Guard rail join at stair

[Dick Jenkins]

Is there any way to get the guard top rail to join properly to the deck guard top rail as shown in my screen shot?

[Christiaan]

Have you tried the Railing Join Tool?

 

[Tom W.]

Where on earth did they get 'combinate' from...?!

[Christiaan]

Based on my Portuguese girlfriend's ability to cross-contaminate words (across the five languages she speaks fluently), I'm going to go with somebody for whom English is not their first language writing this tool tip. If an Italian takes combinato (the Italian past participle of combine) or a Portuguese or Spaniard takes combinado (their participle of combine) and applies a standard English verb suffix, they land directly on "combinate." 😆

[cberg]

It's actually an English verb. (I had to look it up...).

[Tom W.]

18 minutes ago, cberg said:

It's actually an English verb. (I had to look it up...).

 

Albeit a 'rare + sometimes obsolete' one 😆. I think I'd have been very boring + just said 'combines' 🤣

[cberg]

I just assumed architects in the UK combinate walls and rails all the time....  

[Tom W.]

Maybe only the ones who speak Italian + Portuguese as well 🙂

[Christiaan]

Oh! I checked the Oxford Dictionary on my Mac and couldn't find it.

 

https://www.oed.com/dictionary/combinate_v?tl=true says Vectorworks is using an obsolete word from the 1500s 🤪

Quote

 

The only known use of the verb combinate is in the late 1500s.

OED's only evidence for combinate is from 1578, in the writing of John Banister, surgeon.

 

 

[GregG]

I guess another way to say it would be "Combinen two paathes in on"

 

Fun with Middle English 😁.  I just couldn't stay away from this one.

[thinkingpencil]

...time for lunch

[Dick Jenkins]

Back to the original question. The join tool does not work on this. My rail was modeled as a continuous polyline with garvity applied.

[Christiaan]

13 hours ago, Dick Jenkins said:

Back to the original question. The join tool does not work on this. My rail was modeled as a continuous polyline with garvity applied.

Dick, try modelling the stair railing and balcony railing in one go, using the Pick mode (the first one). You just select the edges of your stair and balcony and then click on the green check button in the mode bar.

[Dick Jenkins]

On 3/6/2026 at 2:46 AM, Christiaan said:

Dick, try modelling the stair railing and balcony railing in one go, using the Pick mode (the first one). You just select the edges of your stair and balcony and then click on the green check button in the mode bar.

I thought that is what I did. It was all in one go clicking on the places on the steps where I wanted a post.

[Christiaan]

Dick, can you upload a simplified file, with just the deck, railing and stair?

[Dick Jenkins]

The model of the Stairs and Ramp is attached. Let me know if you can't open it. It is in VW2025

 

.VW Railing Test.vwx

[Tom W.]

I was able to tidy it up by moving the side panel back an inch or two so the handrail isn't having to transition from sloping to horizontal + turning at the same time:

 

 

Doing this created an extra post which I deleted.

[Dick Jenkins]

Could you possibly make a little movie showing me how you did this? When I try it, it just creates another post.

 

[Tom W.]

12 minutes ago, Dick Jenkins said:

Could you possibly make a little movie showing me how you did this? When I try it, it just creates another post.

 

 

Sure: 

 

 

[Dick Jenkins]

3 minutes ago, Tom W. said:

 

Sure: 

 

 

Thanks! I misunderstood the direction of "back"😆 and was instead trying to move the corner post to the side.

[Christiaan]

Another way to resolve this kind of thing is for the top tread to be at the same level as the deck (partially or fully)