Difficult Wall/Stairs Combo


MAndrews
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I have attached a pic of what I am trying to do. (not the best angle, sorry).  The stair configuration can be accomplished. But I am having trouble recreating the wall that the stairs going up turn behind. Notice how the wall is split. Part goes to the ceiling - part follows down the stair slope - and - the railing of the stairs - is ON TOP of the slant. The rail then turns around the edge of the tall wall and follows up the stairs as usual.

 

I have concluded that the best approach is to build the stairs without railings and create the wall and railing combo on their own. But I can not figure out how to 1) build a slanted wall 2) put railings on top of the slanted wall. Any suggestions? Is there a better approach? Thanks in advance.

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Only Home Designer Pro allows the direct editing of wall poly-lines but you can get part the way there by placing the outer wall just under the edge of the stair object and it will cut off the wall top or you can set the wall to a solid railing and place it half way into the edge to get a solid slanted railing along the stair object. You may be able to fake a slanted wall using a superimposed, slanted soffit to emulate a wall or portion of a wall.

 

DJP

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Use a full wall for the ceiling height wall.

As DJP suggested, use a half-wall (same as solid railing) for the slanted wall.  You may have to play with it's placement until it takes on the slant of the stairs.  You can adjust the wall's height in it's dialog box.   Delete the left stair railing.

 

You then have to manually place (and size) ballusters and newells from the library  (library/millwork). 

Use a sloped soffit for the rail.

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Thanks for all the replies. I really appreciate the help. I love this software... but things like this take some experimentation. @Jo_Ann, @DJP - will try your suggestions. The images you posted look very promising. Not sure how to get that solid rail/wall to slant with the stair though. I do not have a "follow" stairs checkbox. But maybe I can fit it under the stairs and keep enough edge out to put a railing on it. Will try later tonight and post my results! Thanks!

 

M

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there is a bit more explanation on page 387 of the Reference manual under the heading Partial Railings that might help , the solid wall rail should "take the slant" automatically when positioned right. 

 

The Ref. Manual is a PDF file , so save it to you HD Software Data folder so you don't need to download it each time you use it , it is linked under the Help Menu  see  Help>View Reference Manual

 

Mick

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Open the soffit dbx and put a check mark in the box that says 'sloped soffit'.  In 2d view, (when selected) the soffit will display an arrow.  The arrow is the high point of a sloped soffit.  When you get the slope correct, it is easy to raise or lower the entire soffit by selecting it in the 3d view.

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Here is a quick summary of how I reduce the "PITA" factor when placing sloped soffits.  The annoyance with them comes from the fact that you have to input precise upper and lower elevations.

 

What I do is use the back-clipped camera to get a view perpendicular to where I want my sloped soffit run.  Then, I'll use CAD lines in that camera view to layout the soffit.  I first draw a CAD line that matches the slope I intend for my soffit.  In the case of a stair hand rail, I'll draw a CAD line along common points on the stairs (e.g., tread nosings or opposite wall handrail) and then translate the CAD line upward as necessary to achieve the required height.  I then draw plumb CAD lines (i.e., vertically straight up and down) across the sloped CAD line at the top and bottom of the soffit location.  Now I can easily determine the upper and lower elevations to input in the sloped soffit specification dialog from the CAD line specification dialog.  Snap the ends of the soffit in the back-clipped camera view to the plumb CAD lines, and input the determined elevations in the sloped soffit specificaiton dialog. Some finish tweaking may be required, but the soffit should be roughed in fairly close (approximately +/- 1/8").

 

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It honestly takes longer to describe than to do.

 

Hope this helps. :)

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For a sloped soffit that needs to match the slope angle of a stair section, you could also use the "Bottom Height" and "Top Height" information in the Staircase Specification Dialog.

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Just make sure the length of the soffit matches the length of the stair section.

 

Or, you could calculate the delta using the following formula:

tangent("Rise Angle") * "Length of Soffit"

"Rise Angle" is also on the Staircase Specification Dialog

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