I have an architect client who asked me to provide information about the rise/run for stairs in a townhome. I am wondering how I can obtain this information. I created a ticket and requested help, and the drafting team responded saying, “If your client is interested in a more advanced file type, please view [Xactimate ESX Add-on and FAQ].” This is my first time dealing with this. Any ideas?
even if i pay more for ESX
Thanks for reaching out on the Support Desk, and sorry for the confusion. My teammate has since sent you a follow up message to provide some clarification. To be clear, unfortunately we do not currently offer any file type or iGUIDE package option which calculates stair rise & run. And the file type which my teammate had intended for you to consider was not ESX, but rather iGUIDE DWG Floor Plans.
I was told by an iGuide tech on a personal conference call before I purchased my Planix, that to get that info, I’d have to turn the system 90 degrees from horizontal on my tripod so that the laser beam could “cut” the stair rise/run appropriately.
I haven’t tried that yet.
There is a creative way to use Planix camera to do vertical scans by keeping it horizontal (most ball heads have a cutout which will allow flipping the camera 90 degrees). This is demonstrated here:
Data from such scans should not be submitted to drafters as a regular iGUIDE package as they cannot draft it into a floor plan. Instead, it can be published as a Radix package and a DXF file with lidar point cloud data can then be downloaded from the portal and shared with the architect who can load the DXF file into a CAD program and measure stairs there.
One needs to set a proper scale factor to convert into desired units when loading a DXF into CAD software. All the values in iGUIDE DXF are specified in millimeters, but DXF format itself does not have a field to store the units, unfortunately, so the scale factor needs to be set manually on import (e.g. 1/25.4 = 0.03937 to convert to inches.)
The rise according to the 2018 IRC IS 7.75” max and run in a residential application is 10” minimum. I just had a 3-d package done but haven’t looked at the results yet. Retired building inspector, current Iguide operator.