Staircase underside

[trosco]

Hello,

 

I am trying to model this staircase's underside and I can't get ti to work. I tried making a mesh out of the 4 polylines and converting it to a surface, in order to slice the whole staircase and keep the upper part, but it says "inconsistent face-body relationships". Anybody know how to get around this problem? Maybe a different approach would do the trick, but I can't figure out another way.

dwg file here:hgcasa2.dwg

Edited September 10, 2012 by trosco

[ReMark]

The stairs are a solid? I might have constructed the stairs differently to avoid the problem in the first place.

[trosco]

yes, I extruded each step individually to it's certain height...

I've never worked with any cad program before, I've only done a few tutorials, so could you explain, in short, a better method?

[ReMark]

Attach a copy of your DWG file to your next post. Someone here will take a look at it.

[trosco]

i've attached the dwg file, it's the right after the photo, but it's not very visible. I'll edit the first post to make it stand out and thank you for your reply.

[ReMark]

Curious. Why do you have so much geometry on the Defpoints layers? That is not recommended.

 

Was the underside of the stairs supposed to be smooth or stepped?

 

The outside front corners of steps 3 and 4 seem a bit odd.

[trosco]

I don't know why the outer corner of step 3 is that way. About step 4, it's my mistake. The process through which I've made the steps tapered was very much trial and error, so there are some flaws (like the fact that I've accidentally erased the first step's tapered edge).

I know that you're not supposed to use defpoints as an usual layer, and that's a mistake I've yet to correct (I am aware that this practice says very much about my knowledge and will try to correct it in the future).

I wanted a smooth underside and consistent with the angle of the stairs (a modified helicoidal shape). I am also aware that the method I used for doing this, the 2 splines are a very bad approximation, but it was the only thing I could think of.

 

I know that walking somebody lacking knowledge through a program can be a pain (I've used to help people out with Photoshop), so you could simply give me hints as to what to do, I'll use the internet and some ebooks I got to work myself out of the problem. I will start working on the model a few days later, as I've been trying to teach myself for the past 2 weeks and I've gotten sick of all the problems which arise.

 

PS: sorry for the long post, I was just trying to explain myself a bit

[ReMark]

No need to apologize.

 

I have toyed with it a bit but I've devoted most of my efforts answering questions.

 

I will attempt to take a more in-depth look at your drawing Wednesday.

[ReMark]

The corner of step #3 has a same piece of a surface included.

 

The corner of step #4 has a small triangular region included.

[ReMark]

Your mesh cutting plane idea might have worked but it does not pass through a portion of your stairs correctly. This would be at the back corner of step #2 where it exits the top of the step then passes through the riser of step #3. Take a look:

 

[trosco]

I've fixed that problem and it still gives me the same error. You mentioned that you would have used a different method, what would that have been? (I'm also asking this because I have to redo the staircase - I forgot to take the thickness of the horizontal slab in calculation, so now my staircase ends 30cm lower than it should be).

current dwg: http://www3.zippyshare.com/v/74947883/file.html (i've used an online host because the file is 1.8mbs large)