Stair Tool Broken

[ErichR]

Running W98, VW 9.5.1. Stair tool does nothing when button is mashed. Circular, elevator, ramp do work.

[Guest]

If you press on the stair tool, then in the mode bar click on the Preferences button, does a Stair properties dialog box appear where you can specify the type of stair you want ?Then you can double click in the drawing where you want the stair to go.

Please make sure you have the class teh stair goes in turned to visible. There are a variety of classes the stair will go in, try to see if you see a Vert-Trans-Main class. Set it to visible and make your class options set to Show others at least. You may see your stairs now.

[ErichR]

No response in the mode bar to the attempted activation of the stair tool. The stair button won't stay depressed. All classes and layers are visible. The class, Vert Trans, is there and active.

[Robert Anderson]

This sounds like you don't have the Stair plug-in installed properly. Check your plug-ins folder to see if the file 'Stair.vso' exists.

[ErichR]

Stair tool works in other drawing files.

[ErichR]

stair.vso exists, as one would expect, since the tool works in some files and not others (as earlier stated).

Problem with the stair tool not activating is not isolated. I've had two drawings now with this problem.

Tried a workaround: paste in a stair from another drawing. Got an error message to the effect that a class definition already exists. There was a class definition in the drawing called "stair". Eliminated it, and the stair tool works fine.

[ErichR]

Yes, and the codes we work with require handrail extensions of 12" beyond the last riser. These are important details one needs to show accurately. Either that, or allow VW to force us to draw stairs diagrammatically and show detail in enlarged drawings. This isn't really ok. since we want our drawings to be consistemnt.

Second the double break line idea, which has always been the drafting standard for stairs.

[George Cocea]

Yes, the length of the handrail in relation to the stair tread is another necessary option. The distance varies at both ends for residential or commercial (ADA compliant)projects.

Yes on the dual break line.

Another workaround I use for handrails is 2d walls.

[Robert Anderson]

Erich and George, VWA has the "attach handrails" command which allows you much more control over handrails in your stair. I recommend you use that and turn the 'standard' handrails off.

[George Cocea]

Since the stair PIO topic is alive, I would like to add that the stair pio handrails need to havean option to be offset. If a stair is located along a wall on one side or both(in most cases for interior application) the handrail must be at least 1.5" from the wall (UBC). A separate offset field is needed for each side since thereare situations where one side needs offsettinginwards and the other outwards.

Most of the times I use the 2d part of this PIO and I resort to converting the pio to group to adjust the handrails location accordingly.

[George Cocea]

Robert, thank you for the suggestion. I used the handrail plug-in to create a handrail, but I had to tweak the values to have a handrail only and not a guardrail.

The "1st upright spacing" value has to be higher than the lenght and the "1st horizontal height" value has to be higher than the "overall height"value. Or, assing a class to "uprights" & "intermediate rails" and turn it off.

I believe a better name for the handrail pio is guardrail pio. In certain cases the top of the guardrail can act as a handrail but not always.

My 2 cents