Sloped Stair Wall

[JSiegel]

Hi All,

What is the best way to draw a sloped wall/top rail at a stair? I have drawn a conventional wall & subtracted the portion above the rail. See attached. Is there a sloped wall command? Or is what I am drawing part of the stair tool? Also is there a way to combine the (2) walls drawn to remove the vertical line between them other than drawing (1) continuous wall? TY Jeremy

[Guest Wes Gardner]

Go to a view so you can see the wall in "front" elevation, then use the 3D Reshape Tool to add a blue node representing the top of the sloped run, then drag the top (in this case right) blue node down giving you the slope of the wall.

Harder to explain than actually doing - it's similar in functionality to the 2D Reshape Tool where you add and subtract nodes...

You could also create a "roof" element and use the "Fit Walls To Roof" command

See attached drawing

Edited December 1, 2009 by Wes Gardner

[ionw]

Hi Jeremy,

If instead of doing a solid subtraction on the wall, use the 3D geometry you used along with the Fit to Roof command in the AEC menu. The difference is that now the wall remains a wall. If you do that, I believe that VW will no longer show the break.

Unless you have another reason to use separate walls this would allow you to slope the wall at the stairs and insert the doorway to the left of the stairs in the view you showed.

You may want to do a search on this board or the help system about the Fit to Roof command, you will find that it has far outgrown its limited sounding name.

HTH,

Ion

[JSiegel]

Wes, I select the "3D Selection tool" click on the wall & (6) nodes appear (1) at each corner of the wall & (1) at midpoint. Then the 3D wall reshape appears. I can only drag an existing node which then tapers the entire top of the wall, not the clip as you have shown. Can you please send me a screen shot. TY Jeremy

[Guest Wes Gardner]

Hey Jeremy,

First add a node by selecting the 3D reshape Tool and then selecting the "plus" sign, then pick the top right node and drag a new one over to the left representing what will be the top of the slope, then select the reshape mode of the tool and drag the top right node down to create the slope...

Step 1 is what you'll start with

Step 2 I've created the "top of slope" node

Step 3 Complete

[JSiegel]

Ion- I will review the fit walls to roof option & search the board, as I will be needing to use it as I progress up to the roof. My initial experiment wasn't so successful... not sure how to select the stair as the object to fit to? Wes, thanks for the screen shots that worked out rather easily. TY Jeremy

[ionw]

Jeremy,

A couple thoughts about the Fit Walls to Roof command.

First it fits the selected wall with any intersecting geometry on the indicated layer. In other words you don't select what you want it to fit to, you select the wall and it fits to what is on another layer.

Second it works across layers best, i.e. the wall is on one layer and the geometry is on another. You can theoretically select the layer your wall and geometry coexist on, but in practice it gives inconsistent results.

I do one of two things in your situation, I make a temporary layer with the same Z height and move or duplicate the geometry I want to use to shape the wall (Again anything 3D works) to that temporary layer, select the wall and choose FWtR and indicate the layer I want the top or bottom to fit to and then reassemble if need requires.

The command is very literal so be sure than your geometry is completely over your wall.

Wes' suggestion is a good one as well, especially in 2010, as the improved 3D snapping makes it much easier to be accurate.

HTH,

ion