Hi BLothian,

i can only sympathise - I've never found it easy to do winder stairs (or indeed ramps) in Revit - it takes persistence and a lot of trial and error - and as you say the sketch method is the more flexible and reliable, once the geometry is drawn out in 2D underneath.

The newer stair method always seems not quite finished - as though the programmers meant to come back to it, but haven't so far.


(FWIW I once worked at Livingston Development Corporation)

Hi Will,

Yeah its a bit frustrating but to have to break the stair down into different parts to get the desired modelled staircase.
Small world indeed. A lot has changed up here since the LDC was last around, I don't suppose you are familiar with the notorious LDC houses that used Siporex concrete are you?

Is that a devolution thing?

No, not guilty of those - I was a 'year out' student from Edinburgh Uni and worked on a sports centre mostly - it was eventually shelved I think.

Haha no, merely just that my (national) Building Regulation's are local to me (given that this forum is international). I don't think I'd be keen on regional building standards with minor differences.

One thing I had forgotten about and not really considered is how create the finished ceiling under the winder part of the stair. I've searched past threads and the common line of reply was to use a monolithic stair however I have already been progressing assembled stairs. I've also looked into real world construction methods to create the ceiling, those also vary:

• one method is to pack the underside of risers and treads with as much quilt insulation as possible and then secure a sheet of dense chicken wire mesh which can be shaped prior to receive multiple applications of plaster to create an organic smooth surface.
• Another is using framing and pieces of gypsum wallboard or finish timber to create a faceted finish.

FWIW: I did duplicate a flight of stairs and change it to monolithic and whilst I did see the curve underside, there was a nasty vertical joint and the intersection between the winders underside and straight run underside. I had though of trying to create a mass of the winders underside using it as a template so to speak, however my experience with masses it almost none so I don't know it that idea has any prospect of success. The other consideration was shape-editing roofs/floors though I imagine that would take quite a bit of trial and error.

I was wonder how you all go about dealing with this issue as really don't want to leave it open just because I wasn't sure how to model it.

I've tended to leave it alone in terms of modelling as often it doesn't appear in Views, however on occasion I have done what you have described.

This isn't unique to Revit - I had a job years ago when I used Allplan and created this interior for a barn conversion for an eminent academic client who was a bit obsessive and insisted the joiner recreate the modelled stair design absolutely accurately.

At the party to celebrate completion I didn't have the heart to tell the joiner that the funny kink in the stair stringer was caused by Allplan not being able to model the string going round the corner properly - and to his great credit he copied it faithfully in the real stair string

Perhaps, but in a thread of your own... one mo...

This is a major Bummer! All this time I was thinking if any program could do a mirrored array of stairs it would be REVIT 2018. Well, guess there there is always SketchUp. Let’s know where you take Thread Snowy? I will follow.


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