Code compliant stair railing extensions

[louissierra]

One of my constant frustrations with Revit is the inability to easily add a decent handrail extension onto a stair guardrail. Does anyone have a good method for adding a handrail extension to a stair? The best I've come up with is creating a baluster family with a handrail extension and assigning the baluster as the start or end post under baluster placement. This is a hit or miss proposition, as at best the railing looks scabbed on, and at worst I get the "I'm sorry, I can't do that, Dave" warning box. The only other method is to draw a piece of railing, but this is clumsy too. Any other ideas?

[greg.mcdowell]

Personally I create two railings when I need a guardrail and handrail combination. I get a lot more control that way. When I need the extensions I extend and break the handrail line as necessary.

[ron.sanpedro]

Personally I create two railings when I need a guardrail and handrail combination. I get a lot more control that way. When I need the extensions I extend and break the handrail line as necessary.

Greg,
can you post an example? I am still trying to get my head around the nested stair and railing approach. We had a guy here do a stair that was actually two stair objects and three railing objects, just to get the "stair" he had designed. Looked great, but my GAWD what a crazy work flow!

Thanks,
Gordon

[sbrown]

at the web library is a balluster family that is a code compliant extension. It is also found on the railing samples file. I am posting just part of the file as its 4 megs. If you want the whole thing, email me.

[louissierra]

Thanks for the suggestions. For the record, I had the railing examples and the "code compliant" extension from the library, and the problem is that the pipe rail is not code compliant according to the IBC (which requires a 42" guardrail and a separate 34" handrail with an extension). I will try the separate guardrail/handrail trick.

Louis

[s.messing]

I think the issue here is not code compliance, but a viable, intuitive, step-by-step process for creating (modeling) railings that are realistic, accurate, and appear correctly in architectural views as well as 3D. I have been running into this situation quite frequently in recent weeks. Anyone can model basic stairs simply and some of us can model complicated stairs with some difficulty, but almost no one can model complicated stairs that are correct in all views and certainly no one can do it efficiently. Can someone who is ahead of us give us a simple step by step.

For example (this is just for format purposes):
1. model the stair...
2. edit the sketch of the handrail:
a. Break it into several pieces
b. highlight the piece you would like to change
c. Edit the properties of that piece and make it a new handrail types

I have attached closeup images of an example of one of the OOTB handrails from Revit. It is not correct/ accurate in section or 3D.
Disclaimer: (the text below may appear like a Rant that implies that I do not like Revit. I do like Revit. I am having a tough week.)
I am having a hard time holding back the tide sometimes here, and I feel like this sort of simple issue (that most Revit users simply ignore or work around) makes it easy for the doubters, the pouters, and the shouters to pick on. They cite examples like this as a reason to not use Revit (and certainly make my job harder at inopportune times).

[chris.macko125036]

where did you get those wall brackets for the railings? that is exactly what I am looking for right now and I can't find them anywhere on revitcity or our family library. I was going to make my own eventually, but I figured they had to be out there somewhere already

[greg.mcdowell]

This stair would be considerd another one of those crazy work flows but I don't know how else I would have done it... manually I guess.

[travismv702230]

I am having similar issues. I have downloaded the baluster families from the Autodesk Revit Content Distribution website. I believe that the one I want to use is handrail-round w/extension - start offset. But, everytime I try to place it in the edit baluster placement start post dialog I get an error message. Am I in the wrong dialogue? The regular start and end extensions work this way. Just the start offset is having issues.

Any help that would point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated!

-Travis

[tomnewsom]

Stair and railing creation is the most frustrating part of Revit for me. I gave up trying to model accurate stairs a long time ago. I just get the risers and goings in the right place, with the rail at the right height and hand it off to an autocad guy to draw up properly.

[Chris.N]

Stair and railing creation is the most frustrating part of Revit for me. I gave up trying to model accurate stairs a long time ago. I just get the risers and goings in the right place, with the rail at the right height and hand it off to an autocad guy to draw up properly.
i've been told the specifics can be ironed out in the shop drawings.... :mrgreen:

that being said, i do strive for as CLOSE to what i want with Revit, and detail the rest and the goal is at least 85% accurate to reality...

[travismv702230]

I got my issue to work. For some reason the default placement of the handrail didn't work with the extension. But if I drew it from scratch it worked... It's a lot more detailed than that but it did work...