Stairworks lays out steel stairs in SketchUp: pick where a stair goes and it builds the stringers, treads, landings and connection holes, checked against the rules you choose. It needs SketchUp Pro 2024 or newer on 64-bit Windows 10 or 11. It does not run on a Mac.
Install and activate
- Close SketchUp, open it again, and use Extensions → Extension Manager → Install Extension to pick the Stairworks .rbz. Until Stairworks is listed on the Extension Warehouse, reply to your order email and we send the installer.
- Open Extensions → Stairworks → License… and press Add License….
- Enter the email address you bought or started the trial with, and the key from your order email, then press Activate License.
Your first stair
- Press Stair Builder on the Stairworks toolbar. Choose the Type and the Rules.
- Press Pick where it goes. Click a point on the lower floor, on the side the stair comes down to, then both ends of the top edge it arrives at. For a spiral, click the column center, then where it arrives. Backspace takes back a click; Esc starts over.
- Pick a row in the Risers table — the starred one is the best fit — set the stringers, treads and connections on the Steel tab, and press Build.
Change it, export it
Select a stair and press Edit Stair to change anything — the rise after the slab is poured, the rules, the treads — then Rebuild. Move, rotate and copy stairs like any group; Rebuild draws them where they stand. Export Stair writes STEP for every piece, DXF for every plate and tread blank, and the stair sheet.
What the rules check has its own article: Code modes and checks in Stairworks.
When to contact support
Include your SketchUp version, your Windows version and the Stairworks version shown in Extension Manager. For a stair that builds wrong, the .skp itself helps more than anything else you can send.