Help centre · Modelling

Levels, roofs and stairs

Add and copy levels, put roofs on rooms, add stairs with landings or winders, and lay out structure, ramps, lifts and car parks.

A building in Stori3D is a stack of levels. You draw and place things on the active level, and roofs, stairs and structure build from what's there. Change any element's settings in the Properties panel and it rebuilds.

Add and switch levels

The level chip at the top left of the view shows the active level. Click it to switch levels, Add level above, or Manage levels…, which opens the Levels panel.

In the Levels panel, pick a level to set its Name, Elevation and Floor height (floor to floor, so the next level up starts that far above). Add level below and Delete level are there too.

Under Other levels, choose Ghost, Show or Hide for the levels you aren't working on.

Copy a level

To repeat a floor, click Copy to new level above in the Levels panel. Everything on the level is copied to a new storey above it. To repeat part of a floor, use Edit → Paste in place (see Move, rotate and scale).

Put a roof on

Open the Library and click Roof.
In the Roof bar, choose a Roof type: Gable, Hip, Shed (mono-pitch) or Flat, and set the Pitch.
Click inside a room closed in by walls.

Select the roof to change its Type, Pitch, Overhang, Thickness and Eave height (where the underside meets the walls). Ridge across the short side turns the ridge, and Close gable ends fills the gables with wall. Over an L-, T- or U-shaped room, a gable or hip roof covers each wing, joined with valleys.

Walls under a roof are trimmed to its underside. To take a wall up to the roof, select it and turn on Extend to roof.

Add a stair

Open the Library and click Stair.
In the Stair bar, choose Straight, L or U. For L and U, F flips the turn left or right.
Click the foot of the stair, then click the direction it climbs.

A stair rises one storey, and the number of risers follows from the Max riser. Select it to change the Stair shape, Turns, Total rise, Width, Going (tread) and Handrails. Turn on Winders to replace an L's or U's landing with tapered treads: three for a quarter turn, six for a half turn. The panel shows the risers, pitch and 2R + G (aim for 550 to 700 mm).

Where a stair arrives at a floor slab, it cuts a stairwell with enough Headroom and puts a Guard rail around stairwell on its open edges. Both can be turned off per stair.

Place columns

Open the Library and click Column. Pick Rectangular or Round and set its size (300 × 300 mm to start), then click to place. Keep clicking for more. R turns it 90°.

Set out a grid

Open the Library and click Grid. Click one corner, then the opposite one. R turns it. Select the grid to set 1, 2, 3… apart and A, B, C… apart as distances separated by commas; 3x8.4 repeats one. Every plan shows the grid, and columns and walls snap to its lines and crossings.

Add beams, ramps and lifts

All three are in the Library under Structure & car parks.

Beam: click where it starts and ends. Its top sits under the floor above.
Ramp: click its foot, then its top end. It rises one storey.
Lift: click to place the shaft, and R turns it. It has doors on every level it reaches, and the floors it passes through are opened.

Hold Shift while placing to place freely, without snapping.

Lay out a car park

In the Library, click Parking bays, then click where the row starts on the aisle side and where it ends. As many bays as fit are drawn along it, and F puts them on the other side. Choose the Bay angle, Bay width, Bay length and Accessible bays in the bar before you click. The Properties panel changes them afterwards, numbering included.

The Parkside Apartments sample (File → Open apartments sample) has a car park to explore.

Still stuck? Contact us, or ask in the app: Help → Contact support.