The technical side of drawing the stairs and handrails.
We show the tricks that may take years to learn.
This is the technical part of it all, We will be creating a “quick guide” section that will help with basic design principles.
Also in this section, you will find guides on how to draw handrail components such as a Monkey’s tail or wreathing volute, how to draw the feature tread that goes under the Monkey’s tail and explain why to draw the handrail and stretch out of the handrail before drawing the stairs.
Information on opening caps, Ram’s horns, newel post etc. Stair designs, cad downloads of: Handrail profiles, spindles, component handrail parts.
How the stairs are set out, how they meet the landings, how to get the handrail to flow and much more to make your design work at the production and installation stages, hopefully, enough to avoid the pitfalls that can happen at the installation side.
A lot of the drawings and setting out reflect the traditional side of staircase design as found in many historic or listed buildings.
The design principles from these earlier staircases still stand today and with a good understanding of these principles you can draw modern staircases that are comfortable to use and pleasing to the eye.
The much-missed part in modern drawings is the underside of the stairs and how the flights interact with the landings.
The underside if seen is as important as the top of the flight, getting the sweeping curves as the flight transcends into the landings requires preparation in the drawing stages.
Quick Tips.
Simple guides for drawing stairs.
This section has easy to follow often missed tricks, to easily create a flowing handrail without too much design work.
Many of these helpful hints will solve a lot of problems in the installation stage, at the design stage.
We will explain why the centre line is King or the centre line is President, depending on where you live!
We will explain the reason for choosing your spindle size before drawing the stairs, why it helps to draw a 2D stretch out of the stairs and how to draw the stretch out.
Many of these little snippets are often missed even by experienced joiners.
We have added a drawing checklist to help guide you through the stages of drawing the stairs, once you have your initial design concept in mind.
Basic staircase design principles.
Technical explanations.
How to create a stretch out of the stairs; to see how the handrail will follow the stairs and why it is best to draw the handrail run first.
How to draw the stairs to suit the handrail flow.
Guides to remodelling stairs and how stairs are put together to have an understanding of how the drawings work.
We will have technical drawings, pictures, 3d models and other stuff to help you.
Downloadable cad files, pdf’s and 3D interactive models, those that require it will have layer control, this will enable you to turn the layers on and of to see how the stairs are constructed.
The internal workings.
An importatant bit to understand.
The underside of the stairs is probably the most under-estimated part of any staircase, they are the main structure of the stairs and the support that joins the stairs to the landings.
We will show you how to draw these and what to allow for.
How the stairs and landings should be set out to get everything to work properly, to prevent needing to carry out alterations on-site when the stairs arrive.
More interactive 3D models, how the carriages work and some of the different ways these have been implemented over the years.
The staircase position as it comes into contact with the landings.
We will explain and demonstrate, why those flights with half-pace landings, are one continuous flight and not two separate flights that meet at the landing.
Drawing the component parts.
The geometry used “Tangent handrailing”
Various designs for the parts, how to draw the matching components so that they work in unison.
Traditional sizes and setting out of tread nosings, scotia moldings, stair stringer brackets etc.
Examples of stairs from plans to 3d visuals to final install.
Pre-drawn components with downloadable files to drop straight into your cad drawings.
