Grasshopper Staircase Help

Does anyone know how to create something like INTERSTELLAR STAIRCASE Design by Y.S.Lam with grasshopper


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What have you tried so far?
Looking quickly at it, it seems if you make an algorithm that draws a nurbscurve through a set of points, where you move half of the set for each step, will get you in the right direction.

not the solution, just an idea to start with

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1.gh (17.1 KB)

Hello
you began well but wanted to go too fast to the result.
From what I see the stairs are more like an handle

The stairs turn at constant angle, here 10°
The width of stairs seems related to the exterior flat radius part
the exterior flat radius part follows something like an Archimedian spiral (not a logarithmic for sure)

So you have a spiral with R1 at start , R2 at end
Width of stair ~ 2 * tan(alpha/2)*radius
here alpha = 10°

I think this design lacks an inner handle. So for you design please add it knowing the minimum stair tread depth that is somewhere f 9.5 inches (24 cm) . You have 2 hours :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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This isn’t correct. Not the same, and yet… :thinking:

P.S. Another image of the design by Y.S. Lam, from FB:

Double helix spiral? How many steps from bottom to top :question:

I know, as i wrote, it was just an idea to help @Benaro_Hannan start with.

Better, but now I’m wondering if rotation is less for long steps and more for short steps?

Or step tread run is more for long steps and less for short steps?

Still not the same… :thinking: These steps are wider in the middle and narrower top and bottom.

@Joseph_Oster the overall projected length doesn’t change I think in the original concept. It’s only the flat part of each stair step that varies.

What does that mean?

It looks like you are making each step a different length (diameter), while in the original, only the flat part of the stair seems to vary in length.

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That explains why my top view looks more like an ellipse than a circle. Thanks.

Following the logic I described, it gives that


You have a number of stairs for half of staircase
Tread Depth at R2
Angle of rotation at each turn
Radius multiplicator is use to make the ramp a spiral, radius is evolving at each step.

But I am not sure I follow all the designs ideas.

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This is still wrong, as @Gijs pointed out, but I polished it anyway because it’s cool. The widest steps are bottom and top with smallest width in the middle. Rotation varies such that treads work well furthest from the center. Thirty steps is a bit much but for scale I added a 6’ 3" (1.9 meter) “human figure” and it could work.


INTERSTELLAR STAIRCASE.3dm (1.0 MB) (R7)

Railings on both sides are in order! Falling near the center could be a long drop :bangbang:
7.2 inch rise per step times 30 steps is eighteen feet.

I really don’t like posting a GH file when none was provided but the effects of changing parameter values in this model are pleasantly surprising.


INTERSTELLAR STAIRCASE_2024Oct15c.gh (39.5 KB)

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Some change to the logic, now 2 ways to change the radius of change “Big to small” or “small to big”



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