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656 | ChapteR 15 Creating StairS and railingS

Creating Stairs with Other tools
We’ve discussed a number of different ways the parts of stairs can be manipulated and
created. As we approach alternate modeling techniques with the goal of creating elegant stairs,
understand that the metadata may not correspond to the geometry. This is usually the only
option to complete a design where there are limitations to the default tools while avoiding
the need to resort to strictly 2D representation. Because the metadata—the information part
of BIM—isn’t being coordinated properly, you’ll want to take particular care with regard to
tagging and scheduling.
A solid spiral wall can be used as a railing or a support element can easily be created in the
Family Editor and then associated with the stair as a start post. Of course, this geometry could
also be created as an in-place family, but then you’d lose the advantage of being able to quickly
and easily relocate the stair in your project (or create a multistory condition).
In Figure 15.47, you can see part of a spiral stair with default treads and supports modeled as
balusters with the Railing tool.

Figure 15.47
Baluster used as a
support element

Rather than create the spiral wall (Figure 15.48) as an in-place family under the stair, the form
was modeled as a baluster post in order to associate it with the beginning of the railing being
used for the support brackets.

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