Railing wall on landing problem

[lgswe]

This set of steps is outside between two different elevations that I'll be showing added fill at the top step later. I have two sets of steps with a landing between. I "straight" flared the lower set of steps by using angled walls that are built inside a room made up of invisible walls. What I'm trying to do now is to run a railing wall with a special cap rail moulding on top of the railing wall down both sides of the top steps, across the sides of the landing and down both sides of the lower steps. I've played around with it for the last two hours and I can't get the railing to show on the landing. It has to be something simple I'm not doing right but I'm "brain dead". I'm hoping someone has a quick answer so I can get on with a lot of detailing I need to do to this "simple" project.

[Joe Carrick]

Larry,

I'm not sure, but it might be because this stairway and landing are on Level 0

[lgswe]

Joe........I raised everything up to level one, but I still have the same thing. Just to be sure I removed the wall and then rebuilt them and I still am having the same problem.

[lgswe]

I worked on this "simple" set of steps for hours and got nowhere. I tried changing the railing wall to "normal walls" and then adjust the height to match rails. This worked (looked correct), but when I tried adding the rail cap molding to the top of the wall I got a strange connection (attachments) with the molding where the wall on the landing angled and started down the stepsI'm still hoping someone has an answer. If I'm doing something stupid--my bad--let the shoe fit. In the mean time I did send it to support this morning. I'm hoping I can get a answer soon from someone. I have an appointment with the client in 3 hours. Have a great day.

[dshall]

Wish I could help, I tried, never had much luck with these things. I typically leave it a wall (not a railing), and adjust heights in elevation view.

[lgswe]

Scott....I've always used regular walls before also. Because "problems" sometime develop later on with adjusting walls, I thought why not just use railing walls--my bad I guess. The "molding problem" I mention has me scratching my head using regular wall. I don't know if is due to the size of the molding or what. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on using and adjusting the moldings after studing your videos (thank for taking the time to make them). Any ideas on this molding problem?

[dshall]

3D moldings are tricky for me, no idea.

[perryh]

Might be a bug, I have also had that problem. The corners just don't join correctly.

[Joe Carrick]

3D Molding PLines will always have that problem when not in a single plane. Try making each segment on a different layer. Then the moldings should be perpendicular to the PLine Segments individually. But they will probably still have some intersection problems.

[lgswe]

To Sketchup users.......I've worked very little in Sketchup, but is what I'm trying to do with my railing cap molding on top of my "railing/railing angled" wall able to be done in Sketchup? If so I'll attempt it there and then bring it into CA as a symbol. If it can be done am I asking to much of myself, as inexperienced (very little) Sketchup user to attempt this? I postponed my client meeting till tomorrow.

[johnnyprc]

Yes, Sketchup can handle this fairly easily with the "follow-me" tool.

That said, the principle of the "follow-me" tool is what Chief uses as a molding line. Have you tried not having the modeling "connected" to the walls? Meaning draw a molding line that uses the same X/Y/Z as the wall ends. Does this make sense?

I'd draw simple lines on top of the wall, and then convert to a molding poly, and attach your molding profile. Take the wall "connection" problem out of the process. Essentially Sketchup would do the exact same thing.

This will leave a start and end problem perhaps, so I would make the molding 1/2 and run lines on both sides fully connected. In fact, try to convert that into a counter or something.

[Joe Carrick]

You need separate walls (change the Wall Types so they don't become one wall) and make the walls along the stair runs "Follow Stair" and the walls on the Landing "Not Follow Stair"

You might need to edit the exterior wall layer so that it's slightly different in thickness for the landing.

[lgswe]

Johnny......I "think" I have tried everything you mentioned---I think. I've run individual moldings, made angles, turned off moldings on some lines, tried to get a "connection look" where the two moldings come together at the angle and a couple (well, a lot more) of other things. I always get a good "connection at the point where the line representing the molding is (I hope that makes sense), but the farther away from that point (wide molding profile) the worst the connection looks (attachments in earlier thread). I've come to the reservation that I (and the client) will have to look past this phenomenom (or whatever the H*** you want to call it and I've called it many names) and get on with this "3-4 hour" project. Have a great day. I am---no matter what goes on with this model.

[lgswe]

You need separate walls (change the Wall Types so they don't become one wall) and make the walls along the stair runs "Follow Stair" and the walls on the Landing "Not Follow Stair"

You might need to edit the exterior wall layer so that it's slightly different in thickness for the landing.

Joe... Where do I find th "Follow Stair"/"Not Follow Stair" dbx?

[Joe Carrick]

Larry,

The best solution I could come up with was to replace the Landing with a Court. Insert a wide opening along the two long sides of the Court. This eliminates most (if not all) of the Railing problems