Page 715 - Divyank Tyagi

|
the Bottom line 681

if you can’t remember these guidelines, the handy acronym of Beer should help. when you are not
sure which solution is the best one to follow, your team will tend to gravitate to whatever allows
them to have a beer at the end of the day.
in other words, whatever allows them to decompress, reenergize, and come back to work the
next day refreshed, focused, and enthusiastic will ultimately win out. and keep in mind that this
principle isn’t just important to stairs and railings or revit or Bim; it’s important to having an
interesting life.

The Bottom Line

Understand the key components of stairs and railings. Having a complete understanding
of the components of stairs is important. You don’t want to set about breaking the rules until
you understand how best (and when) those rules can be broken.
Master It What are the essential parts of stairs?
Understand the different stair tools and apply them to custom designs. Designing in a
spreadsheet is hard. Step back and consider what you’re trying to accomplish. If you’ll look at
the components that make up stairs, you’ll see some interesting opportunities.
Master It How would you create a continuous tread that wasn’t monolithic? What
would you do if you wanted to create a custom stringer? Are balusters always vertical
and used to support handrails? What if your particular stair just can’t be modeled in the
Stairs tool?
Design railings and use the Railing tool for other model elements. From model patterns
to geometric intricacy, there’s a lot that can be created with the Railing tool. When this
doesn’t work, look to the Curtain Wall tool for “railings” that can contain space and allow
“balusters” to be conveniently unlocked.
Master It Why would you not use a railing to manage repetitive relationships? What if
you need to accurately distribute geometry along a path?
Implement best practices. There are specific best practices when creating custom stairs and
railings. Pay attention to nesting geometry, maintaining the right level of detail, and filtering
schedules so the metadata ends up in the right place.
Master It Is it possible to create solutions that are too efficient? What’s the big deal with
detail levels? And finally, what’s the most important thing to remember before creating
an elegant workaround?

c15.indd 681 5/3/2014 11:31:50 AM