Railing Offsets

[DaveP]

Besides the fact that the Stairs and Railings need a LOT of work, I'm really puzzled by one quirk of Railings.
I started up a pure OOTB project, and picked None for the Template, then I drew a simple Ramp and a simple Stair. Put the default Railing 1 on both. Next I went to the Project Browser and changed Railing 1 to have a negative 6 inch offset.
check out the attached image. Exact same railing on both the ramp and the stair, but the Ramp if offset to the inside and the Stair is offset to the outside. (I highlighted the railings so you can see them better)
I assume there is some reason or logic behind this, but it escapes me.

[cliff collins]

Perhaps it is because railings' origin for stairs is from the stringer,
and ramps' are at the edge of the ramp?

Just a guess......

cheers.

[Andre Carvalho]

Considering that the flip arrows are located where the "exterior" side of the railings are supposed to be, you will notice that the railings from the stair show the flip arrows toward the inside of the stair and railings from the ramp shows it toward outside the ramp. That said, they are acting the same way and the only difference is their orientation. One click on the flip arrows and it is all back in place.

Andre Carvalho

[DaveP]

Looks like you nailed it, Andre. :beer:
But the question still remains why Revit draws them opposite from each other.
I intentionally used an OOTB, no Template project, and drew both the Ramp and the Stair from left to right . They both go up to the right. But Revit puts the rails on the "outside" of the Ramp and the "inside" of the Stair.
I guess the assumption was made oh, so many years ago (10) that Stairs are typically connected to walls and Ramps are free-standing, and thus would have the Rails mounted on the Outside.

P.S. Just in case anybody else is listening, that Stringer thing drives me nuts, too. There's a slick trick you can do when you draw stairs. If the very first point you pick is on the wall and then you draw the stair parallel to the wall, Revit will offset the stair by half the width. (Tough to explain, but try drawing it). The problem is that, since the Stringer is outside the stair, it get embedded into the wall. It would be nice if that offset would be half the stair width plus the stringer. Then the outside of the stringer would be against the wall.