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Z Offset for Door Tool & Metal Stair Troubleshooting


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Hello world,

 

We have a BIM project and have two troubleshooting modeling issues to review. 

 

First is a raised floor system for a mechanical room. The raised floor system isn't truly a mezzanine and we would like to know a better set up for the walls and door in wall. We want the fire rated wall to continue from the top of slab to the bottom of slab and we would like the door at the level of the raised floor system, not the top of slab for the floor.

 

Any suggestions? We attached some screenshots of the architectural model in 3D & 2D, with the structural .ifc turned off. 

 

Furthermore, we would like to know of any development for more customization on the stair tool, specifically for metal stairs such as the one on the raised floor system and metal ship ladder stairs for bulkheads. The closest stair construction is "Outside Stringer", but we want to know how to override the max riser count. We get an error message (below) and are having trouble generating the stair. Is there a method to override the riser height to allow for 8.5" (or greater) riser heights.

 

For the roof's ship ladder, we modeled a conventional 3D symbol for the time being, but we would prefer to use the stair tool because it would allow us for more precision on the total rise to the elevator machine room top of slab and elevator bulkhead top of slab (which are all defined in the BIM files "story" data field).  See the last screenshot & the .vwx file for the shipladder stair if anyone knows how to generate this stair using the stair tool. If not, is there a method to tie a typical 3D symbol to the same story fields?


Excited to see your answers. 

 

Best, 

 

Todd Drucker

 

 


 

1510560803_ScreenShot2020-12-31at12_45_40PM.thumb.png.934734c8b81a4f528e690c3f457a93b2.png1993015025_ScreenShot2020-12-31at12_48_55PM.thumb.png.c96a43d6fd8a8575799f5225c493bc6f.png3724063_ScreenShot2020-12-31at12_50_10PM.thumb.png.4d93642a4b512de87c017a4f6a77920b.png

 

2055700172_ScreenShot2020-12-31at1_02_39PM.thumb.png.b46400ab4520ec28c744b7a1624256c1.png51376936_ScreenShot2020-12-31at1_11_05PM.thumb.png.64957fc53e460da9ec0e9e64dcff6551.png

 

BULKHEADS STAIR.vwx

 

 

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22 minutes ago, Todd Drucker said:

we would like the door at the level of the raised floor system, not the top of slab for the floor.

 

You can add a Z offset by adding to the Doors Z-value at the Top of Door Settings in OIP.

 

 

29 minutes ago, Todd Drucker said:

The closest stair construction is "Outside Stringer",

 

40 minutes ago, Todd Drucker said:

we would prefer to use the stair tool because it would allow us for more precision on the total rise to the elevator machine room top of slab and elevator bulkhead top of slab

 

I use this too.

Just that Stairtool's Stringer heights and Z-positions, Handrail's fillings vertical position

and Handrail connections are sloppy and look horrible.

 

 

33 minutes ago, Todd Drucker said:

We get an error message (below) and are having trouble generating the stair. Is there a method to override the riser height to allow for 8.5" (or greater) riser heights.

 

You need to deactivate (or edit) "use minimum/maximum variables"

and

check that the right Value Locks are unlocked when you set funny Riser heights.

But you will also get another warning when you do and can OK the options

at the bottom of the warning, which will open the relevant Lock for you

 

E.g. in my test I needed to free the total number of Treads lock, before creating

my 85" Riser hight.

🙂

 

 

  • Like 1
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Thanks @zoomer!!!!

 

I figured out the door in wall. It was pretty easy... all that I had to do is edit the height data field in the object info.

 

I also modified the stair on this mechanical raised floor to be more accurate of the construction. It will be helpful to discuss this feature with the client and further design the stair to code/aesthetic preference. 

 

The only thing I'm still having trouble with is having the extended guardrail (on the left side only) have the same vertical post. I don't think the stair tool can do this because it only adds the guard rails along the stringer.

 

@vectorworks can address this by having a Standard Configuration stair that is Straight, with a single landing at the top, and no additional stairs beyond the landing. The current Straight & Single Landing stair configuration requires 1 or more risers above the landing. 

 

Progress always feels good. Happy to be more proficient in 2021!

 

 

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Todd Drucker said:

The only thing I'm still having trouble with is having the extended guardrail (on the left side only) have the same vertical post. I don't think the stair tool can do this because it only adds the guard rails along the stringer.

 

Yes there are many restrictions in the Stair Tool.

Especially getting your handrails looking as you want.

 

If you need it perfect you better deactivate handrail option and model it

yourself or maybe try to create them by the Handrail Tool.

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@zoomer @E|FA

 

Appreciate the tips. The "drawing top stair" was helpful to show the railing, but it led to issues with the handrail and stringer blocking the door. The right rail extension can't be negative, and the stringer can't be defined as a right stringer and left stringer, unlike railings (which is a great feature!)

 

I ultimately used the profile through @E|FA trick to manually draw the guardrail and I grouped it in the stair container for our BIM model. Ultimately, we got to where the model wants to be, so thank you to everyone's help.

 

Now about railings..... We have a pretty wild stair transfer, and I ended up extruding along a curve to continue the handrail. It isn't perfect, but it was able to conveys the appropriate design intent. I included more screenshots.

 

This is my first BIM project using Vectorworks and I love learning all these features on designing in 3D. The software is very powerful and makes mundane task, IE, stairs, simple, once the commands are well understood. Again, the forum is the best place to troubleshoot. I appreciate the help. 

 

Happy NYE everyone! From NYC, where we are a few hours from midnight.

 

Best,

Todd Drucker

 

 

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  • Like 1
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To add, in previous VW versions Stairs were worse.

Therfore I even only used single flight stairs for my

2 flight U-Stairs and modeled all landings and handrails

manually.

This is the safest approach.

 

Some versions ago it was only possible to deactivate

the left side handrail.

If you tried to get a left side handrail only, without a

right side handrail - simply both handrails disappeared.

Not sure if that was ever fixed.

 

Today I try to more often use complete U-Stairs as it is

easier faster and more fun because being parametric.

 

But if the geometry quality is important, like for later exports,

I would model the whole Stair manually.

Maybe use the Stair Tool output as an underlaying Sketch.

But even there you have to be careful as it looks the generated

Stairs have some kind of lower precision. Like ugly numbers

in dimensions like 0,49999 cm instead of expected 5 cm

and such things.

 

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