Curved Railing

[Anonymous]

Yes, I know this topic has been done before, but I can't find the answer I need, so I'm hoping there's an easy solution.

There's a wire railing in the Concrete|Stairmaker folder that I've been using as a railing for balconies, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out how to create such a thing on a curve of any sort. I imagine it can be done with Stairmaker, but I don't want to put it on stairs; I want to put it around a round atrium opening in the floor slab, and around the appropriate places in a curved stair rising through that opening, on one level.

I already have my stairs and their railings, done in ArchiStair. (If I could match or come close to matching that railing, I'd be ecstatic, but I'm also realistic, especially given my complete incompetence at building library parts <g>.)

Is there any easy way to do this, or some library part somewhere that I'm not seeing? It doesn't have to be the exact same railing; just a way to do almost *any* wired railing on varied curves would work at the moment.

Unfortunately, I'm in a real time crunch too, having just realized that I have to put *something* around that hole <duh!>.

What I'd *really* like to be able to do is a curved glass/metal railing, but I realize I may be asking for too much at the moment. I'll be happy with whatever I can get and I'll worry about learning more detailed methods later. If all else fails, I'll just put a plain glass curved wall around it and pretend there are openings if I can't figure out how to cut it at the appropriate places <g>. Or hand draw them in as best I can after I print.

I've got both Stairbuilder and ArchiStair if that helps (although the former confuses me totally), but is there a way to use those without putting in the actual stairs?

Wendy

[Link]

If you use the Object Tool to access the Rail Wired 01 or Rail Wired 02 library parts, it has a parameter under General Dimensions called 'Rail and Parameter Input Type' that allows for a curved handrail. If you really wanted to impress your clients and colleagues, you could use this in conjunction with a thin curved wall with a semi transparent (ie. Glass) material applied to all sides. No one would know they are two separate objects and we promise not to tell.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, Link, that sounds great. I only have one Rail Wired, though, not two. I'm still using 8.1.1.

I'm having to do some playing around to figure out how to set it because it's a bit odd, but so far, so good, after a couple of false starts.

I don't suppose there's any way to also draw this thing somewhat more freehand than presetting the dimensions so that I could use it for more freeform curves? I've tried using the Magic Wand, but either I don't understand how it works (which is likely), or it just *doesn't* work with things like this.

Wendy

[Link]

I don't suppose...

You don't suppose right. You have to set the parameters in the part.

Sorry.

Cheers,
Link.

[Anonymous]

Link,

I had to think about that one for a moment - sometimes it pays to be wrong, I suppose <g>.

Is it just me, or is it really completely nonintuitive and unobvious that this part will do this?

Wendy