Day 4 – StairBuilder

The StairBuilder is better than ever, with several enhancements and a bit more polish.
In response to customer requests, we’ve added the ability to Lock and Unlock complete staircases. This makes them much easier to manipulate as a whole, allows for smoother joints between flights and landings, gives better break-line control also means that you’ll be able to save an entire flight as a favourite.
You can also now lock the tread depth to make sure that you get a consistent rise angle over straight flights.

Tags: 13 Days

Creating a Timber Deck Balustrade

The Cadimage Tools Railing Tool(part of StairBuilder) is not only useful for Stair Railings, you can also use it for Decking Balustrading.
Set the Railing Settings as follows:

Set you desired materials, then within your plan view, click on the slab edges where you
want the balustrade to be.

Note: Where the Balustrading intersects at a corner, the Railing Tool will automatically
clean up any duplicate Newels.

Tags: Decking, Stair Builder

Display Stair winder treads in layout book

Sometimes, you may encounter tread lines from StairBuilder are missing in layouts. This is due a problem with the Display Order.

To correct this, right-click on each of the winder components from the bottom to top, and change the display order to “Bring to front”. It is important to select only one winder component at a time. Selecting multiple winder components and changing the display order will have no effect.

Tags: Stair Builder

Creating a Winder Stair

Using Cadimage Tools StairBuilder you can easily make a 180^o winder stair.  Place a straight flight, change your flight type to winder and place your winder element.

Select the reference line end node, drag it in a circular motion to new position (use the tracker for accurate placement) for angle adjustments use the top node and set the Flight Turn Angle to 180^o.

Open the settings of the winder and set the Number of Treads to achieve your desired winder number.

Tags: Stair Builder, Winder

Creating a Handrail for an Accessible Ramp

Using the Cadimage StairBuilder and Railing tools you can easily create a handrail that utilizes the powerful display options of the Railing tool.

Create your ramp using a combination of roof planes and slabs, meshes, or your own methods. Once completed, open the Stair Selection Settings dialog for the Cadimage Tools StairBuilder by double clicking the Stair icon within the ToolBox. Go to the Treads & Risers > Dimensions tab and adjust the treads to smaller dimensions. (The example shown allows a finer step and therefore a more accurate railing placement as it follows the top of the stair.).

Simply place a stair including landings while tracing your already built ramp, then in the 3D window adjust the overall height of the stair to match the ramp.  (You may also preset this value in the Dimensions tab of the Stair Selection Settings dialog.)

Once your stair is placed it is simply a matter of applying a balustrade using the Railing Tool, adjust the settings to your requirements and attach.

As you cannot delete the Stair without affecting the placed railing, you can put the Stair on a non used layer to quickly hide it. If you prefer not to keep the Stair, drag a copy of the railings to create separate and non associated versions. The original Stair can now be deleted and the original railings will disappear with it.

Tags: ramp, Stair Builder

Editing the Shape of a Stair Builder Stair

You can easily edit the overall shape of a single Cadimage Tools Stair.  Go to the Cadimage Pulldown menu, select Stair Builder then Stair Shape Edit Mode.

This activates additional hotspots to the stair; selecting the middle hotspots allows you to add a curve, selecting the corner hotspots allows you to change the edge angle.

Tags: Stair Builder

Creating a winder segment with the new StairBuilder 12

Using the Cadimage Tools StairBuilder 12 we can easily create winder flights. Simply place a standard stair element at a short length e.g. 25mm (nosing length). Grab the dynamic hotspot¹ and curve the stair as shown then using the live node² in the centre of the stair you can adjust the finishing angle of the winder flight. Lastly with the winder segment selected, simply change the flight type to finish.

Cadimage Tools Hotfix 3

We are pleased to announce the release of the Third hotfix for the Cadimage Tools for ArchiCAD 12. This update brings a number of fixes as well as the introduction of Steel Framing into the Wall Framing Tool. We have also updated the installer to support English, German, Spanish, French, Russian and Norwegian localised versions of ArchiCAD. Get the latest versions here:

http://www.cadimagetools.com/myAccount/downloads.aspx

And make sure to read the release reports to find more details on what has been done.

Tags: Hotfix

Deutsche Cadimage Tools herausgegeben!

Cadimage Tools ist stolz bekanntzugeben, dass von heute an fünf der Cadimage Tools als örtliche deutschsprachige Versionen verfügbar sind.

Die folgenden ArchiCAD 12 Tools sind heute herausgegeben und sind ab sofort zum Kauf und Download erhältlich:

• 3D Profiler
• Key Notes
• Landscaping Tool
• Revision Manager
• Stair Builder

In Verbindung mit der Veröffentlichung, wurde die Cadimage Tools Webseite komplett überholt und ist nun auch als örtliche Webseite auf Deutsch vorhanden.

Das Übersetzen, Entwickeln und Instandhalten der Tools in mehrfachen Sprachen stellt das Entwicklerteam vor zusätzliche Herausforderungen. Wir sind jedoch der Auffassung, dass die Vorteile regionaler Versionen diese internen Herausforderungen bei weitem überwiegen.

Zu diesem Zeitpunkt wird unser Online Support noch auf Englisch angeboten. Wir werden allerdings die Nachfrage unserer deutschsprachigen Kunden beobachten und ständig unser Hilfsangebot überprüfen.

Wir werden mit ortsansässigen Graphisoft Partnern in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz zusammenarbeiten, um diesen grossartigen Anlass zu fördern.

German Cadimage Tools Released!

Cadimage Tools is proud to announce that from today five of the Cadimage Tools are available as localised German language versions.

The following ArchiCAD 12 Tools have all been released today available for immediate purchase and download:

• 3D Profiler
• Key Notes
• Landscaping Tool
• Revision Manager
• Stair Builder

In conjunction with this release, the Cadimage Tools website has been completely overhauled and is also available as a localised website in German.

Translating, developing and maintaining Tools in multiple languages provides additional challenges to the development team but we believe the benefits of having local versions far outweigh these internal challenges.

At this stage our Online Support is still provided in English, however, we will monitor the demand from our German speaking customers and continually review our support offering.

We will be working with local Graphisoft Partners in Germany, Austria and Switzerland to promote this great occasion.