Balluster Family

[StephenVB]

I'm trying to create a balluster with an adjustable bottom elevation for use when I have a railing just above the stair/landing (i.e. I don't want the balluster to go to the stringer). The tutorials don't really address this and I'm having trouble getting it to work correctly. Am I trying the right approach or am I still thinking within the box on this one?

Take a look at the attached file if my description doesn't make sense.

[Alek Sutulov]

Going through same thing right now for guardrail though.

[PeterJ]

OK - good news bad news.....

Firstly, it is easy enough to set a baluster with an offset such that it starts a set dimension above the host, be that stairs or balcony. All that should be fairly apparent through the railing dialog. If you want to sit these balusters on a bottom rail a second railing can be formed, again this is quite apparent within the railing dialog and should be feasible with some playing around. You will probably want the lower rail to be a thinner section/different material to the handrail, but you can still manage all of that by experimenting within the railing dialog and by making profile families.

Where the system becomes weaker is when you then want every 10th baluster to descend to the host. That doesn't appear to be feasible using the system I have highlighted above. There are two ways around this:

[list:39dff2d884]Do a simple railing with your regular balusters and bottom rail and perhaps your handrail and then with the same location and host run a second railing family that contains the structural baluster segments with a different spacing. The last bit is most easily achieved by copying the first one into the same location and then simply changing the properties of the duplicate.

Make a baluster family that comprises the structural baluster and x number of secondary balusters - I would recommend you give an overall width for this family probably defined by ref planes and then equally space you balusters within the width. Utilise this baluster family in a railing family with a handrail and a bottom rail.[/list:u:39dff2d884]

If you use complex baluster forms expect some problems with spacing if the length of the railing is not a multiple of the width of the baluster family or of the spacing ( I forget which) as Revit will insert an extra at one end in some cases.

If you are using a complex baluster and want it to follow a stair profile then the attached family is a glass fill panel that was designed to drop below the edge of a concrete stair and follow the pitch line.

Hope this helps

Pete

[Steve_Stafford]

I think this info belongs in Tips and Trick too, would you mind popping a copy in their? (If I do, it looks like I'm clever, not you...)

[Alek Sutulov]

Call me stupid but I can't find in railing dialogs possibility to control balusters vertical placement. All I can see is related to horizontal offsets (R5.1)!? Rectangular baluster family has a height control parametar but it isn't showing up in railing dialogs.

[PeterJ]

Alek

I'm the stupid one.....

To set the height of the baluster and make it parametric you need to set a parameter for the bottom of the baluster above the reference plane and then a parameter for its height. Then you select the relevant family type when creating your railings.

My apologies.

P