Modeling
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Handrail ending

agroni
Booster
I have been searching the forum for a specific matter concerning the handrail tool.
Maybe it is a specific modelling case based on specific norms in Austria/Germany, hence did not find a solution. I am talking about the endings of the handrail. In the beginning and ending, the handrail must be extended by 30cm. Of course, the 30cm cannot be higher than 90cm from the floor, because it is against the regulations.

I have managed to extend the handrail by 30cm, but only starting from the endpoint of the reference line or the first raiser of the stair. This extension lies above the 90cm! See green annotation.
With the red annotations I have demonstrated how the proper handrail should be modelled. In the settings of the handrail I did not find an option to extend the handrail beyond the reference line, until it reaches 90cm from the floor!

Hopefully there is an option to model this kind of handrail and also with the possibility to save it as a favorite. I am dealing with a high rise building with many stairwells. Modelling each handrail separately will already be a huge task, but the changes to the stairwell will for sure cause an enormous amount of invested time. This I want to avoid.

Does anyone have an ingenious solution?
The BIMster @ AllesWirdGut
Currently: Archicad 26
User since Archicad 6.5 (2001)
13 REPLIES 13
Laszlo Nagy
Community Admin
Community Admin
agroni wrote:
Thanx, Laszlo for the detailed explanation.
Your method works, bud sadly I am stumbling upon some obstacles which don’t look very nice.
  • Manual extension of the line prohibits the creation of a favorite to make it possible to place this type or railing in 20 other floors without editing the reference line. I already have the stairs placed since a long time, and by deleting them in each floor I will lose my dimensioning. So I cannot simple make one stair with an associative handrail and copy it on the other floors. Is there an easier way of copying this element an associating it with the stair?

  • I am sorry to say but the Favorites cannot store these kinds of customizations. A Favorite can store the height of Segments, but it cannot store the number of segments with their exact length and heights and all their geometry and customization, I believe.

  • There is a mistake in the floor plan presentation when I extend the reference line of the handrail. In the elevation the total length is 590cm, whereas on the floor plan is 660cm.

  • Looks like the Railing is longer on both ends by the same distance. Could you check in the Ends page of the Dialog whether there is value specified in the Extension or the Horizontal Offset fields?
Loving Archicad since 1995 - Find Archicad Tips at x.com/laszlonagy
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Barry Kelly
Moderator
Railings will only automatically associate with a stair when you first place a stair with the railing option active.

After that if the stair already exists you must place a new railing by selecting the nodes you want (make sure the 'associate node' setting is on for the rail default settings).

Or you can copy and paste then drag a node away from the stair and then back to the stair and it should become associated.

Favourites will not remember the shape or extent of the railing (or stairs).
It only saves the settings that make up the pattern of the railing.
You must still pick the points you want it to associate to.

Barry.
One of the forum moderators.
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agroni
Booster
LaszloNagy wrote:
Looks like the Railing is longer on both ends by the same distance. Could you check in the Ends page of the Dialog whether there is value specified in the Extension or the Horizontal Offset fields?
Yeap, there was one hidden parameter with 30cm
Thanx
The BIMster @ AllesWirdGut
Currently: Archicad 26
User since Archicad 6.5 (2001)
hkrna
Enthusiast
Guys, I have the same problem in Australia.
I am quite sure it is the same in every country.
This is a simple geometry problem that seems to have been overlooked at the development of the stair tool.
In every regulation (I know Hungary, Irieland, UK, Australia, Germany, Austria for sure) the aim is to provide a railing that is consistent height above the walking line of the stair. This height typically has tp continue onto the landing / half landing. (the UK has some funny rules here, but the principles apply)
In order to achieve a consistant height, you have to extend your stair flight with anextra going at the bottom of the flight. (The walking line should not turn down to follow the riser, but continue at constant angle till it reaches the landing)
This should be a setting in the railing tool, not a manual editing option.
The geometry gets really tricky when you have an inner handrail, but that is a different story.
Agroni's request to add this setting to the favourite is very important. Please remember, some of us are working on large projects, not on one off houses. 🙂 In large projects we have loads of identical / similar stairs that require railings. The last thing you want to do is to edit each railing individually, when a simple rule based parameter could solve the problem.

What I discovered is that ARCHICAD gets totally confused with this extension if the stair is not parallel with the AC grid. Especially if the angle is very small.
I will test Richard's work around. I hope it works.
ArchiCAD since 4.5

Windows 10