cadvilla Support Team

How to enter stairs

In this Video-Tutorial we show you how you can enter a stair and how you can define the properties of it with cadvilla.

The basic workflow:

Creating a stair with landing

  • In the first step we select “Building” – “Stair construction” and for example “Stairs with landing”. After it we select a start point for the stair, the stair is hanging on our cursor and with the key combination “CTRL+W” we can change the reference point of the stair. We enter all points of the stair and after it we press the right mouse button – “Complete”.
  • The dialogue for the stairs with landing opens and here we can define the “Width” of the stair. The length, the tread depth and the number of steps get automatically calculated. At the point “Stair height” we can define the stair height from the floor and at the top step. If the height of the stair should reach automatically above the construction we select the function “automatic positioning above construction”.
  • At the point “Style” we can define and edit the stair type, the type dimensions and the materials. When we click on the function “3D” (at the lower right of the window) we can activate the preview window. At the point “Landings” we can define the “minimum distance between landings”. At the points “Handrail – Left /Right” we define the depiction of the handrails and if we would like to create a handrail or not. At the point “Wellhole”, we can automatically create a wellhole and we can define the stair headroom. After we have defined the single parts we confirm with “OK”. To edit the stair afterwards, we select it – right mouse button – “Properties”.

How to enter a wall underneath the stair

  • Now we enter a wall underneath the stair. Therefore we select “Building” – “Wall” – “Partition wall” – “Between two points”. We press the right mouse button – “Properties”, we define the thickness of the wall and after it we press “OK”. We enter the partition wall on the outside of the stair, in the area of the open space underneath the stair. The advantage of the partition wall is that the corners don’t get intersected. The part of the wall which hangs over the stair will be cut out by a wall cutout. Therefore we select the wall – right mouse button – “Create wall section”. We select “Building” – “Cutout” – “Wall cutout” – “Insert with polygon”. We define the polygon, press the right mouse button – “Complete”. After it we can close the section view.
  • To display a wall only optical underneath the stair we can create a surface element (“Construction” – “Create Surface Element” – “Insert with polygon”).

How to create a stair rail

  • To create for example a stair rail out of glass, we create in the 2D-view a new section view. Therefore we select “View” – “New Section-View”. We define the area of the section-view and after it the section window appears. With the help of guidelines (“2D & Layout” – “2D Guidelines”) we define the dimensions of the stair rail in the section-view. After it we select “Construction” – “Create Surface Element” – “Insert with polygon”. We define the plane for the surface in the 3D-view and in the next step we enter the polygon in the section-view. After the entry we press the right mouse button – “Confirm”. The surface element editor opens and in the editor we can define the thickness of the surface. After it we confirm with “OK”. Now we select “3D Functions” – “Edit material”. We select the surface, the material editor opens, we make for example a right mouse click into the field texture and we select “Remove selection”. We define the colour and the transparency (for example 70%) and after it we can press “OK”.
  •  To create the mounting-system we select “Construction” – “Primitives” – “Cylinder” – “Free positioning”. To change the dimensions of the cylinder we press the right mouse button – “Properties”. At the point “Cylinder” we can define the dimensions of the cylinder. After it we position the cylinder at the stair, to rotate the cylinder we can use for example the function “Around X / Z / Y/ – Axis”. To move the cylinder in the 2D-view, we select the cylinder and we choose in the selection menu the function “Move with reference point” or the shortcut “r”.
  • To create a multiple copy of the cylinder, we select the cylinder, press the right mouse button and select “Multiple copy”. The Tool Options Window appears and here we can enter the number, distance and direction of the copies. The point “Clear distance” should be selected. After it we press “Ok”. After it we only have to move the cylinders to their correct positions.

How to create a handrail for the stair

  • To create a handrail we select “Construction” – “Sweep solid” – “Insert with polygon”. We select a surface in 3D for plane definition, we switch into the 2D-view – right mouse button – “Properties”. In the properties we select “Sweep solid”. Here we define the width and the high, the reference point and we select a profile out of the catalogue. After it we press “OK”. We enter the sweep solid in the 2D-view, after it we press the right mouse button – “Complete”.
  • To edit the textures of the mounting system and of the handrail we select “3D Functions” – “Edit material”. We choose a material, the material editor opens and here we can define the texture, colour, transparency, etc. … . To transfer the material we select “3D Functions” – “Transfer Material”. We select the material which we want to transfer and we transfer it to the target object.

The zooming function used in this video works up to cadvilla V5 slightly different.
The adapted video (changings in zoom) you can find here.

This post is also available in: German