Residential Stair Turn in AutoCAD Architecture

Residential stairs very commonly make an L-shaped 90 degree turn and have a riser (2 treads) at that 90 degree turn.  That can easily be accomplished in Autodesk® AutoCAD® Architecture with the AEC Stair object, but the method to accomplish this is not readily apparent.

The following steps will get you a stair that meets those parameters.  (Note that the Cut Plane under Display Properties was modified to be higher than the stair height to better illustrate this process by seeing the entire stair.)

1. Initiate the STAIRADD command and specify the desired style of stair and dimensions for the stair in the Properties palette.
2. In the General section of the Properties palette, set the following information:
   
   1. Shape = Multi-Landing
   2. Turn Type = 1/4 turn
   3. Winder Style = Single Point – 2 Tread  (This Winder Style may need to be created in the Style Manager using the following parameters:)
      
   4. Vertical Orientation= Up
3. Place the stair in the desired orientation by picking 4 points.  The 1st point is the base start point of the stair, the 2nd point is the top of the lower flight of stairs, the 3rd point is the start point of the upper flight of stairs, and the 4th point is the top of the upper flight.
4. After the stair is placed, highlight the stair, and pick the gray dot at the corner of the stair turn point with the “Edit Turns” tooltip.
   
5. There will be some diamond shaped trigger grips appear on the risers near the turn point.
   1. Pick on the trigger grips to either add them to the turn or remove them from the turn.
   2. In the left illustration below, the trigger grip with the red highlight is on a tread that appears at an angle when it is desired to be parallel with the upper treads.  Picking on that trigger grip will relocate the tread as shown in the right illustration below.
      
6. Picking on other diamond shaped trigger grips will allow you to add more treads to a single point winder turn.
7. The center point for the turn can be easily adjusted.
   1. The center point determines:
      1. Where risers start in relation to the corner when the risers are perpendicular to the stringers.
      2. Where the risers “radiate” from when they are at an angle to the stringers.
   2. Pick on the square cyan grip as shown in the left illustration below.
   3. Move the grip to the desired location for the new center point of the turn as shown in the right illustration below.  The illustration below shows the grip moved 6” each way from the corner.
      
   4. To make the risers be 6” each way from the corner, pick on the gray diamond grips on the risers that are angled but should not be angled.
8. The final result will be the following:
   

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