By Martha Hollowell
By now you have probably discovered the new stair assembly method of creating stairs that came out in 2013. But, don’t despair; the old way is still there, you just don’t want to emphasize it anymore. Instead of giving you yet another step by step on how to create assembled stairs I thought I would gather a few tips and tricks together that can help you teach this new tool.
First of all it helps to outline the components of the stair as shown below. Then, when the students click the Stair command and move to the busy ribbon with all its options they will at least have a clue about what they are looking at.
Work within at least 2 views so that you can see the stairs as you are creating them. As you complete each run it displays in the 3D as shown below.
Judge your audience. If you don’t have any residential designers in the class they probably won’t be drawing winder stairs (as shown below). If you don’t need them… don’t teach them. The same is true with spiral stairs. There are plenty of things you can teach about the basic stair runs.
Do teach all of the shape handle controls, such as those shown below, which are great for manipulating runs and landings. Additionally, show how you can use Modify tools such as Align, Mirror, Move, Rotate, and Copy on runs while you are still in the Create Stair Assembly mode.
Finally, (though there are plenty of other tips out there) show how to convert custom components into a sketch. This is most helpful for landings and odd shaped stair runs. When working with runs make sure the students remember to extend all of the riser lines (as shown below), when that is needed.
Have fun teaching and working with stair assemblies.
By Martha Hollowell
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