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Modeling
About Archicad's design tools, element connections, modeling concepts, etc.

Balustrade

Anonymous
Not applicable
Hello everybody, I'm new to the forum! I always used archicad to design simple buildings but now i embarked in a much more difficult task. I have to make a balaustrade that goes through the whole side of a building. it also has to have stairs so that you can access the single house units. the problem is that i cannot make a continuos staircas w/balaustrade because the building is angled and it's height changes a lot. i will attach a picture anyway. thank you very much for the help. also want to say i don't have the archistair plug in because i couldnt get the necessary credentials from my university in time. so i will have to use a standard archicad 14 version
4 REPLIES 4
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Simone:

I don't know which library you are using, but in the US Library, open the Object Tool, change the upper left pop up from Folder View to Find Library Parts, enter "rail" in the Keyword box and click Find. A number of railings will appear, and most of them will have a parameter for Inclination Angle so they can be used with stairs. You will need to place a number of these parts to create a continuous railing or balustrade.

You should add a Signature to your Profile (click the Profile button near the top of this page) with your ArchiCAD version and operating system (see mine for an example) for more accurate help in this forum.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
Anonymous
Not applicable
thanks for the advice i'll do it immediately, it's not just the railing but how to connect the different stairs with each other so that it looks like it is just one stair. i want to connect the last step of the bottom stair to the first step of the first floor stair and then connect all the floors this way. any ideas?
Dwight
Newcomer
Looking for really irregular stairs, I'd use repeated elevated slabs to establish the risers, then move and reshape them as needed. I expect this to defy any of Archicad's automated tools, so:

Building a guard for something like this gets tricky, involving Solid Element Operation. [SEO]

Once the slabs are configured, place an array of tall columns just inside, along the outer edges to form the balustrade.

Use the slabs as operators in a 'subtract with downward extrusion" SEO operation to trim the tall column bottoms.

Create a complex profile to represent the handrail. Apply this as a series of tilted beams to climb with the slabs at the right guard height.

Use these Beams in and SEO "subtract with Upward extrusion" to trim the column tops. To make this step work, increase the beam priority to maximum.
Dwight Atkinson
David Maudlin
Virtuoso
Simone wrote:
it's not just the railing but how to connect the different stairs with each other so that it looks like it is just one stair. i want to connect the last step of the bottom stair to the first step of the first floor stair and then connect all the floors this way.
A sketch would help explain what you are trying to do. If you want to connect the 2 stairs shown in your image, and the top of the lower stair matches the bottom of the top stair, use the Slab Tool. If the heights do not match, use the Roof Tool.

David
David Maudlin / Architect
www.davidmaudlin.com
Digital Architecture
AC27 USA • iMac 27" 4.0GHz Quad-core i7 OSX11 | 24 gb ram • MacBook Pro M3 Pro | 36 gb ram OSX14
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