Custom Railings

[Anonymous]

Hi

I try to make this custom railing, but I am completely stuck. How can I make a railing like this based on the 2D drawings in AutoCAD?

Any help is greatly appreciated!



Edit:
My system
- Windows XP
- ArchiCAD 13
- AutoCAD 2007

Edit2: It's called railing, not fence..

[Anonymous]

It's a bit hard to tell from the drawing whether those are flat or turned balusters.

If they are flat the simplest thing is to model them with slabs and save as library parts. They could also be done with profiled walls or beams (the length would be the thickness of the baluster.

If they are turned one option is to make them with profiled walls (they will curve - beams do not). They will probably need to be made hollow as they likely won't turn around a zero radius. You could also use an add-on such as Objective or Archiforma. Or you could write them in GDL.

The top and bottom rails are trivial to make with profiles.

By the way, assemblies such as this are typically called railings or (more properly) balustrades. Fences are freestanding in the landscape.

[Anonymous]

Thank you Matthew, and for the grammar correction as well!

The balusters are flat, 32 mm thick, both sides with curved details. I hope the attached picture is easier to understand.

I will try again tomorrow, according to your post.

Thank you again

[Anonymous]

So you want to model the groove inset from the edge too?

The best way is probably to start with a slab, 32mm thick, in the shape of your panel. Set up a Custom Profile wall the shape of the rebate (groove) and offset it from the edge of the slab, then SEO Subtract the profile from the slab. (You would need to do this for both sides if it needs modelling front and back). View the slab with grooves removed from what will be the top in 3D window and save as an object.

Hope this makes sense.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, what Stuart said...

The profiled edges on the flat balusters definitely add to the complexity of the task. Probably best to make one, save it as a library part and build up the balustrades with multiple copies of the balusters and profiled beams for the rails. These could then be grouped and copied around.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much!

It worked like a breeze, but suddenly I was stuck again. As I try to SEO subtract the last profile from the slab, it goes terribly slow. Slow AND with wrong result.

When I did the first SEO subtract the rebate disappeared and left the bord with the correct profile.

When I try to subtract the second side, I am left with what you see on the screen-shot.

Please, any idea why?

[Anonymous]

YES!

Finally I got it right! It turned out to be a minor detail making me alot of trouble! The AutoCAD profiles where not good enough, lines where corrupted by glitches < 1 mm making the Custom Profile wall with the shape of the rebate corrupted.

Solution: Fix the AutoCAD drawing and start all over again.
Result: Good!

Thank you so much s2art and Matthew!

..Now I have one last problem, I hope someone can help me with this one.. The slap lies horizontally. As I save the slab as an object and put it in another project, the slab is still horizontal.

How do I make the object in a "stand up position", vertically? I tried what s2art said, "View the slab with grooves removed from what will be the top in 3D window and save as an object", but no..

Maybe I did something wrong there.. Could someone please explain this to me?

[Erwin Edel]

Looks like the curved wall is intersecting on itself, maybe that is causing the problem.

How up close are you going to be looking at these?

If you look at the example below, I've made the fences which are supposed to be 30 mm round wrought-iron simply by extruding a profiled wall 30 mm. They're square, but the image I want to convey comes across no problem.

http://home.quicknet.nl/qn/prive/e.edel/leloup/B457-4a_PRE_klein.jpg

For your example I would probably make 2 profiles: #1 one would be the basic shape of the railing and #2 would be the shape without the grooves. Then I would draw 2 profiled walls: profile wall #1 22 mm long (assuming the grooves are 5 mm) and then draw profile wall #2 through the profile wall #1 with 32 mm length. (or you could stick two bits of 5 mm on either side if you don't like the added linework on the top view, but really, at this scale that's never going to show noticeably)

You should end up with something like this (excuse the crude shape which does not do your design justice 😞



Added benefits of keeping it simplified are: lower poly-count in your model and no extra line-work in your elevations.

Good luck with your work!

edit: see you fixed it, I should learn to type faster

edit 2: made the first image a link, it's kind of big for the browser window

[Anonymous]

Thank you Erwin for your post!

Yes, I've solved my problem, but learned from your solution as well! And your solution would solve my last problem as well, how to make it in a vertical position, not horizontally as it for now..

Maybe you know how to save it in a vertical position?

[Erwin Edel]

Objects are saved in the direction you view them in the 3d window, as far as I know, so if you would view it top down, it will be saved top down.

I've not bothered with custom objects much since ArchiCAD 10 introduced custom profiles. The example I posted is a mix of custom profiles and a few things constructed from the basic 3d shape objects in the ArchiCAD library.

My approach ussually is: if I would consider using 2d linework and fills to enhance elevation (custom brickwork for example), it's just 2 more steps to make that 2d stuff into a 3d custom profile and insert it in the model.

I rarely use sections or elevations on a smaller scale than 1:50. Details are 2d work at 1:5, so no 3d there. Fine details like those rounded grooves in your example are wasted on 1:50 scale (5 mm / 50?? who is going to notice?). An exception would be if I was going to render it upclose photorealistic, but I prefer to present things with internal engine + sketch overlayed in photoshop as you see, which allows for a simpler approach in my opinion.