Discover the process of creating a sub-assembly for stairs and handrails in 3D modeling. Learn to systematically assemble, label and save bodies that make up the complex structure.
Key Insights
- The process starts with creating a master file, where the entire work will be compiled. The file should be saved and named properly for easy access.
- The assembly process involves gathering the bodies that make up the assembly, starting with the handrails. The bodies are saved systematically as "Stair001" to "Stair011".
- Upon completing the assembly, a new part is created and the master file is inserted, where additional features like support beams and sketches are added. All changes are saved and updated in the assembly.
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In this video, we are going to begin the process of creating the sub-assembly for our stairs and our handrail. Make sure that your master file is open. Go to File, New, Part.
Close it out with a red X. Insert, Part, Master File Playground. Green check mark places it exactly where it needs to be. All right, perfect.
Let's start gathering the bodies that make up our assembly. We'll go to Delete Key Body. And we'll start with the handrails and just move systematically through them.
Start with this back handrail. And let's save this as, we'll call it stair. There we go.
Underscore 001. Save your work. Then do a Save As, 002.
Delete that body and then grab this one, touching it. There we go. Save your work.
Do a Save As, 003. Grab this one here. Save your work.
Do a Save As, 004. Edit the feature. Grab this one here.
Save your work. And do a Save As, 005. Delete that body and select this one here.
Save your work. Do another Save As. Call this 006.
All right, and then grab this one right here. Save As, or save your work. And then do a Save As, 007.
Edit the feature. There we go. Save your work.
And do a Save As, 008. Grab this support beam here, that support plank. Save your work.
Do another Save As, 009. Edit the feature. Delete that body.
Grab this top stair. Save. Then do a Save As.
And go to, save it as number 10. Grab this secondary stair. And we may be missing one more, but let's just go ahead and make the sub-assembly just to see where we're at.
Let's close this out. Yep, save the document. Close that as well.
We'll start a new assembly. Start grabbing stairs one through 10. Snapping them exactly in place.
Stair two. Perfect. Insert components.
Stair three. Perfect. Looks like it's oriented this way.
Insert components. Stair four. There we go.
And move on to stair five. Beautiful. Insert components.
Move on to stair six. Insert components. Move on to stair seven.
Then stair eight. Insert components. Stair nine.
Insert components. Stair 10. And looks like we are missing one.
It's a rail that goes down here at the bottom. First, let's save this sub-assembly. SA006.
This will be stair and handrail. Beautiful. Save the work.
File, let's start a new part. And then close out the sketch. Insert our master file.
There we go. Okay. And for this, let's go ahead and grab this piece here.
Save this as stair 011. Save it. Close it out.
Insert components. Stair 011. There we go.
Save work. Now, oh, we wanna add one more thing, and that's the sketch reference part. Beautiful.
All right. Now, the first thing we wanna do is go ahead and complete the pattern of the support beams for our handrail. But it looks like we need to add that pattern in, and I think it might be better to do it in the master file rather than try to recreate it here in the assembly.
So while we have this assembly open, let's just go to our master file, and let's go ahead and roll up past the body delete key. We wanna see all our bodies. Okay.
And let's start a sketch, say, on this surface here underneath this outside beam. Now, let's go ahead and hit the eyeball to close out the extra clutter. Let's start converting some entities.
I like the placement of each of these rails, so I'm going to create sketches that mark the exact placement of where they go. And just to make sure we're in the right place, I'll grab that one too. Please go ahead and convert these surfaces.
Close it out. All right. Now, roll down your master file.
Ah, we can see we have those available to us now. Go ahead and save it. Close it out with the X, and click yes to the updates in the assembly.
And each of the subsequent parts have updated as well. And wouldn't you know it, it is now showed as part of our sketch reference part. All right, we'll save that.
Beautiful. All right, let's close it out for this video and continue in the next one. In the next video, we're going to see if we can't complete this entire handrail pattern and see how much further we get.
