Medeek Wall Plugin
-
It appears that I have handrail fittings mostly working now for both circular and elliptical curved stairs. However just as with the balusters we will need a separate handrail ext. for top and bottom and a rail drop for each side (inner and outer handrails). This means another six parameters in the curved stair menu. Due to the asymmetry or nature of these curved staircases there is really no way around it.
-
I've been also thinking about the framing that goes under these stairs and it seems to me that the methods are as varied as there are carpenters. I could provide a basic curved wall framing as shown in the screenshots below but I don't know how much use this would be to anyone as they will probably frame it differently, thoughts?
Here are a couple additional screenshots of slightly different framing methods applied to a curved staircases:
-
Version 4.6.3 - 06.14.2026
- Enabled open treads for curved stair assemblies.
- Enabled handrail fittings for curved stair assemblies.
- Added six additional parameters into the curved stair sub-menu for handrail extensions and upper fitting rail drops.
- Enabled handrail posts for curved stair assemblies.
- Enabled OTP, CUT, and VERTICAL (PTP) handrail options.
- Added a vertical offset parameter for top posts.
-
Version 4.6.4 - 06.15.2026
- Added a "deck" option to the railing module.
Note that when Railing Type is set to "Deck" there will typically be a cap rail along with an upper and lower rail. The upper and lower rail provide the support for the balusters or pickets.
I will probably need to enable an option to disable or turn off the cap rail.
-
Version 4.6.4b - 06.16.2026
- Added preview thumbnails into the stair draw and edit menus for posts, balusters and baluster shoes.
- Added a "None" handrail profile for deck railings that effectively disables the cap rail.
-
Currently there is no "curved" railing option yet however with a little bit of adjustment of the parameters and simply following any given set of points you can do this sort of thing:
-
@medeek just a heads up that a recent forum software update has caused loss of uploaded image files. You may notice your posts from May 15th on are missing images
Sorry about that....
-
Version 4.6.5 - 06.18.2026
- Added a "GLASS" baluster option for curved stair assemblies (circular and elliptical).
-
Version 4.6.5b - 06.19.2026
- Added a “CABLE” baluster option for curved stair assemblies (circular and elliptical).
-
Currently the railing tool operates similar to the polyline stemwall tool. You select a bunch of points which then create the segments that form the polyline. In order to add the possibility of “curved” segments into this algorithm I could add in a tool which allows the user to select internal segments within the polyline. In order for the segment to be switched to “curved” it would need to meet the following criteria:
1.) It cannot be a start or end segment.
2.) It cannot be colinear with either of its adjacent segments or neighbors.
3.) (Optional) Both adjacent segments must not be curved.The upside with this type of algorithm is that the user does not need to enter in any radii, the curved segment would always be tangent to the two adjacent segments. Also the question as to which way to orient the arc coming off the two end points is deterministic (there are four possible arc placements otherwise for a given radius).
My only problem with this type of system is that it may be too limiting and even confusing to some, thoughts?
You end up with geometry like this (either a single arc or an S-shaped double arc [biarc]).
The other issue is how to handle start and end segments that the user might want to set as curved.
-
Turns out there are many possible solutions to the problem when you go from a single arc to a Hermite biarc solution. Of course not all these solutions are useful, especially where they intersect or collide with other segments of the polyline. Quite the education on this topic between Wikipedia and ChatGPT yesterday. Here as some solutions to the biarc and single arc problem:
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register Login
Advertisement