Help with dragging a line upward whilst on a curve?

[john_mcclenahan]

You will find it simplest to use a plugin to create a helical shape. It can be done with native tools as well, though it is a good deal slower.

Search the forum for ‘spiral stairs’ - here’s one good resulting thread:

Help with drawing a spiral staircase

Hi, I’m trying to draw this curved staircase that’s basically two sheets of bent steel with triangular runs. I drew the runs the way I want them, with the correct elevation, spacing, angle, etc. The main problem is the outer wall and inner wall. I’m trying to make the wall follow the same line as the runs, so it would be at a constant 38" from the nose of the runs. So far, what I manage to draw is basically a half cylinder. But everything I try to resize it, it deforms the cylinder and pushe…

Once you have a helix, use FollowMe for a round handrail, but if it’s rectangular or profiled, use Eneroth’s Upright Extruder extension from the 3D Warehouse - FollowMe will rotate the profile.

While you are at it, you should clean up your stair model.

All the visible faces are blue-grey - or Reversed. Select them all, then R-click and Reverse faces. That should make all the faces show white outside.

It looks as if you have rather a lot of edges in your curves, and not of even length either.

Try redrawing them with the arc tool.

Or use a Spiral Staircase Dynamic Component. One I developed is on the 3D Warehouse, and may do most of what you want - it draws the steps, handrail and balusters with several editable parameters to get the shape and size you want.

Search for spiral stairs dynamic for a range of options, or try this direct link to my component.

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model/10f64cb1-f38b-4f13-86a5-daacde25c0d3/Spiral-Stairs-Dynamic-Component 

OOPS - the image is showing in preview, but not in the uploaded forum post. I’ve edited the post to show a link you can copy and paste into a browser.