Curved Staircases
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Hello Bob,
Welcome to Sketchucation, and thank-you for your kind words!
If you visited my web site you may have noticed that I have cabmaker32 cabinet making software for system 32 style cabinets. I have done work with nesting parts and outputting DXF files for cabinets. I have a program called CutMasterPro that takes output from cabmaker32 and optimizes it for material utilization.
CutMasterPro only optimizes rectangular shaped parts.
What kind of parts are you using CNC for? Do you have a flat bed or pod style CNC? Do you have a lathe attachment? What size of bed. I'm thinking you might have a 3 axis CNC.
I would guess that you would machine all flat parts such as treads, flat risers, flat stringers, Rail parts such as elbows etc. I would like more information to determine exactly what parts you would want DXF for and also what parts would require nesting.
The software as a first version should be ready within a month or so. All depends how many more features will make it into the first version. At a very minimum I still need to finish off the top nosing assembly ( needs bullnosing like the rest of the treads ). I would like to complete the progressive flare but it doesn't have to make it into the first version. I do have to complete documentation and do more testing. So at a very minimum it would be 3 weeks.
If you are serious about wanting the software - we can arrange something.
When I was building curved stairs I would glue lam treads as a rough over sized blank. Treads for open riser freestanding stairs would have 3 layers of 3/4 fir plywood. For cheaper frameups I would purchase 1" spruce ply as it meets code. I would then draw the treads on the blanks using 1 or more templates, then rought bandsaw the treads a bit oversized and then screw on the template and use a 7 hp shaper with a tersa head and a perfectly sized collar press fit onto a ball bearing. Essentially I would use the shaper to finish size the treads.
I could go on and on - perhaps it is best that we take this off line. You send me a private email from my web site if you wish.
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I have spent some time conversing with Bob and have spent some time working on an eliptical stair. I have also worked on a couple of follow me plugins for handrails.
The first plugin allows you to add handrail profiles to a handrail profile that is in my space. I create a GKWare folder that contains a Cabmaker folder (if you are running my Door maker) and a Stairmaker folder for this plugin that I am working on. There is a folder called Handrail under the Stairmaker folder that contains 1 file for each handrail that you wish to use. I will provide the 6 mentioned earlier.
The follow me handrail plugin centers the top of the handrail on the path that you choose. It begins by scaling the handrail vertically based on the initial slope of the path.
I made the handrail that is on the elliptical stair with this plugin.
I modeled the elliptical stair mostly by hand - as my stair plugin does not currently build elliptical stairs. I also had to make an elliptical plugin which builds a 180 ellipse where each point is close to the same distance apart from the prior point. The math for the ellipse does break down close to each end. But it is workable. This results in, elliptical stringers and handrails that are very close to a constant pitch which will make building the elliptical stairs easier.
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Impressive work so far!
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Thanks - I appreciate what you said.
Here's the same stair with round spindles which go 2, 1, 2 on the treads starting at the middle. I worked it out so that it still meets code for spindle spacing here in Canada.
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Looking good Garry.
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Awe-inspiring work, knowledge, and perseverance. I hope I can design such a stair into a house someday.
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Thank you very much for your comments.
I'm hoping that my tool set will simplify and speed up the design process.
The big bonus is helping clients visualize a complex stair. If the plan changes for what ever reason - a new stair can be quickly put into the plan without costing hrs and hrs.
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I'm preparing to cap off this version 1.0 on the Stair Builder Plugin System. This version will include The main Stair Build plugin, The Add a Handrail Profile plugin and Extrude Handrail along Path plugin. The complete system comes with 6 pre-defined handrail profiles as described in earlier posts. The system also comes with a pre-defined file of default values in a file called defaults.txt which is found in the folder plugins\GKWare\StairMaker. A help file called StairMaker.pdf also exists in this folder. The help file is short and contains an important section which explains special behaviour of a few input box entry fields. The 6 pre-defined handrail profiles are in 6 corresponding files in the folder plugins\GKWare\StairMaker\Handrail.
There has been only 1 comment about a free version. Since that is the case I am not considering creating a free version at this time. I do however, want a few beta users. If anyone is interested in testing out the software please contact me with a personal message - either from my web site or from within this forum. I am expecting to have the documentation completed by the end of this coming week.
The attached pictures illustrate a couple of steps in modeling a stair and attaching a handrail.
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Garry,
That looks amazing.
Will rail options include balustrade with newels top & bottom?.
regards bob -
I am fully intending in adding posts and spindles ( newels and balustrades ) in the future. But it probably won't be ready by the end of this week.
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First run of Stairmaker... first impression is holy mackerel is it fast. PDF recommends running in another instance of SU since it uses origin for radius. I think you might be able to bypass that by making the stair in a blank group, but have not tested it yet. Wow is it fast. a lot of geometry and detail to pop out in almost instantly. It also creates a highly detailed and professional curved stair. It's the holiday and I just had to play for a bit. I'll look into more in the coming week. Great work Garry.
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There are a number of different possibilities. Could have a drop down box that contains possible choices as an insertion point for the stair. Such as "Origin", "Click Center", "Top Left", "Top Right" etc.
Then there is the idea of rotating the stair into position.
All this could be set up prior to drawing the stair. Need more feedback on this.
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Garry,
Initial testing of the beta plugin looks very encouraging. I am very confident that this plugin will help stair designers/manufacturers model there staircases quickly and efficiently, and best of all, can be edited in your dialogue boxes in matter of seconds. Looking forward to help develop this plugin to a invaluable tool..
Regards BOB -
click center would be my preferred method. With the speed of your code I don't think there will be any issue with running in the current model.
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Think we can get it to make newel posts like this?
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That is gorgeous! But unfortunately it is out of scope for this software.
Jabbers has a 5 axis CNC - maybe he could do it !!!
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I've added the progressive flare to the plugin.
This stair has a flare amount of 20 mm, and a progressive flare of 20 mm ( could have been different ) and a flare count of 5 treads.
So starting at the bottom of the stair we have the following flares at the front of the treads in mm.
1 - 120
2 - 100
3 - 80
4 - 60
5 - 40
6 - 20
7 - 20
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13 - 20I have also fixed a number of bugs - but before I can release a new version to the testers I've got this wild bug ( my inadequate testing let this one slip in ) OOPS !!!
It happens with flare amounts of 80 mm or greater on housed stringers.
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what do you think about a future feature of flaring of the stringer as well? to a have a 3' top of stair with a 4' or 5 ' bottom?
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It is possible for the future. Even a straight stair that flares both ways.
I'll add it to the wish list.
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I will second Kristoff's idea about flaring the strings also, also might be an idea to have a straightening of strings option as Garry said , say the first X no of steps, it would make it very handy, especially the wall/outside string.
BTW ..if any one wants to 3d model the horse newel. i will machine it...min order 50 peices !!! .
Regards BOB
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