Drawing Stairs

Now we'll draw stairs between the upper and lower decks, and from the lower deck to the terrain below. For more information about stairs, see "Stairs".

To connect the upper and lower decks with stairs

In floor plan view, go to the first floor.

The deck planking is making it difficult to see the area where we'll be working. In the Layer Display Options dialog, turn off the display of the layer "Framing, Deck Planking". If you cannot remember how to do this, see "Controlling the Display of Objects".

Make sure Angle Snaps

and Object Snaps

are turned on.

Select Build> Stairs> Straight Stairs .

Go to the first floor and click and drag to draw a stairway from the lower deck to the outside edge of the upper deck railing as shown in the following image. In many cases an opening will be added automatically to the deck railing at the top of a staircase. Sometimes it is necessary to add the opening manually, which we'll do in the following steps.

Let's look at our staircase in a 3D view. An opening may have been created automatically. If not, an opening can be created manually. If an opening was created automatically, you can skip the next step.

A doorway (opening) can be added in a 3D view or in floor plan view. Select Build> Door> Doorway

then click on the deck railing to create an opening.

To draw a down staircase to the ground

In floor plan view select Build> Stairs> Click Stairs .

Click just to the outside of the deck platform, as shown in the following image.

Draw new stepping stones that lead to the staircase from the beach. If you cannot remember how to do this, see "To add a stepping stone pathway from the beach to the house".

Now take a look at our deck in a Render Full Camera

view.