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Staircase generator plug-in
Hello,
I'm very happy to present you the new staircase generator plug-in, one of the main missing plug-ins in Sweet Home 3D. The dialog box shown by its Tools > Generate staircase menu item allows you to create the staircase of your choice from the number of stairs you want and their size.
It allows to quickly design straight staircases, square spiral staircases, spiral staircases, quarter turn staircases and U shaped staircases. For quarter turn and U shaped staircases, you may specify the number of stairs before the first turn and the number of stairs in the turn.
If the model you want doesn't exist, you may also assemble basic staircases, the reason why intermediate straight, square spiral and spiral staircases are proposed. These models have longer handrails and connections at the end of their stringers to connect them to another staircase (actually, quarter turn staircases and U shaped staircases are themselves made of intermediate staircases). For example, this allows you to build a staircase with a round part or a triple winder staircase.
The plug-in lets you choose whether you want some stringers and handrails at the left or right of the generated staircase, but you may also customize the look of the staircase afterwards by changing its materials as explained in this article. As texture coordinates are also generated with a little random offset for each tread and riser, you'll be able to get a nice wooden staircase where treads and risers don't repeat exactly the same texture.
If you want turns in the opposite direction, just choose the Plan > Flip horizontally menu item or the Mirrored shape option in the furniture modification pane. Note also that the plug-in proposes a Generate cut out shape check box that you may unselect if the default generated cut out shape in the ceiling doesn't match the one you want. In that case, you'll have to draw a room at the upper level which will surround the staircase to get a correct hole.
Finally, for users who want super precise values, keep in mind that the additional decimals you may enter in number text fields are not ignored but just not displayed once a value is entered (typing "2.61" will display 2.6 even if 2.61 is actually stored). When you need to compute some values like stair height or elevations, you may also find practical to enter a formula like "262 / 15", if you need to compute the stair height of a 262 cm high staircase with 15 stairs.
I hope that you'll like this plug-in and that it will match most of your needs.
Many thanks to the SNPS (French forensics) for their financial contribution to this plug-in.
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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[Edit 2 times,
last edit by Puybaret at Aug 28, 2024, 7:47:15 AM]
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Re: Staircase generator plug-in
As texture coordinates are also generated with a little random offset for each tread and riser, you'll be able to get a nice wooden staircase where treads and risers don't repeat exactly the same texture.
Now that's the kind of detail that makes the difference between just good and excellent! With the intermediate types we can now create almost any staircase. I know how much work it is to create a functional staircase (see my library with public staircases) so this should make it a lot easier in the future. Thank you for this well though out new plugin.
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Re: Staircase generator plug-in
Brilliant! Now…. If we can just have the ability to remove only the handrails etc on either the stairs or landing plus with or without the string , it’ll be perfect. This would give the ability to create just about anything.
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Re: Staircase generator plug-in
Wow... I was reading this thinking, "I bet it can't reproduce my double quarter landing U shaped staircase." But it only blooming well did. I just had to set "Turn stairs count" to 1. Very nice! One small cosmetic detail is that the risers are sloped at the turns in both this method, and the "U shaped with top/bottom landing" options when "Turn step count" is set to 1. Looks a bit odd, but not a deal breaker.
Some helpful native British Englishman suggestions: "Step count" rather than "Stair count" "First flight step count" rather than "First stairs count" (step is optional here) "Turn step count" rather than "Turn stair count" "Tread width" rather than "Stair width" "Tread depth" rather than "Stair depth" "Riser height" rather than "Stair height" "Nosing depth" rather than "Tread offset" "Left stringer / newel post" rather than "Left stringer / pole"
Do I detect a little "official business"? So I take it the French police are using SH3D in crime scene presentations or something like that? Cool!
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Re: Staircase generator plug-in
One small cosmetic detail is that the risers are sloped at the turns in both this method, and the "U shaped with top/bottom landing" options when "Turn step count" is set to 1. Looks a bit odd, but not a deal breaker.
And I of course meant to say that the stringers were sloped, not the riser. No matter how many times I check before posting...
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Re: Staircase generator plug-in
Merci et encore... merci. Vraiment du bon boulot et un plugin oh combien utile ! La demande de JonnyD ne me parait pas inintéressante, ce pourrait être une évolution utile, mais sans être indispensable...
If we can just have the ability to remove only the handrails etc on either the stairs or landing plus with or without the string , it’ll be perfect.
I hesitated to use some different material names for each part of the handrails and balusters, but for U shaped staircases, it would make many materials with the risk of confusion for beginners. Maybe, I could add an option for a limited list or a full list of materials.
@sjb007 Thanks for the translations. As English style used in Sweet Home 3D is more American English than British English, do you think it would be the same in American English?
One small cosmetic detail is that the stringers are sloped at the turns in both this method, and the "U shaped with top/bottom landing" options when "Turn step count" is set to 1.
I agree this is a little odd, but it's for aesthetic reasons so the stringers look better connected and more continuous. Otherwise I could have added a pole like in the U shaped with landing staircase.
Do I detect a little "official business"? So I take it the French police are using SH3D in crime scene presentations or something like that? Cool!
Yes, the French police have used Sweet Home 3D to model crime and road scenes for a few years, and they agreed to contribute to some improvements and additional 3D models. See this article and their interview (in French).
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Emmanuel Puybaret, Sweet Home 3D developer
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Re: Staircase generator plug-in
I hesitated to use some different material names for each part of the handrails and balusters, but for U shaped staircases, it would make many materials with the risk of confusion for beginners. Maybe, I could add an option for a limited list or a full list of materials.
Better a long list than not having the option. That's why I did this with the public staircases I published. With those you can even differentiate between the first and second landing and choose two different baluster types (panels or glass). This is important for the different positions where the staircase is placed against a wall or not. Sure, it's a long list of options but you don't see that in the plan, only when modifying the textures. It's not about being able to set a different color or texture, it's required to allow making a part invisible, that's important. I agree with the name changes sjb007 proposed. Specifically because generally "Stairs" is considered the complete staircase and not a part of it. The proposed names are less confusing. Here's a diagram with (US) part names for a staircase: https://www.stair-parts.com/parts-of-a-stairc...list-of-stair-part-names/ Landings can also be called platform. Could you share how to set randomized coordinates for the textures as you did for the threads and risers? I wanted to do that for the public staircases I created but didn't want to have a property for each separate thread and riser. That would make the material list a 'little' too long (although it would allow to create rainbow steps )
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