cutting a hole for a stairway?

I recently purchased a prefab house with a second floor. I assumed it would have a way to get to the second floor, but I assumed incorrrectly. Is the only way I can put a stairway to the second floor by unlinking and making a piece of the floor transparent or taking a piece of the floor out? I hate to unlink things, as I can never seem to get them linked back up correctly. I know I've seen transporterers from floor to floor in some stores around. Would that be a solution? Thanks for any help.

You can check the "edit linked parts" box in the edit window and click on the individual prim you want to modify without having to unlink it (one of the good things about 1.6).

Depending on the orientation of the floor prim (as long as the blue Z-axis is pointing up and down when the "Ruler Mode" box is set to "Local", you can cut or hollow the floor prim in order to get a hole. I've been messing around with stairs within the last coupple days myself and I find this process usefull when I want a hole for stairs that's not dead in the middle of a room or has awkward-looking edges (assuming you're dealing with large rectangular prims):

- Cut a rectangle to .125 and .875 at the begining and end respectively...that gives you a 90-degree corner.
-Rez a cube and make it the size of the hole you just cut out. Then hollow it so that it's big enough for an avatar to walk through when comming up the stairs.

It's not a bad idea to make yourself a very tall avatar shape (backing up your normal shape first) and put it on when you're making your stairs. If that AV can get through without getting stuck, you're in good shape.

Teleporters are also workable. Whehter you use stairs, teleporters or some other means of moving between floors is a factor of personal preference and prim limits.

Nice explanation, Elle. That select linked parts feature is great!

Ladders are good too. If you put a very steep invisible ramp in front of them you can "climb" them just by walking.

Thanks for your help. Looks like I have my work cut out for me, as I can't use a teleporter to go to a place where I can't get the coordinates, i.e. the second floor, or does camera view do that for you? Such a newbie