Modeling Horizontal Cable Railing ?

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2024-05-08
03:06 AM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:20 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
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
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
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2024-05-08
03:26 AM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:24 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
If you just use built-in tools of the railing you can achieve
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...
set inner posts for the intermediate spacing
if you choose the max pattern length option in the segment settings, then you can choose the spacing of the intermediate posts there
set the end posts for corners
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
of course if you go down the GDL option you can produce more complicated posts and rails like:
Member of Architalk since 2003, but missed the migration to Graphisoft. Melbourne, Australia

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2024-05-08
03:39 AM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:25 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
The top plate ...
The bottom plate ...
Barry.
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

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2024-05-08 03:11 AM
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.
AC22-28 AUS 3110 | Help Those Help You - Add a Signature |
Self-taught, bend it till it breaks | Creating a Thread |
Win11 | i9 10850K | 64GB | RX6600 | Win11 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 |
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2024-05-08
03:26 AM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:24 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
If you just use built-in tools of the railing you can achieve
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...
set inner posts for the intermediate spacing
if you choose the max pattern length option in the segment settings, then you can choose the spacing of the intermediate posts there
set the end posts for corners
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
of course if you go down the GDL option you can produce more complicated posts and rails like:
Member of Architalk since 2003, but missed the migration to Graphisoft. Melbourne, Australia

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2024-05-08 03:31 AM - edited 2024-05-08 03:39 AM
Don't try to use a panel.
That is just extra rails set at the positions you want.
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.
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

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2024-05-08
03:39 AM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:25 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
The top plate ...
The bottom plate ...
Barry.
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
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2024-05-08 03:47 AM
Oh, I had the thought that the top plate was recessed into the Toprail...
AC22-28 AUS 3110 | Help Those Help You - Add a Signature |
Self-taught, bend it till it breaks | Creating a Thread |
Win11 | i9 10850K | 64GB | RX6600 | Win11 | R5 2600 | 16GB | GTX1660 |

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2024-05-08
03:54 AM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:25 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
You can't recess that fixing in, but you can add a plate along the entire length of the top rail that is recessed.
Barry.
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

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2024-05-08 07:07 PM
Thank you, Barry, for the great attention to detail. I would not have thought to include the structural top rail in the visual model!
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

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2024-05-08 07:08 PM
Thank you very much, AllanP, for all the detailed steps. They worked out perfectly!
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

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2024-05-08
07:11 PM
- last edited on
2024-05-09
01:28 AM
by
Laszlo Nagy
Here is the resulting rail so far.
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