigner 7 on the site and you will find out it is very user friendly and in no time you can design any stair.
Change the stair the way you need it and I will review it afterwards.
regards
Michel
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