Scott Schwartz, AIA Posted August 17, 2022 Share Posted August 17, 2022 How can I get the railing to not occur on landings? This is NOT how we want hand railings: I setup a stripped down railing with fascia mounting that looks more like what we install below . How do I get the Z values on the ends? Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted August 21, 2022 Share Posted August 21, 2022 Turn off the rail in the Stair object and use the Rail/Fence object to draw the ones you need? Quote Link to comment
Scott Schwartz, AIA Posted August 21, 2022 Author Share Posted August 21, 2022 @Pat Stanford Thanks. I guess I'm missing something in fence mode. I have had the rail off in the Stair Object. I have been using my own rail object than I have shown. When I draw a rail, it's flat at the Z of the layer I'm in. Not seeing how I pick two different Z points on stair treads to make it follow the angle of tread nosing. Then I could at least add 36" to each Z value to get it at the right height. I see I am able to do 3d line mode then calculate the end of each end with math. Would be nice if it at least snapped to stair treads. Any ideas on how to do that? Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 I have never used the rail or fence tool enough to give any advice. I have played with it at a users group meeting and we were able to draw a 3D polygon and have the rail follow that. Since I posted here hopefully we will get enough interest to get you the help you need. As a starting point, try selecting the second mode of the Fence/Rail tool, 3D Line Mode. That will let you snap and offset from the stair treads. Quote Link to comment
Scott Schwartz, AIA Posted August 22, 2022 Author Share Posted August 22, 2022 @Pat Stanford I am using the 3D line mode and it still snaps flat at the Z of the layer I'm on, which leaves it under the stairs. I can calculate the ends with riser heights )plus rail height) at each end to elevate it. Doesn't seem so much like a "3D mode" to me. But it's workable for now. Thanks Pat. Quote Link to comment
Pat Stanford Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 Set your view to an isometric mode instead of Top/Plan?? It works for me in Iso. Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 5 hours ago, Scott Schwartz, AIA said: I am using the 3D line mode and it still snaps flat at the Z of the layer I'm on I have experienced this before. See: It's been identified as a bug. You could try restarting VW + using the default configuration initially then changing it to the one you want afterwards as per: On 4/19/2021 at 6:03 PM, Matt Panzer said: The problem I'm seeing is that the tool works correctly when I first use it during a Vectorworks session until I select a configuration from the resource popup in the tool mode bar. Once I do that, the object is always on the design layer plane. Restarting Vectorworks seems to fix the issue until I select another configuration from the resource popup. I have to say the Railing/Fence Tool is one of my least favourite tools. It is even worse when you try + use it in a georeferenced file as does it not only draw at Z=0 rather than at the correct 3D elevation it places itself at the User Origin + not at the correct coordinates on the site model! What I am having to do is once I've got one fence object on the site model, for the remaining sections of fence I am copying + pasting the original fence, rotating it + adjusting the start/end elevations to get it where it needs to be. A bit of a palaver to say the least. It would be so so much nicer to be able to draw the overall run of fencing as a single object - like a Wall - going click-click-click across the terrain + have each click snap to the surface of the site model as you go. 3 Quote Link to comment
Scott Schwartz, AIA Posted August 22, 2022 Author Share Posted August 22, 2022 I got it to work with math, never would pick the Z of stair treads in any view for me, but it displays the rail above the above the break line in plan and is not a "smart rail". I'll do a polygon mask on the sheet view to hide that but what a silly workaround to get a decent, simple stair handrail with no extensions across landings. Quote Link to comment
Tom W. Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 You could Command-K the 3D geometry of the Railing/Fence object then create a hybrid symbol for it, and include in the 2D components ground floor + first floor representations controlled by class...? Not ideal I know but sometimes it's better to go down the symbol route if it means you can achieve exactly the 2D look you want it's probably as quick as masking it in the VP 1 Quote Link to comment
E|FA Posted August 22, 2022 Share Posted August 22, 2022 (edited) You can also ungroup a copy of the stair, which will turn the handrail into a Mesh object which you can then modify with 3D modeling tools. My workflow is to duplicate the stair, group it (to isolate from the rest of the drawing), enter the group, ungroup the stair, delete everything I don't need, modify the handrail, exit the group. The end result is a grouped handrail object. Edited August 22, 2022 by E|FA 1 Quote Link to comment
Scott Schwartz, AIA Posted August 23, 2022 Author Share Posted August 23, 2022 Some funky work arounds for something that should be simple. I think I'll submit this to VW. 3 Quote Link to comment
Guest Wes Gardner Posted August 25, 2022 Share Posted August 25, 2022 The old stair, which must be pulled from the archive in the Workspace editor used to be capable of being exploded resulting in easily editable extruded objects (trying to edit mesh objects in VW is challenging)...you could also get the hand rail to present as just 3D linework which could be used as an extrude along path path. This made it relatively simple to create realistic profile for rails. Haven't tried this in a while but it was my go-to workflow. Wes Quote Link to comment
DBrown Posted August 31, 2022 Share Posted August 31, 2022 Dont use the old Custom Stair in recent Vectorworks versions, will corrupt your file, usit only as reference and then ungroup it Quote Link to comment
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