topic Re: Railings, modules and symmetry in Modeling

Railings, modules and symmetry

LERAT Bruno — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 14:48:46 GMT

Hello everyone,

tell me, have you already modeled a railing inclined at 45 ° on a building and called this building in module and in addition performed a symmetry of this module?

Well, archicad does not know how to keep the tilt of the bodyguard in the symmetrical module.

Example with this image :

on the right, the original building, on the left, this building called in module and symmetrical. You can see the railing that no longer works.

Do I need to work in module take the guardrails out of the module system? Aberrant no?

The problem also exists with the return of boards on the carpentry friends it is yet another story.

cordially

Bruno

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

Patrick M — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:00:09 GMT

so I've always had an issue with the more complex tools in archicad; stairs, railings, and curtain walls, but even doors and windows in some cases.
these are all tools that can do A LOT. But much like a swiss army knife, the more a tool can do, the less it can do to any acceptable measure.
A swiss army knife scissors are 'ok'; but if you need a pair of scissors, get a pair of scissors!
The railing tool is fine, when 'good enough' is your goal. When you need to design something specific and custom, and you will not tolerate the "close enough" cap, I just use model primitives.
The stair tool CAN technically handle almost any stair layout. But by the time I fuss around with it for hours or even days, I could have modeled several iterations with slabs, beams, roofs, morphs, etc.
I don't say this to knock these tools. The railing tool was able to get you what you needed... until it didn't. There may be a magic answer to keep this from happening, but by the time it gets sorted out, just like with the stairs, you could throw down a few beams, columns, even complex profiles and objects, and get a more reliable and detailed solution.

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

Patrick M — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:21:45 GMT

BTW; can confirm, railings in a mirrored .mod do NOT mirror with the module. A railing with a 45º right facing angle mirrored parallel to that railing reference DO NOT mirror to a 45º left facing angle...
I tried adjusting the module settings for relative rotation, but since there is no relative mirror... doesn't seem to work.
...
if modeling with primitives as last suggested is not appealing, another option would be to save the module without the raling, then place that separately in the module instance(s)

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

Patrick M — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:22:16 GMT

third option:
convert the railing to morphs before saving the module

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

Lpalma — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 17:55:18 GMT

Hi,
This has been a major and annoying problem, also affecting all types of labels and dimensions that aren't in their original position, at least in my experience.
The way I've found to work around these issues is a combination of design options and duplicating and "mirroring " the conflicting elements.

In short, for each conflicting element, I have two in the source file, each assigned to a different design option. I have to apply the mirror command to one of them and assign the "with mirror" design option. Then, when inserting this as a linked module, I have to specify that the desired design option is "with mirror" and position it in a mirrored position.

It's not complicated, but it does require extra work and coordination.

I hope this helps.

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

DimitriusMega — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 21:36:32 GMT

Hi Bruno,

I completely understand how you feel. Modules were thought to be hotlinked 100% as they were designed on the previous file; that is, without being mirrored. Rotation is not a problem because it still maintains the overall aspects of the building, but a mirrored version does change some items on the project, for example: door and window openings, etc. Not only that, there are items, such as the one you found, that when mirrored on modules, do not respond the way you would expect. I would suggest you have 2 separate hotlinks - or just remove the railing from them and design it on the final file.

I hope I was clear on the explanation!

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

LERAT Bruno — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 07:42:42 GMT

Hello everyone,

it’s still a shame for software supposed to be at the forefront of progress not to know how to manage symmetry!!!!

There is always the need for this option whether it’s for small projects or large ones!

I find that unreasonable and it might be time for Graphisoft to work on this problem!

soon

Bruno

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

Lingwisyer — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 02:03:26 GMT

The railing tool has had issues with mirroring since it was originally released...

Re: Railings, modules and symmetry

Laszlo Nagy — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 14:36:08 GMT

Guys, you should report this to your local resellers if you think this is a bug.

Or, if you think this is a feature that should be implemented, make a wish for it:

https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/Wishlist/idb-p/wishlist

If you do make a wish, please post its link in this thread.