Adding Stairs

Now that we've got three floors we'll need to get from one floor to another. For more information about stairs, see "Stairs".

To draw stairs with a landing

Click Down One Floor

to go to the first floor. You may want to select Tools> Reference Floors> Reference Display

to turn off the display of the reference floor.

Select Build> Stairs> Straight Stairs

(or press Shift + Y).

Click and drag to draw a short stair section as shown in the following image.

Draw another stair section 90° to the right of the first stair section, along the interior wall.

While the Straight Stairs

tool is still active, click in the corner between the two stair sections to create a landing.

Select the landing and resize it to fit against the wall. This may make a nice bench seat.

To create a stairwell

Select either of the two stair sections.

Click the Auto Stairwell

edit button to create a stairwell.

Click the Up One Floor

button to go to the second floor. Notice that the second floor now displays a stairwell.

A stairwell is an interior room that is automatically assigned the Room Type "Open Below" in the Room Specification dialog.

Adding a staircase and stairwell from the foundation floor to the first floor is just as easy!

To add stairs from the foundation to the first floor

Click the Down One Floor

button twice to go down to the foundation.

Turn on the Reference Display

It makes sense that both stairwells share the same vertical space. Use the floor one stairs as a guide and draw a new stair section (or sections). You can create a landing and edit the stair sections as necessary to align them with the stairs above.

Select a stair section and click the Auto Stairwell

edit button to create a stairwell.

Select 3D> Create Render View> Render Full Overview .

When the view has generated, select 3D> Render View Options> Glass House Mode

to view our entire model, inside and out.

Select 3D> Move Camera With Mouse> Mouse-Orbit Camera

and click and drag the mouse on screen to change the camera perspective. You can press the I (in) and the O (out) keys on the keyboard to zoom in and out of the plan.