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Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

Marc H
Advisor

I have need of a 'see-through' terrace railing with horizontal cable runs in the 'panel' section.  It would likely be a metal or wood/like top rail with metal posts holding the cables.   (The attached screenshot is roughly the type of design I am looking to produce.)  I've been exploring the default Balustrade and Panel sections in the Railing tool, but do not see any OOTB solutions.  One posted video utilized a texture in a panel for a similar appearance for mesh, but that is in a frame with fixings.  I was hoping to have a bit more accurate design visualization rather than just calling out 'see details'.

 

At this point, I am considering custom profiles of cables and then working them into the rail design as horizontal balustrades or something like that, but before I expend quite some time to do so (with no guarantee of success), I thought I would ask if anyone here if they have suggestions or recent experiences with this architectural design.

 

Operating system used: Mac Intel-based Sonoma, Current Build

 

Cable Rail Sample.png

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” - Abraham Lincoln

AC27 USA on 16” 2019 MBP (2.4GHz i9 8-Core, 32GB DDR4, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8G GDDR5, 500GB SSD, T3s, Trackpad use) running Sonoma OS + extended w/ (2) 32" ASUS ProArt PAU32C (4K) Monitors
2 ACCEPTED SOLUTIONS

Accepted Solutions
Solution
AllanP
Expert

If you just use built-in tools of the railing you can achieve

AllanP_0-1715131060469.png

 

AllanP_1-1715131085283.png

 

AllanP_2-1715131103599.png

 

go to rails and add as many wires at the desired heights as you want...

Use the "+" symbol when you are in the rails tool to add more rails,

select a rail and click on the "-" tool to remove a rail...

AllanP_4-1715131134806.png

 

AllanP_5-1715131148754.png

 

set inner posts for the intermediate spacing

AllanP_3-1715131117999.png

 

if you choose the max pattern length option in the segment settings, then you can choose the spacing of the intermediate posts there

AllanP_10-1715131572271.png

 

set the end posts for corners

AllanP_6-1715131247839.png

 

if you have funny ends, go to the end settings

this can also control how far past the last post the top rail will project

AllanP_7-1715131293022.png

 

AllanP_8-1715131411462.png

AllanP_9-1715131430889.png

 

of course if you go down the GDL option you can produce more complicated posts and rails like:

AllanP_11-1715131897372.png

I have been using ArchiCAD continually since ArchiCAD 4.5, 4.5.5, 5, 5.1, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 8.1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 21, 22, 25, now testing 27
Member of Architalk since 2003, but missed the migration to Graphisoft.
(where have all my original posts gone?)

View solution in original post

Solution

The top plate ...

 

BarryKelly_2-1715132220996.png

 

The bottom plate ...

 

BarryKelly_3-1715132326759.png

 

Barry.

 

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

View solution in original post

12 REPLIES 12
Lingwisyer
Guru

Just use Rails? Using a CP for it would make it easier to set spacings and any future modifications. You would probably need to do a Custom Post to get a similar one to your image with the top fixing plate.

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win11 | i9 10850K | 64GB | RX6600 Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660
Solution
AllanP
Expert

If you just use built-in tools of the railing you can achieve

AllanP_0-1715131060469.png

 

AllanP_1-1715131085283.png

 

AllanP_2-1715131103599.png

 

go to rails and add as many wires at the desired heights as you want...

Use the "+" symbol when you are in the rails tool to add more rails,

select a rail and click on the "-" tool to remove a rail...

AllanP_4-1715131134806.png

 

AllanP_5-1715131148754.png

 

set inner posts for the intermediate spacing

AllanP_3-1715131117999.png

 

if you choose the max pattern length option in the segment settings, then you can choose the spacing of the intermediate posts there

AllanP_10-1715131572271.png

 

set the end posts for corners

AllanP_6-1715131247839.png

 

if you have funny ends, go to the end settings

this can also control how far past the last post the top rail will project

AllanP_7-1715131293022.png

 

AllanP_8-1715131411462.png

AllanP_9-1715131430889.png

 

of course if you go down the GDL option you can produce more complicated posts and rails like:

AllanP_11-1715131897372.png

I have been using ArchiCAD continually since ArchiCAD 4.5, 4.5.5, 5, 5.1, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 8.1, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 21, 22, 25, now testing 27
Member of Architalk since 2003, but missed the migration to Graphisoft.
(where have all my original posts gone?)
Barry Kelly
Moderator

Don't try to use a panel.

That is just extra rails set at the positions you want.

 

BarryKelly_1-1715131696289.png

 

 

The annoying thing is you can't evenly distribute the rails, you must set each one.

Or as Ling suggested, you could try a custom profile that has all of the rails set up in it.

 

Barry.

 

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11
Solution

The top plate ...

 

BarryKelly_2-1715132220996.png

 

The bottom plate ...

 

BarryKelly_3-1715132326759.png

 

Barry.

 

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

Oh, I had the thought that the top plate was recessed into the Toprail...

AC22-23 AUS 7000Help Those Help You - Add a Signature
Self-taught, bend it till it breaksCreating a Thread
Win11 | i9 10850K | 64GB | RX6600 Win10 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660

You can't recess that fixing in, but you can add a plate along the entire length of the top rail that is recessed.

 

BarryKelly_0-1715133275504.png

 

Barry.

One of the forum moderators.
Versions 6.5 to 27
i7-10700 @ 2.9Ghz, 32GB ram, GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB), Windows 10
Lenovo Thinkpad - i7-1270P 2.20 GHz, 32GB RAM, Nvidia T550, Windows 11

Thank you, Barry, for the great attention to detail.  I would not have thought to include the structural top rail in the visual model!  

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” - Abraham Lincoln

AC27 USA on 16” 2019 MBP (2.4GHz i9 8-Core, 32GB DDR4, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8G GDDR5, 500GB SSD, T3s, Trackpad use) running Sonoma OS + extended w/ (2) 32" ASUS ProArt PAU32C (4K) Monitors

Thank you very much, AllanP, for all the detailed steps.  They worked out perfectly!

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” - Abraham Lincoln

AC27 USA on 16” 2019 MBP (2.4GHz i9 8-Core, 32GB DDR4, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8G GDDR5, 500GB SSD, T3s, Trackpad use) running Sonoma OS + extended w/ (2) 32" ASUS ProArt PAU32C (4K) Monitors

Here is the resulting rail so far.

 

Cable Rail Result.png

“The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” - Abraham Lincoln

AC27 USA on 16” 2019 MBP (2.4GHz i9 8-Core, 32GB DDR4, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8G GDDR5, 500GB SSD, T3s, Trackpad use) running Sonoma OS + extended w/ (2) 32" ASUS ProArt PAU32C (4K) Monitors

Setup info provided by author