Three story columns in plan view

[mgabriel]

Isn't a plan view taken roughly 40" AFF? What about an overhead camera (plan view) of each respective floor with the section slider? Then make a CAD detail of the view...wouldn't necessarily be "live", and I must admit, I've not tried this idea and I am uncertain if the columns would show even with this technique. I'm simply offering another suggestion/thought process of a simple means to accomplish the task at hand.

Experience tells me if you are ordering custom railings that have little to no room for dimensional slippage, field measuring is a much safer bet than trying to make a perfect model to take the measurements....but this opinion has absolutely nothing to do with addressing the OP questions