Stair Design Software

From Dave Pascalon 15th April 2012

Hello Ness,

I would like to thank you once again for the advise and personal coaching that you have given me these last weeks and since I’ve started work on my house and especially the stair that I have built thanks to your StairDesigner software.
Here are a few photos of the finished stairs that worked out much better than I could have hoped for (we are just amateur DIY enthousiasts), but we are proud to have made our stairs and proud of the final product!

We wish you all the best for your future project and now, for us  it’s time to rest a bit and enjoy our new stairs.

Kind regards

Dave Pascalon

		Dave’s stair VOIR LE DIAPORAMA TOUT TÉLÉCHARGER

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From: Dave Sarlotte

Hi Ness,

Here are some photos of the stair I’ve made with temporary steps in place.
A nice mix of steel and wood.

Thanks to your site and software:

regards
David

		Metal and wood stair VOIR LE DIAPORAMA TOUT TÉLÉCHARGER

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From: Ludovic Aubier

Hello,
I have made my stair thanks to your software. It’s a quarter turn with winders, difficult to calculate because of a very small stair well that’s only 1750mm long. But It all worked out fine  in the end thanks to your software and help.
A big thankyou and congatualtions for the software and thanks again for sharing your experience in stair building.

regards
Ludovic Aubier

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From: Xavier Gence

Hi Ness,
Your articles are very interesting and as I’m an amateur I’m less embarassed to show you a few photos of the stair I have been able to make thanks to StairDesigner and your help and support.
It’s for sure that it’s not a wooden stair but the shape was very complicated and I really wanted it to look like this.
The stair is in cement and I made the form in wood. I employed a stone masson to cover the stair in marble and plastered the underside.

		Marble stair with StairDesigner VOIR LE DIAPORAMA TOUT TÉLÉCHARGER

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From: Maarten van der Heijden

Hello,

Thanks for all the information.

Thanks to your StairFile service that I bought in November, I have been able to put together this stair with steel strings and oak steps.

Thanks for a great service.

Maarten van der Heijden

		Steel and wood stair VOIR LE DIAPORAMA TOUT TÉLÉCHARGER

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From :Serge TESSIER

Hello,
It’s been a moment I have been wanting to reply to your emails to tell you how much I appreciate  and find interesting the information you send.
As I have built my house completely I inevitably came to the moment I had to build a stair. In fact there are 2 stairs.
It was at this moment surfing the internet I found your site, a real blessing for me.
I found everything I was looking for technically and pratically and even more.
Your motivation and enthousiasm helped me dare undertake the challenge of stair building.
I not afraid of much  but a stair seemed daunting for someone who has never made one before!
And here it is my first stair has been installed for about a year and I’m pretty proud of it!
And now I’m starting another stair project for my daughter.

		Central cut string VOIR LE DIAPORAMA TOUT TÉLÉCHARGER

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From: Michel Villetard

Dear Sir,
Following your last email and having filled in your survey, I’m sending you some photos of the stair that I have built in chestnut, thanks to your stair software.
I’m not a professional but an enthousiastic amateur woodworker.
I hope that the photos of a DIY are of interest to you.

regards
M.V 

		Michel’s stair and craft VOIR LE DIAPORAMA TOUT TÉLÉCHARGER

Customers and Users amateur stair building, build your own stairs, how to build stairs, stair, stair buildign, staircase, stairs

Stair caculator software and AutoCAD

StairDesigner can calculate and build and draw stairs very fast and efficiently but as with all parametric software whether it is stair software or not, it doesn’t cope with all the intricacy and complexity of real world situations.

I find that once StairDesigner has drawn up the general stair plans it’s often necessary to add details or modify the design to adapt to my construction techniques and the specific on site situations.

In the majority of projects that I have its rare that I only have the staircase to build. In general the staircase needs at least a balustrade around the stair well, where as more than often I need to design many elements that parametric stair software is not built to cope with, like balustrades around complicated stair wells, cupboards under stairs, specific handrails and balusters, curved steps, etc, etc……

After having looked around at other design software I’ve finally come to the conclusion that although parametric software is great for stair calculations and design, only general drafting software like Autocad can really cope with all the different situations that I come across in my real life stair design situations.

Leaving out the design details, specific moldings, cupboards, here are some of the main limitations that I have found with the StairDesigner parametric stair calculator:

- Doesn’t draw bull nose and curtail steps and curved risers.

- Doesn’t draw starting volutes

- Can’t give different thicknesses for strings on each flight

- Doesn’t design the string and handrail transitions to level landing

Luckily StairDesigner drawings can be exported in DXF and opened in a general drafting software to update and modify the design details.

In this video I show how to take a stair built in StairDesigner and open it in Autocad to add a bullnose step.

Of course I use AutoCad but the same process can be used with any CADD software that can read DXF files.

If you are only interested in building manufacturing drawings then a 2D drafting program like Solid Edge is easily enough. For 3D presentation a dedicated rendering tool is probably easier than AutoCad.

The interesting thing about combining CAD and StairDesigner is that it gives unlimited design possiblities for adding and modifying the stairs.

To read our review on StairDesigner just click on the link below:

<Stair software review>

Here are some other articales for AutoCad users:

Spiral Stair case problems – AutoCAD Forums
Spiral Stair case problems AutoCAD 3D Modelling & Rendering.

3d Curved stair – AutoCAD Forums
Making stair in 2d and 3d with AutoCAD

Creating a New Drawing by Using Parts from Another Drawing
Create a separate staircase drawing by using the staircase you’ve already drawn.

ProgeCad, Using Stair Designer autocad, cadd, calculator, curved, software, stair, staircase, stairway, step, string