Making Oval Handrail ?

[Anonymous]

Would rather not spend time tweeking the stair maker tool as it hasn't been that productive in the past.

any hints on how to model a handrail for an oval stair, as shown attachement?

Perhaps a 2D profile applied to a primitive form?

Will appreciate any ideas/suggestions.
Thanks,
Cedric Araica

[Steve Jepson]

i made that hand rail in about 2 min.

I can make them spiral on the end too.

[TomWaltz]

Steve wrote:
i made that hand rail in about 2 min.

I can make them spiral on the end too.

Can it spiral along the arc of the stair? I'd be pretty impressed with that one... I knew there were ways to slope the profile, but not slope along an arc.

If so, then I was wrong

[Aussie John]

Yes Im not sure how you can curve profiler in two directions.

Another approach is to use the GDL tube command. You define the profile (handrail shape) and the path it takes (x,y,z values). Caveat, you cant make the path curved but could segment it.

You can manually work out the coordinates using the curser at appropriate places and putting the origin somewhere suitable.

The TUBE command is not the easiest command to master in GDL but the example in the manual is of a ramp which rises and curves at the same time.

The trick with the TUBE is to understand the first and last points of the path (and subsequent length of tube) are actually invisible but are used to define the final direction and end mitre. eg If the last point is at 90º to the main path you will get a 45º mitre. If it is along the same path the end will be square.

[Steve Jepson]

Oval handrail around a curved slope, with spiral on the end. no problem at all. Make a part, view it in 3d at the angle you want, save the part, make the next part, locate again in 3d with the first part, save both parts, Multiply, mirrror a copy, etc...so on and so on....use your imaginatoin a little, SEO some stuff with parts you make with profiler. You can make anything you want to dimensionable and constructable requiremnets. If the part is manufactured by machine, you can probably make it with profiler.

I can make anyting I want with the simple tools ArchiCAD comes with. And fast too. Soemtimes faster than I can to set all of the options needed to make the pre-made Objects look right.

[Anonymous]

There is a small tutorial at Caddtutorialsonline that covers a sloped square curved handrail.. don't know if it can be made oval.. and I think the slope is constant.. The site is not live yet but some free samples are there

direct link http://www.modularmerchant.com/clients/caddtutorials/category.php?id=2&PHPSESSID=3a4e0194998baafe91b...

[Anonymous]

John,
I tried to make such an object using the TUBE command but
TUBE tilts the corners of the facets of the arc to the angle
defined by the incremental elevation change along the path.
This plays havoc with the object when an elliptical shape
is generated and even when the shape is a circular arc
there is distortion caused by this tilting.
This distortion is not apparent when one is setting the parameters
to draw a shape having the proportions of a ramp but is very apparent
when setting the parameters to draw a shape
having the proportions of a handrail.
Peter Devlin

[Aussie John]

Not sure I understand Peter I'll need to think about when I have some time

[Steve Jepson]

a little crude but you get the idea.

paste picture of the original post in to ArchiCAD, draw line 14' 8 3/8" long and resize picture to match. trace curves on one side of railing,copy and past in same location, select new curves, use offset tool to get perfect replica of curves for the other side of the railing and at centerline of railing. split it into several sections, give each section a color, make railing profile, group profile, unify centerline, split into several sections, select railing profile and section of centerline, make profile, save a part 1.
repeat for each section(color) of centerline.

The trick is to view the parts in 3d at the angle of the stair slope and save the part tilted. same for each part on slope. add parts together,
and you have a curved hand rail on the slope.

Final step. Buy archiforma and never do this the hard way again.

If your railing is rectangular the simplest way to do it is to use a curved wall for the hand rail, trimmed to roofs above and below to get your slope.

[TomWaltz]

If your railing is rectangular the simplest way to do it is to use a curved wall for the hand rail, trimmed to roofs above and below to get your slope.

Another way you could do a rectangular railing would be just to use the roof tool, and forego the walls. Just set the roof to be the angle/slope and thickess of the railing. Just playing with that a bit, it works with straight and spiral railings.

[TomWaltz]

Another view...