topic Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing? in Modeling

Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Tue, 23 May 2023 16:05:31 GMT

In the attached screenshot, inner posts are set at 4'-0". The railing shown is 12'-0" long -- shouldn't there be 2 inner posts (instead of just the one shown)?

What am I missing?

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 19:57:04 GMT

Laura,

In the Segment Pattern Settings panel of the Segment page of the Dialog, there are additional settings about Pattern distribution which can override this. Maybe the Segment is set to have 2 Divisions which can cause the Railing Pattern to be generated this way.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 20:11:41 GMT

That was it! Thank you so much Laszlo!

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laszlo Nagy — Thu, 06 Jul 2017 21:00:20 GMT

You are welcome!

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 18:18:04 GMT

Here's another one for you:

In the attached screenshot, Posts are indicated by green lines and the Inner Post by the red. Both Inner Posts and Balustrades are set to "Equally Distribute Pattern" -- neither are distributed equally. I've tried adjusting the "Pattern Continuity" parameter and there's no change.

(I question the screwy landing in another post): http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=56887

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Thu, 13 Jul 2017 18:24:30 GMT

On another note, looks like I may have to model handrails separately, too.

I don't need a handrail at the landing, only at the stair, so I've deleted the handrail from the landing segments. It looks like End Settings are exclusively for the end of Railing NOT end of Rail/Handrail.

Of course, if I end up modeling the landing separately (and thus end up with 2 separate Railings) this issue may be solved.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 16:42:22 GMT

...still not working.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 18:27:50 GMT

Laura,

If you can save the Stair and Railing in a stripped down ARCHICAD file, save it as PLA and put it up on Dropbox or similar, I could take a look at it, but from these screenshots I cannot pinpoint what could be causing this behaviour.

By the way, the Railing context menu contains the Convert Pattern to Segment Length command. If you use it, each Pattern repetition will be considered a separate segment and you can move each Inner Post to the desired position.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 15 Jul 2017 18:32:43 GMT

Laura wrote:
On another note, looks like I may have to model handrails separately, too.

I don't need a handrail at the landing, only at the stair, so I've deleted the handrail from the landing segments. It looks like End Settings are exclusively for the end of Railing NOT end of Rail/Handrail.

Of course, if I end up modeling the landing separately (and thus end up with 2 separate Railings) this issue may be solved.

This is again handled by the "Convert Pattern to Segment Length" context menu command. Using the command will make Handrail segments of Flights and Landing independent of each other so they can be modified individually.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 17:18:48 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Using the command will make Handrail segments of Flights and Landing independent of each other so they can be modified individually.

This is more information than is provided in the Help (see attached).

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 17:21:56 GMT

However, I'm still not clear on what this does. Attached is what happened to my Railing (top) when I select that command (bottom). Now, the landing is modeled separately from the Stair, and the Railing is associated to the Stair, so that might have something to do with this result.

I will continue to experiment...

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 19:42:26 GMT

Getting closer -- still not sure what's controlling the balustrade spacing.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 19:43:16 GMT

Screenshot 2

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 19:57:15 GMT

Just found the link you posted earlier today:

https://helpcenter.graphisoft.com/tips/archicad/modelling/railing-tool-basics-convert-pattern-to-segment-length/

something else that should be added to Help

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Laura Yanoviak — Mon, 17 Jul 2017 22:05:51 GMT

laszlonagy wrote:
Laura wrote:
On another note, looks like I may have to model handrails separately, too.

I don't need a handrail at the landing, only at the stair, so I've deleted the handrail from the landing segments. It looks like End Settings are exclusively for the end of Railing NOT end of Rail/Handrail.

Of course, if I end up modeling the landing separately (and thus end up with 2 separate Railings) this issue may be solved.
This is again handled by the "Convert Pattern to Segment Length" context menu command. Using the command will make Handrail segments of Flights and Landing independent of each other so they can be modified individually.

I guess I'm still doing something wrong, because I just cannot control anything (length, end settings, etc.) about the handrail extension.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Chris Grantham — Thu, 10 May 2018 16:50:07 GMT

Just following up on this to see if anyone has been able to get the railing tool to work with any consistency.

I have a project with ton of railings so I figured I would give the railing tool a deep dive, and all I discovered was buggy inconsistent behavior. There just seems to be no rhyme or reason as to how those inner posts land in a segment, and the more I play with the pattern distribution it just becomes unresponsive. Converting pattern to segment length only seems to exacerbate the problem. Anyone else having these problems? I can post screen shots and walk you through my problems, but first I want to see if it is even worth my time.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Barry Kelly — Fri, 11 May 2018 01:02:26 GMT

Have you tried selecting the railing and going into 'Edit' mode?
Then select the individual components.
You can adjust the settings in the info box / settings dialogue for just that component.
Or you may be able to move and stretch the hotspots of that element.

"Convert Pattern to Segment Length" can be useful when for example you want to move an inner post without affecting the position of adjacent posts.

These stairs and railings do require an awful lot of experimentation.

I often drag a copy just to have a play around, so I will always have the original if I need it.

Barry.

Re: Railing Tool and Inner Posts -- what am I missing?

Chris Grantham — Fri, 11 May 2018 17:40:24 GMT

Thanks for the response Barry.

Yes, I have drilled down into the different elements and attempted to move things around, but continue to have trouble. As I mentioned the "Convert Pattern To Segment Length" seemed only compound my problems. Really all I was trying to do was move an inner post within a segment so that it would be centered. I think most of my problems stemmed from me attempting to use associative methods rather than static.

When I have time I will post some screen shots illustrating my troubles as I know my descriptions are not very useful without them.