Railing Panel Compresses in Y Axis

[sutcac]

I have seen this behavior before but really wanted to get to the bottom of it this time. In the pics you will see the Tube railing panel as placed in the railing dbx, and then the very same symbol placed independently. Why does the railing panel get compressed in the Y axis when placed as a panel within the railing? I have tried adjusting the newel width, the balluster width, and the width of the wall definition itself and nothing makes any difference. Any ideas?

[Joe Carrick]

Bryce,

It appears to me that it's the height of the railing that is getting "Stretched". What is the panel original size vs the height of your railing?

If you really need a railing that tall then you might have to define another railing panel.

[sutcac]

Ahh, I think you have it there. I should have thought of that. I am likely stretching a 36" high panel to 42". I guess I just need to make a 42" high symbol. Thanks.

[sutcac]

Quite a lot of tweaking required to get a clean tube railing like this. Had to use a molding polyline for the top rail to get the clean mitre and tweak the z axis of the custom panel so it would sit right. Thanks again.

[Joe Carrick]

Yep,

Often I'll just use a Molding Pline with several Moldings at different "z" heights and then add the posts as individual items. This is particularly useful when you also need a horizontal offset for one or more of the moldings.

[sutcac]

Yeah, had to do just that for a curved section because I didn't want such frequent faceting between the newels.

[johnnyprc]

Did you place another layer of material down for the tile ends you show? I was working on a bathroom and ended up laying slabs to get backing/thin-set/tile true thickness - since it matters...but man was that a lot of work, especially when the client wanted to switch to porcelain. Curious what you are doing to get correct thicknesses.

[Joe Carrick]

Johnny,

That should be done in the Structure Tab of the Room dbx. The Floor Structure governs.

[sutcac]

I didn't do anything special to achieve that. This is an exterior balcony with an Unspecified room definition. But, yes, you can specify the thickness of the floor finish in the Floor Structure dbx.

On another note, it is kind of frustrating how close we seem to be to getting decent horizontal railings and guard rails. In this case, I can't find even a workaround to get a continuous top rail up this curved stair, around the landing, and up the next flight. This is using the Follow Stairs option for a railing wall.

It would be great if we could have Panels and ALSO be able to specify a continuous top rail like you can using balusters. As it stands, you can apparently only do one or the other.

[johnnyprc]

Ah...since its on the floor - that was dumb of me to ask.

I do use the material on the floors that way, but with the walls and tile trim base I know I can paint the walls...but I guess I could add a custom wall layer(s). Is that what you guys do for wall tile?

[sutcac]

Depends on the situation and what you are trying to show. That, or there is the Wall Covering part of the wall dbx, or polyline solids or molding polylines.

[sutcac]

Sketchup to the rescue....

[Joe Carrick]

Bryce,

I have requested that railings be enhanced so that we can combine rails and panels (also the ability to have as many intermediate rails as desired) and to be able to specify different materials for each rail. Additionally I asked for horizontal rail offsets and for stair railings to be the same as deck railings - consistent behavior. The combining of rails and panels would take care of the rail over the newels.

I don't know exactly how many times I've requested these things, but I'm sure it's been at least 3 times. Maybe if everyone request such enhancements we might get them within 5 years.

[sutcac]

A lot of the flaws are more glaring when you try and use round cross sections too. This is another area where Chief really needs to step up its game if it wants to venture more into commercial projects.