A stair consists of a number of components whose display properties can be determined by the materials assigned to each component. You assign one material to each physical component of the stair; for example, you assign a wood or metal material to treads, concrete to a concrete component, and so on. You assign materials to components in each display representation where you want the materials to be used.
If you want to use the display properties of the stair style instead of material display properties, you can turn off the material assignments in the display properties of the stair style.
Material definitions consist of display components that correspond to component types of objects. For example, the 3D body component of a material is used for all linework in model views.