StairDesigner isn’t really made to design railings only but with a bit of a trick you can easily design all sorts of railing for existing stairs whether they be in wood cement, stone or metal.

What’s interesting is that the railing can be any shape and as you change the shape of the stair the railings follow!

Very neat.

And of course as usual StairDesigner will draw all the plans and separate parts, and print the cutting lists for no extra cost.

Here’s a quick video to show how to use the this stair software to build a modern type railing on existing cement stairs.

StairDesigner is a useful tool for building handrails onto stairs both in terms of design and because it draws all the plans and separate parts, and prints the cutting lists at no extra cost.

Here we walk you through the process of using StairDesigner to build a wooden handrail with spindles onto an existing stair. The stair can be cement, metal, or any other material.

When you use StairDesigner to build the handrail, you can put in the parameters of stairs that you’ve already measured on site and the software will build you the stairs in 3D (and in 2D) according to these characteristics.

In this example, we’re going to add a lower handrail onto the stair with a square section that follows the stair. To add the lower handrail, we click on StairDesigner’s Stringboard parameters. From here we can change the thickness of the handrail and give it a width, as well as change the penetration of the steps. StairDesigner will then automatically place the lower rail onto it.

To add the handrail, we go into the parameters menu and select ‘handrail’. By default, StairDesigner puts in turned spindles. If we want to have rails that slope up at the same gradient, we need to put in newel posts along the stair. This is a classic StairDesigner function. All we have to do is right click on the end of the strings and put in the parameters of the posts.

To change the material of the rails – for example, if we want a stainless steel handrail – then we have to change the parameters of each flight of stairs. From here, we can change the material, as well as put in straight handrails and stringboards, and make the railing follow the design of the stair. Once we’ve done all that, we can switch to 3D view to see the finished handrail on our stair. With StairDesigner, the railing can be any shape and as you change the shape of the stair the railings will follow!

Hope you liked this video and have found it interesting and helpful.

What ever you think please let me know by leaving a comment below.

All the best,

Ness Tillson

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