Colorbond panel fence created with editing a preset railing in Australia

[mthd]

Hi there, has anyone in Australia successfully created colorbond fencing with an edit of a preset railing ? I don’t need a high level of detail except to show the metal sheet profile in the panel settings. How do I get a colorbond panel to show up in my railing panel setting ? A standard Bunnings fence kit with inserts is what I am trying to model up. 

I do have “CI tools Coverings” installed so I might just draw a standard railing with a few edits and just clad the rail or even draw a wall and just add the colorbond profile to it ? If you have a better method please reply.

Please see the PDF below for a picture of what I am trying to model.

Thank you.

https://www.steeline.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Panel-Fencing-Installation-Guide-Stee495_Prod...

[Jim Allen]

Another possible solution is to use 2 railings - one for the vertical posts and profiled infill, another for the capping that you use as a cutting body with upward extrusion. 

In effect you could define everything in one configuration initially (posts, infill, top rail) create the path, duplicate the railing in place, and then delete everything except the top rail which you can slope, and use it for an SEO.

[mthd]

Results: 1st one is placing the CP panel in the railing manually. The 2nd one is with the CP panel saved in the library and applied to the railing as a panel. There is definitely gap and over shooting issues with the 2nd method when changing the spacing of the panels. Currently the panel is 2360mm wide and the spacing in the railing is set to 2400 because that gives the best results so far. It would certainly be good if the railing spacing could be set exactly to the width of the panel sheet and the railing showing no gaps or overshooting as below.

Edit: VW 2024 will cut a custom panel to size and auto step the fence. We need the same in AC as well please. See the video below for VW 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIi1s3M1cVw

[mthd]

Very good suggestion @Jim Allen, this time I just used beams and columns to represent the posts and rails. I like to keep the poly count low too.

Here is what I have so far.

[Barry Kelly]

Could a curtain wall be used for this?

I am asking because I don't use curtain walls much at all, so I would have to start experimenting to find out.

I believe it will cut the panels to suit the frames and I am pretty sure you can create custom panels.

Barry.

[Lingwisyer]

The trimming of the posts as frames will not work very well...

[mthd]

Hi @Barry Kelly, It’s worth a try. The pre loaded panels already in the Archicad library will cut to size probably because of the scripting rules ? If someone who is well schooled in GDL could read that part of the script and be able to apply that to a custom panel, then theoretically they would be cut to size ? It would be very nice if AC could automatically apply the part of the script to the custom panel so it cuts to the exact size, when it is saved into the library. Probably not that difficult for GS to implement in a future version of AC ?

[Barry Kelly]

It is possible to script a panel to automatically adjust with the railing tool.

I did it myself to make a 'X' style railing where the 'X' panel adjusts to the post spacing and also the rake of the railing.

From memory there are co-ordinates for the 4 corners of the panel.

A flat panel would be relatively simple (if you know GDL).

In fact the default panel is a flat panel.

All I did (if I remember correctly) was a bit of trigonometry to work out the positions of the nodes at the ends of the "x' - effectively cutting a hole in the flat panel.

Actually you can find the shared panel here ... https://community.graphisoft.com/t5/GDL/Railing-Diagonal-Rails/m-p/294716/highlight/true#M5498

And if you read through that thread, an explanation of the scripting.

I am not sure how you would translate this to a profiled panel (if that is even possible) and at the moment I don't have the time to experiment on it.

Of course you could always just use a flat panel with a sheet metal material that has a vertical hatch pattern.

Should look OK in elevation and 3D.

Not so good with the raking parts though - can't align the material?

Barry.

[mthd]

Thanks @Barry Kelly, that is all helpful and doing a bit of trigonometry is no problem if I were to give it a try sometime. For now I am happy with the method I am using above. You showed me how to rake the top of CPC and that’s a great method to use. I will have a look and see if I can also take the bottom of a CPC just in case I get a site that slopes allot.

All good for now.

[Lingwisyer]

Given you know the coordinates of the corners, you could set up a pair of cutplanes using some trig to set the angle. Then you just set the panel extrusion height to your height delta. After 6 releases, you would have thought that panels would do this by default...

[Jim Allen]

You can do the whole thing as a railing and use the top rail as a cutting plane - it keeps everything parametric, and allows you to snap the top rail in the 'top cutting railing'.

You would have to add short stub posts in the cutting railing though...