Greg_NY61

Sure, they can be made from the same... as a matter a fact I made both from p-solid, then I was messing around with the molding...so I changed the tread to be a counter and its already has the molding feature in dbx, so the nosing can be easily changed to a different profile with a few clicks and control which edge the molding is needed... With p-solid its more of a pain in the a$$ IMO.

The black is p-solid, basically its there to reduce the riser opening height to meet the code , I used counter top for the tread because its easier to put edge molding on selected edges and you can basically manipulate in any way as you would p-solid.

I agree Joe, Heli-coil solid would be a good addition. I tried to make the stairs they way you explained, and they came out really nice. I made the treads using counter top, curved the edges and put edge molding on visible sides. Tried to do the railing the way you explained and I can't make that happen, but will work on it some more. Instead I dropped the model into Sketchup and I have curve maker plugin in there with Helix tool so I used that to make a railing and scaled to the stair model and imported to CA as a railing symbol. Here is the outcome. Thanks for the tip and your time, its a real nice way to make a custom circular stair.

Here you go, I hope you find this helpful .http://www.chiefarchitect.com/support/article/KB-00587/

After you use edit object parts tools and do your editing... Select all poly lines and un-checked edit object parts... select again all the poly lines and click extend objects button at the bottom and that should connect them all again...

Click Preferences-Appearance- under toolbar you will see child tool pallet buttons

Thanks D, I think I know Dave, if its the same Dave from chieftutor.com I made a few door symbols for him a while back.

Nice Job Glen, Thank you!

Yusuf, This is an awesome way of doing this in CA, I been making them in Sketchup using the following bellow formula and then importing model into CA, now you saved me a s^*t load of time doing this in CA, I just never tried manipulating stairs this way in CA. If you in NY, lunch is on me. This is how I calculate when laying out the stairs in Sketchup I made a template as you using to start in CA, then I use basic guidelines to meet the building code to calculate the stairs. Usually I use rule of thumb and make a 70" diameter staircase, it makes it easier to walk on it. Knowing min tread should be 26" I make it 32"-34 when doing layout (of course depending on the room you have) .The center column and two treads make a total diameter of 70". That would be the 2 treads (2 x 32") and 6" support column you get 70" diameter. Next to find the circumference of the stairway which is diameter x 3.1416 so in this case 70" x 3.1416 = 220" (rounded to the nearest "). So with a 9' ceiling per say that's 14 steps+ landing and 220"÷14=15.7" that will give us the tread width, so with overlapping this and that a 16" wide tread makes a nice comfortable stairway and it will make one full 360-degree turn through its travel.

I agree with you, the stair tools are Ancient and Outdated and need major and I repeat MAJOR overhaul. P.S I like the spindles, where did you find that symbol? If not a secret, please share :-)

I agree with Joe 110%, and the addressed issues he specified shouldn't be submitted as "a feature request"... all this features should be included in there already because the concerns he raised is industry standards.

I might be wrong, but it looks like it calculates 2 different block... one is regular CMU block and the other one is being calculated as Rock Faced Block which is larger in size ( even tho the block dimension shows same for both). therefore it gives you less block, but in CA program they probably changed the size of that block to the correct size, but they never changed dimensions which are being displayed.

If anything they should indicate full pocket depth.