OpenBuildings™ Designer Help

Stair Construction Settings

Used to set various attributes of the active stair construction. Each dialog panel defines the common geometric settings that control basic geometrical structure and placement configuration aspects.

Accessed from:
  • Place Stair dialog: Catalog Tools Drop-down > Load Stair Settings
Note: Stair assemblies are stored as DataGroup entries with their properties in catalogs in the DataGroup System. The dialog provides controls to manipulate these assemblies and keep the catalogs updated.
Note: Some stair properties displayed in gray indicate those are disabled in the current construction. These values are mostly recommended by the system, and are computed internally for the most efficient stair assembly design. The remaining disabled properties are not relevant to the current stair configuration or type.

Dialog Controls

SettingDescription
Validation Sets validation options. The status indicates according to the constraint value limits set on the Constraints tab. The Validation warning icon keeps blinking until the settings are adjusted within the defined constraints. Clicking on the blinking icon opens the warning message to preview the constraint.
  • Validation ON [Green] – prompts for any invalid value in stair design that deviates from the stair definition and you will need to set the value within the valid range.
  • Validation Warnings [Yellow] – alerts warnings alerts if any value in stair design deviates from the stair definition.
  • Validation Off [Red] – does no validation and accepts invalid values too.
Preview Displays the selected catalog item in the preview window. This display changes and the preview updates as various options are chosen. The preview also changes dynamically with some of the prominent settings on the Placement tab, e.g Height, Rotation angle, etc. A right-click in the Preview opens a Show/Hide Viewing Tools option menu:
  • Zoom In - Zooms in about center of preview.
  • Zoom Out - Zooms out about center of preview.
  • Pan - Moves the preview following the pointer. Click again to stop panning.
  • Fit - Fits the object to the extents of the preview.
  • Rotation - Sets the orientation of the selected item in the preview to one of the standard orientation options:
    • Isometric
    • Right Isometric
    • Top
    • Bottom
    • Left
    • Right
    • Front
    • Rear
  • Display Mode - Sets the display of the selected item in the preview to one of the standard display modes.
    • Solid
    • Wire Frame
    • Visible Edge
    • Filled Visible Edge
For Place workflow, the Hide/Show Preview controls displaying preview of the element currently selected for placement.
Settings tabs Click the tabs to open the properties associated with the tab category.
Properties list Displays the list of properties in the current tab, used to set corresponding values in next column.
Tip: A mouse hover in the value field of certain properties also pops up an image illustrating the visuals of stair component's options.
OK Saves and applies all changes to the selected stair construction definition, including the stair catalog definitions in the DataGroup System.
Cancel Closes the dialog without saving or applying changes.
Note: The Landing and the Stringer tabs are not applicable to Spiral and Winder stairs.