topic Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ? in Modeling

Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Marc H — Wed, 08 May 2024 23:20:33 GMT

I have need of a 'see-through' terrace railing with horizontal cable runs in the 'panel' section. It would likely be a metal or wood/like top rail with metal posts holding the cables. (The attached screenshot is roughly the type of design I am looking to produce.) I've been exploring the default Balustrade and Panel sections in the Railing tool, but do not see any OOTB solutions. One posted video utilized a texture in a panel for a similar appearance for mesh, but that is in a frame with fixings. I was hoping to have a bit more accurate design visualization rather than just calling out 'see details'.

At this point, I am considering custom profiles of cables and then working them into the rail design as horizontal balustrades or something like that, but before I expend quite some time to do so (with no guarantee of success), I thought I would ask if anyone here if they have suggestions or recent experiences with this architectural design.

Operating system used: Mac Intel-based Sonoma, Current Build

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Lingwisyer — Wed, 08 May 2024 01:11:59 GMT

Just use Rails? Using a CP for it would make it easier to set spacings and any future modifications. You would probably need to do a Custom Post to get a similar one to your image with the top fixing plate.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

AllanP — Wed, 08 May 2024 23:24:39 GMT

If you just use built-in tools of the railing you can achieve

go to rails and add as many wires at the desired heights as you want...

Use the "+" symbol when you are in the rails tool to add more rails,

select a rail and click on the "-" tool to remove a rail...

set inner posts for the intermediate spacing

if you choose the max pattern length option in the segment settings, then you can choose the spacing of the intermediate posts there

set the end posts for corners

if you have funny ends, go to the end settings

this can also control how far past the last post the top rail will project

of course if you go down the GDL option you can produce more complicated posts and rails like:

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Barry Kelly — Wed, 08 May 2024 01:39:27 GMT

Don't try to use a panel.

That is just extra rails set at the positions you want.

The annoying thing is you can't evenly distribute the rails, you must set each one.

Or as Ling suggested, you could try a custom profile that has all of the rails set up in it.

Barry.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Barry Kelly — Wed, 08 May 2024 23:25:09 GMT

The top plate ...

The bottom plate ...

Barry.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Lingwisyer — Wed, 08 May 2024 01:47:56 GMT

Oh, I had the thought that the top plate was recessed into the Toprail...

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Barry Kelly — Wed, 08 May 2024 23:25:29 GMT

You can't recess that fixing in, but you can add a plate along the entire length of the top rail that is recessed.

Barry.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Marc H — Wed, 08 May 2024 17:07:51 GMT

Thank you, Barry, for the great attention to detail. I would not have thought to include the structural top rail in the visual model!

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Marc H — Wed, 08 May 2024 17:08:38 GMT

Thank you very much, AllanP, for all the detailed steps. They worked out perfectly!

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Marc H — Wed, 08 May 2024 23:28:50 GMT

Here is the resulting rail so far.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Lingwisyer — Thu, 09 May 2024 01:21:19 GMT

Remember to save it to your favourites. Save yourself the effort of spacing the wires again next time.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Marc H — Thu, 09 May 2024 07:40:08 GMT

Thank you, Ling. Will do. Coincidentally, one of the problems I was having in creating this rail was removing the prior railing settings (used the tool to create a sloped trench drain via a custom profile). After much ado, I just selected one of my commercial stair railing favorites and then modified it with AllanP and Barry’s detailed settings to create the cable design.

Re: Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Lingwisyer — Fri, 10 May 2024 01:24:32 GMT

One of the favourites in my template is an empty railing. Trying to delete multiple elements, especially when you have elements below zero is such a pain...