Stairs in Advance Steel: Complete Guide to the Straight Stair Tool

To make a straight stair in Advance Steel, set the UCS so the stair will sit in the right plane, start Straight Stair (Home tab > Extended Modeling panel), pick the start and end points, and choose left, middle or right alignment. Advance Steel builds the stringers, treads and landings and opens the stair dialog, where you set the stringer size, step size, tread type, landings and connections. Base plates come from the Connection Vault, and the stringer ends are trimmed with Shorten at UCS.

Stairs show up on almost every job, so this is one tool worth knowing well. This guide covers every part of the stair dialog, base plates, trimming the stringers, the code rules to check, and the mistakes I’d watch for. For spiral stairs, see the spiral stairs guide.

Stair geometry, handrails and guards are set by the building code, and stringer and connection sizes by the engineer. The numbers in this guide are examples. Check the architect’s drawings, the code your project uses and the engineer of record before you detail a real stair.

Where is the Straight Stair tool?

Home tab > Extended Modeling panel > Straight Stair:

It’s also on the Extended Modeling tab:

How do I create a straight stair?

The stair goes in on the current UCS plane, so set the UCS first.

Start Straight Stair.
Choose how to define it: 0 start and end point (the default), 1 length and angle, or 2 height and angle. Press Enter for the default.
Pick the start point and the end point.
Choose the alignment relative to those points: 0 left, 1 middle (the default) or 2 right.

The stair is created with the default settings and the dialog opens:

If your shop has standard stairs, a template saves a lot of time. I have free ones for an easy-to-fabricate stair, a concrete-filled pan stair, an open riser stair and a diamond plate stair.

How do I set the stair size and stringers?

Distances

By default the stair is defined by Length and Height, calculated from the points you picked. You can type over the Length, Width and Height, or switch to Length and Angle or Height and Angle. Some tread types have a fixed width, and then the Width box is grayed out.

Stringer

Stringer offset type. How the stringer is offset from the treads: Slope (default), Vertical or Horizontal.
Stringer offset. The offset value.
Stringer profile size front. Type and size of the front stringer.
Same for rear. Uses the same profile for the rear stringer. Uncheck it to use a different one.
Rotated by. Rotates the stringer by preset angles.
Mirror stringer. Mirrors the stringer.

How do I set the riser and tread size?

Step size

Advance Steel suggests a step size using the rule 2R + G (two risers plus one going). Type your own riser and going here to match the architect’s drawings and code.

Tread type

Tread type. Pick one of the tread types in the list (types 1 to 24, plus 3 obsolete ones).
Tread size. The sizes available depend on the tread type.
Connection tread to stringer. Bolted or welded. Not every tread type offers both.
Offset by stair width. Gap between the stringer and the tread on each side. The tread gets shorter by this amount on each side.
Weld thickness. For welded treads.
Bolt diameter, type, grade and assembly. For bolted treads.
Bolt/welds location. Shop or site.
Save / Save As / Rename. Save the current tread settings as a tread size you can pick later.

Save your shop’s standard treads with your own prefix, like your initials. Then they’re easy to find in the Tread Size list on the next job.

Tread dimensions 1

The numbers match the preview:

Thickness of the tread material.
Tread width.
Front length, the height of the front leg.
Back length, the height of the back leg.
Bending radius, by angle or distance.
Bending front leg, the bend angle of the front leg. The half-tone preview shows the bend direction.
Bending back leg, the bend angle of the back leg.
Top leg height.

Tread dimensions 2

Tread side, bolt location and corner size. What’s available depends on the tread type: angle length, bolt distance, bolt edge distance and the angle profile size.

Top and bottom steps

By default the top and bottom treads are Same as other step. Uncheck it to make them different.

How do I add landings to a stair?

Top landing profile

Create front / rear. Check to add the front and rear landing members.

Landing size front / rear. The section for each.
Rotate landing. 0°, 90°, 180° or 270°.
Mirror landing. Mirrors the landing.

Top landing

Distance from nosing point. Measures the landing length from the nosing.
Landing length (front/rear). Length of the top landing members.
Weld thickness. Weld between the landing and the stringers.
Create last tread. Whether to put a tread at the top.

Landing offset. Offset from the stringer.

Top cover

Cover made from. Plate, Grate or Angle No Plate. Angle No Plate welds angles to the top landing but leaves out the plate.
Cover thickness.
Grating class / size. If the cover is grating.
Cover on top of stringer. Puts the cover on top of the stringer.

Cover length and Offset from axis end.
Stay on top of landing. Used with Cover on top of stringer, so the cover sits above the top point you picked.

Top cover angle

The angle profile, weld thickness and offset from the top.

Bottom landing

The bottom landing has the same options as the top.

How do I add base plates to the bottom of a stair?

Put the UCS where the plates go: type UCS and pick the point.
Open the Connection Vault (Home tab > Extended Modeling panel).

Go to Miscellaneous and pick Stairs Anchor Base Plate at the top.

Select the stringer and press Enter.
Set the details on the tabs on the left of the dialog.

Here’s one with a 1′-0″ cut size:

To put the same plate on the other stringer, use Copy with Adjustment: select the connection box, pick the first stringer as the reference and the other stringer as the target. If the other side needs a different connection, make it from scratch. More ways to copy connections are in how to copy a connection.

How do I trim or extend the stringers?

Use Shorten at UCS. Open the Advance Steel Tool Palette (Home tab > Extended Modeling panel) and go to Features > Shorten at UCS.

Put the UCS where the stringer should end: type UCS and place it.

Start Shorten at UCS, select the stringer and press Enter. The stringer is cut or extended to the XY plane of the UCS.

To cut the top, rotate the UCS so the XY plane is vertical and run it again.

Here’s the stringer cut in both planes:

Most stairs need a railing next. See hand railings in Advance Steel and wall rails.

What code rules apply to steel stairs?

In the US, most jobs use some edition of the International Building Code (IBC). From the 2021 IBC:

Risers and treads (1011.5.2): risers 4″ to 7″, treads at least 11″. Houses (R-3) and inside apartments (R-2 dwelling units) are allowed 7 3/4″ risers and 10″ treads.
Uniformity (1011.5.4): the biggest and smallest riser, and the biggest and smallest tread, in a flight can’t differ by more than 3/8″.
Width (1011.2): at least 44″, or 36″ for an occupant load under 50.
Headroom (1011.3): at least 80″, measured from the line of the nosings.
Landings (1011.6): at least as wide as the stair, and as deep as the stair width or 48″, whichever is less.
Handrails (1011.11 and 1014): on each side of most flights, 34″ to 38″ above the nosings.
Guards (1015): where the open side is more than 30″ above the floor below, at least 42″ high.

Local codes change these. Chicago, for example, has its own building code; see making a legal steel stair in Chicago. Always check the code your project uses.

What mistakes should I avoid with stairs?

Wrong UCS. The stair goes in the current UCS plane. Set it before you start.
Trusting the default step size. The 2R + G suggestion isn’t the code. Set the riser and tread from the drawings.
Forgetting the finish. Concrete fill or a floor finish on the landing changes the top and bottom riser. Check finished heights, not just steel.
Cutting one stringer. Shorten at UCS and the base plate need to be done on both stringers.
Retyping the same stair. Save tread sizes and use templates for stairs you make often.

If you’re looking at hardware or software upgrades, my toolbox page lists the tools I use and any discounts I know of.