Stairs

[Christian Fekete]

Stairs on the basement floor appear on the ground floor, is this normal? Should I draw the stairs on the upper or lower floor?

[CipesDesign]

I prefer to use one stair, on the lower level, then cut the floor of the level above to show the stairs. There are some cases where this is not really a good option, then I use an exact duplicate of the stair from below, pasted in place in the level above and moved down (in 3d space) so that it exactly aligns with the original stair is every conceivable view.

[Dieter @ DWorks]

We always show a stair on two floors. Where the stair begins, it is shown half full with break lines and where it ends, it is shown complete. It's easier to see things under the stair from that level, like when you put a toilet under it.

[Joe-SA]

Are you managing the Upper and Lower floor display tab from the plug-in Settings?

The Custom Stair PIO has had this for a while and the more advanced (but strangely limited) Stair PIO just got this ability in VW2012.

Much better to draw one stair then two, have one stair to edit changes, always have them align from floor to floor and have the flexibility to display each floor in the best way possible for that plan.

One caution, however, I always run into issues when I try to duplicate one of these stairs to create a second one. Save your favorite configs to the Default file and pull in new ones each time instead.

Joe

[Christian Fekete]

Joe, I agree with the benefits that you mention on having just one stair. I install it on the lower floor and use the upper and lower floor options to represent it as I want on either floor. I found that the copy really does not work very well.

You mention the default file, is this the same stairs with the eyedroper set to pickup the original stair options as a default? or a complete different drawing file?

[Joe-SA]

When you are inside the Settings of the PIO you can Browse to the Default Stair configurations. This file is in the Default sub-folder of your Library folder in your Vectorworks application folder. Create your own stair configs and save them as symbols into this same file and you can recall them straight from the Browse feature of the Stair PIO.

Do the same for all the other default objects...wall styles, hatches, textures, Custom Door Leaves, etc.

Joe