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Author Topic: Spiral Staircase  (Read 6649 times)

ArtisticPixel

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Spiral Staircase
« on: November 29, 2013, 06:34:07 PM »
Hi All

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on creating a spiral staircase within Railclone. I am new to The program so feel a little daunted by the controls and I have searched for some hints or tips on the subject with no luck.

Sort of like the image I have attached. Firstly is this possible and secondly any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Stephen

Paul Roberts

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #1 on: November 30, 2013, 06:39:40 PM »
Hi Stephen,

Happily this is quite an easy style to recreate. I'd create the stairs and railings as separate RailClone objects, both using L1S arrays. Here's a step-by-step procedure for the stairs, the railings are fairly standard - in fact I used glass handrail 3 from the built in library. There's also a scene file attached that you should be able to examine to make things a little clearer.


  • Model a single step - don't worry about any distortion, just model it flat and Railclone can bend it to follow a helical spline for you. Here's an example:

  • Create a new helix. Convert it to an editable spline, go to the spline sub object mode, select the spline and convert from line to curve. Go to vertex mode and convert all vertices to bezier curves or smooth.
  • Now create a new RailClone Object. Add an L1S generator, a spline and a segment object.
  • Wire the spline to the Generator's spline input and pick the Helix from the scene
  • In the segment node select the tread you modelled in step 1, wire this to the default input
  • Go to the segment's properties and change the deform mode to stepped. because we want the underside to deform to follow the spline increase the Vertical Bottom value until the underside is deformed to follow the spline and the treads remain stepped.

  • To avoid ending up with a half a tread at the top of the stairs I'd change the generators>rules>mode to adaptive

  • If you want the deformation to be a little smoother, increase the curve steps from style rollout in the the modify panel.

The handrail is essentially the same as any railings style. If you haven't seen it the Masonry Wall (http://www.itoosoft.com/railclone/tutorials/tutorial_wall.phptutorial )will go through the techniques used to create this type of model. In the example I simply slightly modified the Glass Handrail 3 style from the library. Below are the list of changes I made.


  • To create two handrails either side of the spline, open the style editor and turn on mirror. Adjust the Y Offset value to control the distance the handrails are moved from the spline. If the style is asymettric you may want to turn on mirror too.

  • because the inner handrail had some undesirable distortion, I turned on Simple Y Offset from the style rollout in the modify panel.

Hope that makes sense, please let me know if anything needs clarifying.

Many thanks,

Paul
« Last Edit: November 30, 2013, 06:44:19 PM by Paul Roberts »
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

ArtisticPixel

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #2 on: November 30, 2013, 06:58:48 PM »
Paul, I cant thank you enough. Really appreciate the detail. I am working through your instructions and looking at the file now, but it seems relatively straightforward (when you know how :).

Thanks again !

Steve

ArtisticPixel

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #3 on: November 30, 2013, 07:25:22 PM »
Paul, that works well and I got the concept of it, thanks

I was wondering if there is any way to make the riser deeper? the tread is easy as it can be modelled. But no matter how high I make the riser it stays at a certain height? Am i missing something?

Steve

Paul Roberts

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2013, 07:39:25 PM »
Hi Steve,

Glad it helped out. You should find that height of the risers is governed by the angle of the stairs - if you increase the angle of the stairs the riser height increases. Alternatively if the treads are deeper there will be fewer steps and again the riser height should increase. I guess this would be the same principle as a real staircase.

Cheers,

Paul
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

ArtisticPixel

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #5 on: November 30, 2013, 07:59:16 PM »
Yup that works. Thanks again

Paul Roberts

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #6 on: November 30, 2013, 09:20:56 PM »
No Problem, happy to help  :)
Paul Roberts
iToo Software

JG_archviz

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2022, 04:07:23 PM »
I recently tried this Setup in RC 4 and RC5 but it turns out to become a ramp rather than a stair?
Did i missed something out - or did the Changes in RC4+ changed the appearance?

Paul Roberts

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2022, 09:24:19 AM »
Hi,

Please try a smaller Vertical Bottom value, there were many changes between RC4 and 5 and it would appear there is some difference in the way that the distance from the bottom is calculated. It should be measured upwards from the X Spline.

Thanks,
Paul
Paul Roberts
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JG_archviz

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2022, 10:58:38 AM »
ahh thank you, didn't noticed that value there

Arrow3d

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Re: Spiral Staircase
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2022, 01:38:09 PM »
Sorry to butt in :) ... is there any way to get the staircase to taper? ie ... wider at the bottom? ... the way that i thought to do it seems to be giving me squiffy results on the sidings ... so im thinking there may be a better way that im missing?
« Last Edit: March 03, 2022, 01:41:05 PM by Arrow3d »