Railing/Fence Tool

[Altivec 43]

Man oh man, the improvement on this tool is phenomenal.  This was one of the tools that was so outdated that I was embarrassed that it was even on my tool palette taking up space (I know I could remove it).   As I was watching the video showing the new tool I was smiling ear to ear going.  Yes, yes they finally get it...  But then right at the end,  I went nooooooooooo.

Everything is absolutely perfect, custom profiles for the rail, Post Symbols.... But what happened to the spindles?  only rectangle or cylinder, why no custom spindle option like the posts have?   So again, I'm left with a tool that's almost good enough.  I guess I can at least use it for the rail and posts and then do distribute along a path for the spindles which is way better than before but It was almost perfect.  Sigh.

I don't want to discredit what was done because as I said the improvement is outstanding and I know Rome wasn't built in a day.  My concern is that this tool hardly seen any change since I've been using the program for over 25 years.  Now that its so close to being usable and worthy, I would hate for the development team to go "its good enough" and move on to something else when all it needs is just a little more time in the oven.

 

[PVA - Jim 2,314]

Gotcha, thank you, moving this to wishlist and we'll get things filed.

VE-96299

[PVA - Jim 2,314]

Just to clarify, Is this the component we titled "Frame Bars" in the new tool?

I think these were originally planned to also take custom symbol geometry, I'll check and see what happened or if that bit just wasn't ready in time.

[Altivec 43]

Sorry for the confusion.   Yes, for a residential application, what is noted as frame bars is what we call spindles.  I whipped up a quick picture of typical residential railing.

So in actuality there are two things missing to accomplish this.  Custom symbol geometry for the frame bars and custom profile for the shoe(base rail)

[Markvl 158]

I reacted exactly the same way you did @Altivec.  I was tickled pink watching the video and BAM! What? No custom spindles (pickets)?  They got so close to perfect on this one.

Maybe we'll see something in a service pack?  @JimW when you find out what happened there.

[John Meunier 19]

Same reaction here @Altivec.

Looked so promising, then I used it.... and am shaking my head.

@JimW In creating a simple glass railing, there is no option to add a bottom rail, also the corner posts rotate 45°?

*Disclaimer image 2.jpg is from a random google search*

[Altivec 43]

Although, I see some of you agree with my thoughts on this tool, there is only 1 vote (my own).   Please guys, don't forget to vote if there is a wish you want worked on.  To vote, click the up arrow to the left of posts title at the top of this page.

[PVA - Jim 2,314]

1 hour ago, Altivec said:

Although, I see some of you agree with my thoughts on this tool, there is only 1 vote (my own).   Please guys, don't forget to vote if there is a wish you want worked on.  To vote, click the up arrow to the left of posts title at the top of this page.

 

^ Vote it up! The more the better.

[EAlexander 194]

The rotated corner posts to 45 degrees has got to go! 

 

Voted! 

[Thomas Wagensommerer 52]

Can we do railings without posts at all? If not, this is needed.

 

[mac@stairworks 14]

I'd like to know how you can add custom rail profiles, post and baluster symbols to this tool.

Add returns to the end of the wall rails.(Code issue)

Allow the post to be higher than the rail height for a post-to-post style rail.

 

With all of these changes everyone wants, why can't this be incorporated into a stair tool that can have custom posts and balusters inserted just like Interiorcad does with its dropdown library of door styles and hardware.

So is this tool going to get the attention that the stair tools has been waiting for? 

When will the stair tool have the ability to insert custom rail profiles, post and baluster symbols? I know be patient. You've only had about 20+ years to work on it.

 

On September 14, 2016 at 2:02 PM, Altivec said:

Sorry for the confusion.   Yes, for a residential application, what is noted as frame bars is what we call spindles.  I whipped up a quick picture of typical residential railing.

So in actuality there are two things missing to accomplish this.  Custom symbol geometry for the frame bars and custom profile for the shoe(base rail)

Altivec, this is my point. If you have to insert your own post and baluster you're better off just modeling the balustrade yourself. 

 

 

 

 

[Art V 260]

1 hour ago, mac@stairworks said:

With all of these changes everyone wants, why can't this be incorporated into a stair tool that can have custom posts and balusters inserted just like Interiorcad does with its dropdown library of door styles and hardware.

So is this tool going to get the attention that the stair tools has been waiting for? 

When will the stair tool have the ability to insert custom rail profiles, post and baluster symbols?

Oh yes, the rails on the stairs tool could definitely be improved as well, it would be nice if the current updated rail/fence tool could be included into the stair tool, this could simplify things a little bit.

 

Not to mention that the stair tool itself could use quite a bit of updating (at least in Landmark) to simplify creating stairs.

[Christiaan 503]

So are we still at the same state of play here?

On 9/14/2016 at 7:04 PM, Jim Wilson said:

Gotcha, thank you, moving this to wishlist and we'll get things filed.

VE-96299

 

We any closer to having this one implemented @Jim Wilson?

 

(original post title could perhaps be edited to mention "custom profiles" or "traditional balusters" or something to make it easier to find)

Edited February 5 by Christiaan

[PVA - Jim 2,314]

2 hours ago, Christiaan said:

So are we still at the same state of play here?

 

We any closer to having this one implement @Jim Wilson?

 

(original post title could perhaps be edited to mention "custom profiles" or "traditional balusters" or something to make it easier to find)

Not so far that I have seen, but the next round of features isn't locked in yet. I do know that custom profiles was already a major inclusion that was decided on but I do not know if a date has been set.

[Kevin C 25]

If this year's features are not yet locked in - could you consider asking the engineers to look at the following (for stairs anyway)

 

• Ability to have stairs that can have multiple levels / storeys (I.e. a single stair object for a three storey house or multi-storey building), or at least the ability to continue a numbering sequence
• Being able to draw an single continuous polyline that will snap to a stair and landing edge in 2D and 3D so that a continuous handrail can be created
• Being able to control the length and location of handrails and have them linked to the stair object and snap to it in 2D and 3D
• Ability to attach custom balustrades (of any profile) on the stair object and have user control over the height / cap style / extension of the post (I.e. does the post have align with the FFL or can it be set an an arbitrary level of our choosing and potentially protrude into the floorspace below with a decorative cap detail)
• Incorporation of the design flexibility of the old custom stair stool into the main stair tool (without the graphical faux-pas of the old tool - I.e stringers going haywire)

[Laura Stone 5]

More for the fence wishlist:

 

Top rail, bottom rail and intermedate rails all individually contolled please!

Ability to offset the 'frame bars' (this is a really poor and misleading name) from the rails like a real fence

As others have posted, ability to follow slope either by stepping or sloping

[zoomer 684]

BTW,

when you change the size of the posts,

the length of the Rails (where the optional panel locates)

will never update.

 

(so these will look like floating in space ...)n