[Plugin] Stair Maker

Dubman1013

the one thing about designing/drawing stairs is the there always is one less tread than risers, so when you ask for number of steps its not clear if your asking for the number of risers or treads. After trying each I'm assuming your asking for the number of treads, because the top tread should be one riser below the floor level. And the riser height is always determined from dividing the floor to floor height by the number of risers, which by code is usually around 7" height. But at the same time both stair plug ins are great at a graphical stair layouts!

chaluga

tomot,
your totally wrong in your assessment. This is a plugin for a quick staircase. It's free . If he was to do what you asked it would be not free. Saying something is constructive criticism does not cover your argument. Its responses like yours that make others who donate their time and effort for free plugins say " why bother"

tspco

SD, I just tried that latest version, I can make straight stairs, open and in-situ, and that is it, no ushape. If I select u-shape I get straight.
Am I missing something?

sdmitch

@tspco said:

SD, I just tried that latest version, I can make straight stairs, open and in-situ, and that is it, no ushape. If I select u-shape I get straight.
Am I missing something?

U-Shape refers to two sections of straight stairs connected by a landing. It does not mean the the stairs themselves are curved. I downloaded a copy of the posted plugin and it works just as it was designed to do.

tspco

Well heck, I guess I am not doing something right. The spiral,and normal stair works OK, but. I can't get the u-shape to work.

sdmitch

tspco, open the Ruby Console window then run the plugin. Maybe something is causing an error and thats why it appears to be doing nothing.

tspco

I will try the ruby console. but in the meantime here is what I get

tspco

Houston we have an error.
Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method entities' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Stair Maker3 (1).rb:348:in ushape_stair'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Stair Maker3 (1).rb:147:in `onLButtonDown'

sdmitch

tspco, after the first half of the u-shape is created, it makes a copy to use for the second half but for some reason that isn't happening. I did make a change in that code on the suggestion of TIG and that version is on My Plugins blog, http://sdmitch.blogspot.com. Try that version and see if it works for you.

Both versions work on my Vista system.

tspco

Using the version from your blog. If I set the riser height to 7" and the overall height to 120" , 4 steps to riser make a new u-shape stair. I get a staircase that has 7 steps over 2 feet apart, or something like that, no riser.
ruby console details are:

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method entities' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:370:in ushape_stair'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:197:in `onLButtonDown'

So no worky. It could be I need to download the tut from your blog and review

sdmitch

@tspco said:

Using the version from your blog. If I set the riser height to 7" and the overall height to 120" , 4 steps to riser make a new u-shape stair. I get a staircase that has 7 steps over 2 feet apart, or something like that, no riser.
ruby console details are:

Error: #<NoMethodError: undefined method entities' for nil:NilClass> C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:370:in ushape_stair'
C:/Program Files (x86)/Google/Google SketchUp 8/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:197:in `onLButtonDown'

So no worky. It could be I need to download the tut from your blog and review

No there is nothing in the tutorial that will help with this problem. I can't get it to fail and you can't get it to work. I'm at a loss as to why.

I can see where there might be a little confusion regarding riser and height of stairs. The height entry is for each flight of steps not the overall height of the completed stairs which is why when you entered 120" the steps were so far apart. The height can be determined by number of risers and riser, or riser determined by height and number of risers. So, if you can ever get the plugin to work, enter values for any two and 0 for the third and let the plugin calculate it.

axys

I've tried this for a spiral but I can't see a way to say what is the going on the tread or, better, how to set the angle of each tread ie 22.5 degrees. I need a spiral with 16 risers, each to go 22.5 degrees ie a full circle - how can I do that please? For the width of the tread, say 800mm, would I set the step max and step min to 2 x 800 plus the centre column?

sdmitch

axys, at present the angular increment for spiral stairs is fixed at 15 degrees. I will need to make that an option. for now, I have attached a spiral stair with 16 steps @ 22.5 degree increment and 800mm wide.

axys spiral stairs.skp

axys

@sdmitch said:

axys, at present the angular increment for spiral stairs is fixed at 15 degrees. I will need to make that an option. for now, I have attached a spiral stair with 16 steps @ 22.5 degree increment and 800mm wide.

Tremendous! Thank you so much. Another useful option would be clockwise or anticlockwise - would it be too much to ask you to make this stair in the opposite direction for me? Thanks again.

sdmitch

axys, just copy the spiral stairs using the Move Tool and a tap on the Ctrl key then right click on the copy and choose "Flip Along>Group's Red".

axys

@sdmitch said:

axys, just copy the spiral stairs using the Move Tool and a tap on the Ctrl key then right click on the copy and choose "Flip Along>Group's Red".

Got it - thanks again - I'm a rank amateur as you may have deduced ...

newrui

Hello sdmitch, just wanted to thank you for such a great plugin! Would you please consider continuous handrails for u-shaped stairs in your next version?

raineysky

@newrui said:

Hello sdmitch, just wanted to thank you for such a great plugin! Would you please consider continuous handrails for u-shaped stairs in your next version?

I second that request. Many plugins or native tools can be used for handrails. But I haven't found a way yet to make them look really good without a whole lot of "tweaking". Mine are round handrails. The model I'm working on uses Sdmitch tools heavily. Love 'em. Project Beam is an absolute gift from the heavens, and I hope it gets even better.

sdmitch

@newrui said:

Hello sdmitch, just wanted to thank you for such a great plugin! Would you please consider continuous handrails for u-shaped stairs in your next version?

By continuous, do you mean without breaks or that it should be a single entity rather than segments? The rail is added to the stairs as a single entity curve but Sketchup breaks it into segments between the vertical "supports".

I'm assuming you mean the latter since it would only require the addition of one or two edges to make it unbroken. Please clarify.

Jeggebis

Hi sd

I tried the plugin and it worked great for creating a simple staircase the first time i tested it out, when i tried to flip it, SU crashed and now i cant get the plugin to create any stairs what so ever, i get this error in the console:

Error: #<ArgumentError: Cannot convert "8.53018372703412" to Length>
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:226:in to_l' /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:226:in get_defaults'
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:75:in reset' /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:66:in initialize'
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:22:in new' /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:22 /Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:226:in call'
/Library/Application Support/Google SketchUp 8/SketchUp/Plugins/Stair Maker.rb:226

Any tips?