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

Railing in ArchiCAD 22 Elevation Display Issues

svpribyl
Contributor
I have an issue trying to change the pen colors of railing elements in elevation and section views.

Changing the 3d parameters of railing elements has no effect. The railing is from a favorite imported from Graphisoft's default file. I have no graphic overrides. I worked out the symbol view in plan, but not elevation.

A similar railing in the Graphisoft default file seems to work as expected: changing a pen color for element display in 3d changes the pen color in elevation. So it seems like there's a display parameter somewhere that's overriding my ability to change the pen colors. Any help would be appreciated.
Steve Pribyl
MAC OSX 11.7.1
ArchiCAD 26
20 REPLIES 20
Barry Kelly
Moderator
Changing the contour pen for each or the railing elements should work.

Check your section/elevation settings.
You may have the option ticked for "Uniform pen colour " for uncut elements.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Lingwisyer
Guru
If you have used the Edit function on any segment of the railing, those segments will no longer follow any of the changes you make in the railings overall settings. It would be nice if you could modify just a single aspect of a segment, but have everything else still follow the overall settings.



Ling.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 
svpribyl
Contributor
Barry wrote:

Check your section/elevation settings.
You may have the option ticked for "Uniform pen colour " for uncut elements.
Hi Barry,
Uniform pen color for uncut elements is not selected.
Steve Pribyl
MAC OSX 11.7.1
ArchiCAD 26
Barry Kelly
Moderator
svpribyl wrote:
Uniform pen color for uncut elements is not selected.
OK then.
As Ling mentioned you may have used 'EDIT' mode on your railing, so the whole railing will no longer follow the overall railing settings.
Use 'EDIT' mode and select just one of the elements and change its contour pen colour.
If that doesn't change in elevation then I would think you have a graphic override or renovation filter overriding the pen colours.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
svpribyl
Contributor
Lingwisyer wrote:
If you have used the Edit function on any segment of the railing, those segments will no longer follow any of the changes you make in the railings overall settings. It would be nice if you could modify just a single aspect of a segment, but have everything else still follow the overall settings.

Ling.
Hi Ling
I'm not sure I follow what you are saying. However, inspired by your comment, I deleted the rail and started over from the same favorite and the changes to the pens are working now. Needless to say, railings are highly unpredictable! Maybe mine got corrupted somehow.

Graphisoft really needs to supply more instructions on railings. Just getting a 3' high stair rail to join a 3'-6" high guardrail at a post was difficult, to say the least. It took many attempts: changing segment height first? or is it sloped rail extensions? or is it moving the post first? or is it connections? or rail ends? It turns out, I had to move the post first and then delete the rail end to get it to connect. I've watched all the tutorials. How are people learning this?
Steve Pribyl
MAC OSX 11.7.1
ArchiCAD 26
Lingwisyer
Guru
When you select a stair or railing, and "Edit" dialogue box will appear on or next to the object. If you click on this, it will allow you to modify individual segments of your railing. Each segment is defined by your node placement. Modifying a segment in this way makes it independent of the overall stair / railing scheme though so any further changes must be done through the Edit function... which is annoying as sometimes the only thing you are wanting to change is the reference line offset while the rest stays the same... It would be nice if only what was changed became independent....



Ling.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 
R Muller
Enthusiast
Ling and Barry-

I am having similar problems. I try to use the railing floor plan symbol overrides on my rails (I have 6 separate rails on my model of an outdoor deck with 4 separate stairs) and the override sometimes works and sometimes doesn't.

If I understand you correctly, you are saying once the Edit function has been used, the overall railing settings no longer apply. Questions:

1. Is this true for the entire railing, or only the railing segment or other element that has been Edited?

2. If I am working on a railing that someone else created (or that I created long enough ago that I don't remember exactly how I did it) is there a way to tell if the Edit function has been used?
R Muller
AC 26 USA (20+ years on ArchiCAD)
MBP 64GB Apple M1 Max OS 12.1 Monterey
Barry Kelly
Moderator
R wrote:
1. Is this true for the entire railing, or only the railing segment or other element that has been Edited?

I find that the railing has a start and an end.
When you 'Edit' a particular segment or element of the railing, then the default settings will only affect what has not been modified from the start to the bit you edited.
I may be wrong about this but I have seen this behaviour.

Actually I just tried it (in 22), I edited the balusters in one segment of a 4 segment railing.
Then I selected the entire rail and deleted the balusters - all the other segments changed except the one I edited.
R wrote:
2. If I am working on a railing that someone else created (or that I created long enough ago that I don't remember exactly how I did it) is there a way to tell if the Edit function has been used?
You will see a small yellow warning triangle next to SEGMENT when any of the segments or components have been individually eddied.
Similarly there will be one next to NODE if you edit anything to do with a n individual node.

You can RESET this warning and those edited segments or nodes will reset t the default settings of the rest of the railing.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
Dell XPS- i7-6700 @ 3.4Ghz, 16GB ram, GeForce GTX 960 (2GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Lingwisyer
Guru
1. Just the segment edited, all other segments still follow the scheme

2. Within the overall railing settings, a button will appear at the bottom left of the dialogue mentioning that some segments are independent and if you would like to reset them. It does not tell you which are independent though, which also means that you cannot selectively reset them...



Ling.

Edit: Barry seems to have a habit of posting just before I do...

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660