Spiral Staircase
For this post I decided to design a spiral staircase. At first it seemed like an easy concept, but there were difficulties. Trying to make the treads was a lot harder than I thought. The problem was getting the treads aligned with the spindles. Once that was solved, it was a matter of using copy with mates to make the rest of the treads and spindles. For the hardware, I used copy with mates as well. I selected both the nut and the bolt at the same time which sped up the whole process of inserting the fasteners. Using in-context references I made the railing so that it would fit precisely. This technique ensured that any changes in the rest of the assembly would affect the railing so that it would stay in its proper place. You can see this technique in action by changing the value of the railing angle in the equations folder and then rebuilding. This model was created in SolidWorks 2011; if you have an earlier version of SolidWorks you can go here to 3D Content Central to download the model for your version. I hope you enjoy.
Ian Jutras
Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Mechanical Engineering 2013