Gratings on Staircase Macro

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I've customized the Stair macro using the Type 24 Stair Tread supports and added to the database some section treads. By doing so, the treads are drawn as Profiles (in the Beam Layer) rather than Gratings inside the macro. This is really puzzling, are you able to define the treads as Gratings instead of Profiles?

Thanks heaps

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

Is there a particular reason you are using Type 24 and not Type 3?  Type 24 is a profile with an angle below it where Type 3 is Grating with angle below.

[johnjmbennett]

Hi,

to compliment @Jonathan.Jasinski  comments, as stated there are standard grating type tread arrangements in advance steel and these are coming from the use of the Grating types stored in the astorgratings database.

one think to note, that trips up most people is that you can have. Grate tread of a fixed size, also you can have what is termed as a ‘variable’ grate in a tread type.    The variable type allows you to alter the width of the stair , the fixed type limits you to the predefined width of the standard tread.

If you look a few mins into this video you will see the change to variable grate type.

https://youtu.be/SnzkkkiiTqI

cheers

[Anonymous]

Thank you very much for your prompt reply, I really appreciate.

The main reason for which I need to use TYPE 24 stair tread supports is because I need to customize them. By using custom stair tread supports then the macro permits you to install gratings using the beams layer only. The material I'm using is not steel, the whole staircase is made in fiberglass (stringers are usually C-Channels, tread supports are Equal Leg Angles and the tread itself is a fiberglass grating. There is no way I can weld the material together, I need to bolt the L-shaped tread supports to the stringer and subsequently bolt the tread grating to the support.

[Jonathan.Jasinski]

Everything you are saying is able to be done using type 3.  See attached picture.  I have added a fiberglass grating to my database so it is treated as a regular grating object.

[Anonymous]

Also, I tried to use Type 3 tread supports but another problem that I've encountered is that I would need to align the tread nosing with the tip of the angle support (see attached picture) and, unlike Type 24 supports, the Type 3 support commands don't let me offset it.

There are 2 constraints then:

1). Aligning upper tread support to stringer so that the upper corner of the support reaches the point highlighted with a red circle

2). At the same time, adjust the grating tread nosing so that it is placed at the edge of the angle support.

I hope the above is enough clear to understand.

Thank you for your support anyway

[Anonymous]

To wrap it up,

the picture I've uploaded is the final result I would need to get. A perfect alignment between nosing, tread support and stringer. I'm not sure this is feasible using Type 3 commands.

[Jonathan.Jasinski · Accepted solution]

Sure is.  Using the Stringer Offset.

[mick-CNF · Accepted solution]

Change the angle size to match the tread size and change the stringer offset to a minus figure to line up with the nosing.

[johnjmbennett]

Hi, 

The approach her would be use the offset stringer value to move the stringer to form a negative position relative to the toe line.

look under the Distance and Stringer,  then the sub tab Stringer, then the cell entry 5.Stringer offset.  ( you need to work out the value to offset to correct alignment position)

using type 3, you can adjust the support to be the same length as the angle

cheers

[Anonymous]

Thank you to everyone for proposing their solution.

I figured it out how to align nosing, angle support and stringer. There 's still one little issue with the bolts. As you can see from the pic, I'm using a stringer which is not that wide, so the angle support is not properly bolted. I wonder if I could move the bolts a bit forward so to have a proper bolted connection between angle support and stringer.

Here is the material that I'm currently using:

-Stringer C150x45 Channel

-Angle Support L75x50

-Grating Tread 311x800 (height 40 mm)

-Stair Pitch 41°

On a side note, by using Type 3 the angle support will always be offset from the center of the tread. In a nutshell, I cannot shorten the angle support (see red hatch on the picture) by maintaining the alignment of nosing, angle and stringer but that's not a big deal actually.

That would be fantastic if the bolt issue could be fixed.

Thank you again to everyone for helping me out!

[johnjmbennett · Accepted solution]

Hi,

so within the macro the bolt position for this type appears to be limited, but there is a way to work with this and maintain the macro for the stair.

In the stair macro use the  bolt options to turn of the bolt to the channel face ( look under the Tread type setting),  set the 'connection tread to stringer to Bolted welded, then on same tab page, goto the Bolt/welds location and change to Site/Site.    this turns of the bolt and places a site weld on the support angle leg to the stringer face.

you can if you wish access the weld and change it to type 'None@,  then it will not appear on the drawings ( if i recall correctly)

with the bolts tuned off you can then use a bolt mini macro found on the custom connection palette,   Bolts on Beam.   use this to place a series of bolts into the angle/Channel,  Select the angle as the first element,  then the stringer as the connecting element.   in that macro adjust the settings to position the bolt relative to the front of the support angle.    

The important thing this is a macro and can be adjusted by parameters inputs,  also because it is a joint so to speak , it can be copied using the joint copy multi tools of AS,  so you can copy it up the stringer treads quite quickly.

The next part is the shorten of the rear  of the support angle, this is not possible in the stair macro,  but you could apply a simple shorten feature if you require, or you could use  the  'Cut at object@ command from the features palette.

again select the channel first,  then the support angle,  then select the square cut and then if you enter a negative value the shorten will move to reduce the angle length.     Again this is a joint some can be easily copied up the stair using the joint copy multi ( Transform elements)

if you where going to do this time and time again,  you could copy these elements out into a connection template file and create a custom connection to insert into another model or this model, to combine them all together.

attached model with samples included of theses macros and application.

Cheers

[Anonymous]

This last advice is helpful and actually works pretty well!

I found what I needed. This thread can be closed.

Thank you again to everyone.

[johnjmbennett]

@Anonymous  Have marked several parts of the thread as solutions, from the different contributors during this exchange, that only seems fair as many added to the content.

@mick-CNF   Tag one of yours as solution

@Jonathan.Jasinski  same here tag yours as a solution.

good luck with the stairs