Stair Railing Assistance

[wbs69117950]

Check out the attached PDF. Two areas are clouded. I like the mitered railing (lower cloud), but dislike the cut/start new rail w/ new direction railing (upper cloud). Not sure how to tell Revit to do either one.

Help!!!

Thanks,

[Graham Briggs]

Wesley,
Since railing are actually sweeps (with a path and a profile) the segments must be long enough to allow the profile to make the turn without "closing" on itself. Your vertical segment (in the second image) may not be long enough to sweep into and out of. Try experimenting with a different railing profile, say 2" x 1" rectangular. If it works, then that was probably the cause. You can also try the different joint options (available in the toolbar, when you select two adjoining segments). I think there are four options. You can also try adding fillets at the turns (in plan view). The fillet radius must be greater than the largest dimension of your railing profile.
Graham

[wbs69117950]

Ew, this seems like it's going to be harder than I expected!

[Graham Briggs]

It's OK Wesley!

Take it one thing at a time, and never forget anything that you learn. You have it in no time at all.

Good luck,
Graham

[krista.manna]

I have recently run into similar issues with the fact that railings can't close. I think a 1/2" is the closest that they can get before revit closes it for you. I've gotten around this by two different means. One, if you have a railing turning a corner & not continuing down the stair you can make the upper piece separate & overlap the railings. Or if your railing does continue down you can make the railing line overlap which once again will overlap your railing. I don't like either of these solutions & the lines for the railing do show up (aka you'll have two lines wherever you overlap), but I try & make these so small that when it's printed you won't see it.


Hope this helps.

-k-

[krista.manna]

P.S. I agree that railings are a little counter intuitive sometimes. I think its due to the fact that the way that railings work are a product of the fact that the program was originally designed to be used for residential projects. Stairs & railings are a little more difficult to deal with when you're trying to do a non residential project.

Oh did you try changing the settings of how different pieces interact with eachother. In the past I've tried changing the settings to weld to see if it helps.

I also try to trasition from one rail to another wherever the rail is flat. You still will get a line where the two meet but at least you don't end up with weird non-welding conditions.

-k-

[wbs69117950]

Playing with Setting Toggles is so much fun!

I changed "Rail Connections" to Weld, from Trim. That worked. Solved something else today. At this rate, the House will be at Construction Complete by the time I have solved the stair. (The real CDs are being made in AutoCAD, I am only modeling the stairs for the house, in order to show the client, as it is an intricate design).

I think it would be great if you could just draw/adjust a line in any view (Section thru the Stair), and then do a sweep of a handrail profile. But, I am trying to figure this Revit thing out. Patience of Job! Hope the others in the office have that patience when I teach them what I have learned.

I guess the one turn was already a weld, as it was all part of the same line segment in the railing sketch. The trim connection was created at the spot of two railing sketch lines meeting. So, changing the rail connection to weld from trim, gave me the BIM I was looking for.

Thanks for the help!