Converting 3D drawing to 2D for Fabrication Drawings

[scottish-lawd]

I am currently working on a Spiral/helix Stair and have created a 3D profile of the stair, now I'm looking to create

2D Fabrication drawings, the problem I have is when it comes to creating the stringers i.e length, tread support positions etc, is there any certain way of doing this, when I use flatten it doesn't work properly.

 

Appreciate any help on this matter, if you require a copy of the drawing please ask.

[Rob-GB]

Flatten won't roll out the stringers in a flat representation of your stair. It will just give you a 2D picture of the view you selected in 3D.

Rob.

[scottish-lawd]

I found that one out Rob Looks like it's back to manual calculations to create the stringer fabrication then.

[SLW210]

What types of views are you attempting to show? I would use Viewports and different views, you can do this with Solview, Soldraw and Solprof or Dview.

[stevsmith]

I had this problem when i used to design spiral stairs in 3d. the trouble is when you go and make your representation views you coundn't flatten the stringer and I had to do it the old fashioned way by working everything out using the plan view and the mean radius.

 

MAJOR BUMMER.

 

especially if you have a ball breaker of a boss who stands behind you demanding it on time.

[scottish-lawd]

SLW210 I'm not requiring a view it's the actual stringer that supports the treads that I require to create a fabrication drawing of, with lengths hieghts etc see attached drawing, basically I require the plate to be flat with all sizes prior to rolling it to the required radius.

 

stevsmith, Your right mate major bummer like !!! been doing these type of stairs for years and you would think there was some way of creating the fabrication drawing by now !!!!

 

I have attached a quick view of the stair to show what I'm talking about SLW210

 

Cheers

 

PS Boss is ok on time for these types of stairs and TBH I'm the only one in the office that can do them so even better for me

[stevsmith]

Stringer development is pretty easy but i can be time consuming.

I had to do a twin stringer helix stair case for stirling castle that was a nightmare. The helix came around 180 degrees then went the opposite way at 90 degrees with no landing.

I may have a pic somewhere. give me 5.

[scottish-lawd]

k mate, I see your using inventor, is this easier to create 3D drawings and can you convert these types of drawings to AutoCAD to create Fabrication drawings ??

[stevsmith]

Here's the dwg.

425-01 01 Rev F.zip

[scottish-lawd]

Nice stair mate, did you have to create the fabrication drawings for that one 2 ????

The double stringer must have been a nightmare to get to match up correctly going up the curved area's, not only for the detailler but for the guys fabricating it.

[stevsmith]

I don't work for that company anymore mate. I've moved away from the stairs and balustrades.

 

I would say that if you were going to go down that road of switching over to inventor for the stairs, it is a very steep learning curve unless you are familiar with inventor.

People on here will say "yes, inventor can do spiral staircase's" but in this case I would have to argue that inventor would only be put to good use if it used common components (like a bolt together spiral stair for your loft conversion) and not for the "one off" specials which I was doing. Every job my company undertook was different.

 

I imagine someone out there would probably disagree with me. But putting the cards on the table, I would probably still be doing them manually with Autocad.

 

When I tried to use inventor, I was finding I had to draw the layout using Autocad and then try and replicate it in inventor. It's hard to explain, but if you were to explore it yourself I would find that you would probably agree with what i am trying to put across.

[stevsmith]

It was an absolute nightmare. It was stainless steel stringers as well with a glass infill balustrade. :shock: :shock:

The transition points were difficult, especially on the inner stringer that comes on the second curve.

 

I had to do the main submit drawings for approval. (about 5 or 6 dwgs) Site layout drawings (about 15) workshop layout drawings (10~12) fabrication drawings (40+) development drawings for the stringers to get the contractors to roll them (10~12) Laser profile drawings (5~6) and glass paenle developments (15 ish)

 

All in all, about 100 drawings.