Aluminum Deck Railing at Stairs


robdyck
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I'm attempting to create reasonably accurate aluminum deck railing including at deck stairs. I've created a deck railing wall type that has all the proper components and I'm using a deck railing wall to make the rails that will follow the stairs. I almost thought I had Chief beaten into submission, but I should've known better! This creates a few problems, some big, some small:

-the hand rail on the 'stairs' wont connect to the deck railing post. When trying to have a newel post at the upper end of the sloped railing, I need both railing walls to share the same post at the intersection.

-the railing wall that follows the stairs creates some sort of wall cap at the gable end overhang

-the railing wall that follows the stairs also receives the frieze molding

 

The plan is attached for anyone who feels like messing around with it.

deckrailing1.plan

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I managed to solve 2 of your problems.

 

For the "wall caps", the problem is in the wall type definition. Change the material for the deck railing wall type to 'Opening (no material)' and the problem disappears. Your railing material will not be affected, since that's controlled by the railing defaults.

 

For the frieze moldings, just open up the two roof planes and change the frieze molding to be on the gable only.

 

As for the rail to newel connection, the railing stops at the bottom plate of the newel, so I don't think there's an easy way around that one. Though they connect properly on the level railing, which is odd. Might need to make another newel symbol for a corner newel similar this and add small room dividers to get those newels just at the top of the stairs.

814206874_RegalNewels.thumb.png.ca75bc2db1efe7f49472046d17952bb0.png

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1 minute ago, LevisL said:

For the "wall caps", the problem is in the wall type definition. Change the material for the deck railing wall type to 'Opening (no material)' and the problem disappears. Your railing material will not be affected, since that's controlled by the railing defaults.

 

Or you could override the interior and exterior wall surface materials on the two stair railing walls.

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@robdyck

You might try changing the size of the bounding box of your custom newel.  Right now Chief is using the base plate as the newel width. You have the newel set to be the width of the wall...so, the handrail is trimming off right at the wall surface.  If you uncheck the box to make the newel the width of the wall...and, on the general tab, make the wall width 5"...or experiment...maybe make it 6".  This will place the newel and the base inside your porch.  

 

It's the size of the bounding box that is the problem...on the newel I created I set the bounding box to be 3"x3"...which is the size of the newel I created.  I also moved the "Y" axis in toward the newel 3/4". 

 

I've attached a fix plan...and the newel I created.  

Plan:  deckrailing1 - Steve Nestor FIX 01.plan

Newel: Newel for Rob Dyck.calibz

2020-04-01_14-21-44.thumb.png.1b50077c53847a1ad73ede0dc4900d4d.png

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4 hours ago, LevisL said:

For the "wall caps", the problem is in the wall type definition. Change the material for the deck railing wall type to 'Opening (no material)' and the problem disappears. Your railing material will not be affected, since that's controlled by the railing defaults.

Killer! That got rid of the frieze molding as well! Respect!

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2 minutes ago, robdyck said:

Killer! That got rid of the frieze molding as well! Respect!

 

Nice! I turned off the frieze first, so I didn't notice that!

 

Anyway, happy to help. And I hope your weather is better that ours up in the Peace Country right now... we've had about a foot of snow in the past week. Looks more like January 1st than April 1st outside!!!

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Sucks to be there! I used to live in La Crete so I know more than I need to about those brutal winters! We got about 1/4" of snow overnight and it melted already, even though its below zero. Winter feels super long when it starts in October and lasts into April! Why do we live here??

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5 hours ago, LevisL said:

Though they connect properly on the level railing, which is odd.

 

5 hours ago, SNestor said:

Right now Chief is using the base plate as the newel width.

I made a symbol out of a straight railing section just to study the faces, and oddly enough, the rails go directly to the correct part of the alum. post, the vertical upright, as opposed to the base plate.

image.thumb.png.05b53c7bd8d377e1a66de8dfc191ea0d.png

 

 

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1 hour ago, robdyck said:

 

I made a symbol out of a straight railing section just to study the faces, and oddly enough, the rails go directly to the correct part of the alum. post, the vertical upright, as opposed to the base plate.

image.thumb.png.05b53c7bd8d377e1a66de8dfc191ea0d.png

 

 

 

I was referring to where the stair handrail was not connecting to the horizontal patio railing.  The reason that the top/bottom rail is cut off is due to the bounding box of the post....and maybe the width of the wall. You have checked the box to "use wall width" in the newels/balusters tab of the railing DBX.

 

My first thought was the wall was cutting off the handrail...but, I believe it's the post you created.  The bounding box of the post is the width of the base plate...and that seems to be the line where the stair railing is cut off.

 

If you replace the post I created with the one in your plan you will see that these rails will join together.  I also unchecked the "use wall width" box.  

 

2020-04-01_20-48-59.thumb.png.1392546c7fb49cded4f3b1565ee947ce.png

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10 hours ago, SNestor said:

If you replace the post I created with the one in your plan you will see that these rails will join together.  I also unchecked the "use wall width" box.

Thanks Steve! I thought you were onto something with your adjusted post symbol, but if you look a bit closer it only seems to behave as expected on one side. The adjusted bounding box causes the post to be 'off'  at the end of each railing segment. It causes a discrepancy between the 3D view and the plan view.

I appreciate the effort, and just so you know, this isn't for a current project...I'm messing around with this to try to figure out a consistent & repeatable method to display these railings accurately in both views.

I just can't handle the poor railing job available in the stair dbx.

image.thumb.png.30c252f7bb35c54bf9aee51957f7c2a4.pngimage.thumb.png.888de296b9ea05b4fa0de7942abe76ca.pngimage.thumb.png.84ac0fd1af08bde0374793aa173a1c3c.png

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2 hours ago, robdyck said:

Thanks Steve! I thought you were onto something with your adjusted post symbol, but if you look a bit closer it only seems to behave as expected on one side. The adjusted bounding box causes the post to be 'off'  at the end of each railing segment. It causes a discrepancy between the 3D view and the plan view.

I appreciate the effort, and just so you know, this isn't for a current project...I'm messing around with this to try to figure out a consistent & repeatable method to display these railings accurately in both views.

I just can't handle the poor railing job available in the stair dbx.

image.thumb.png.30c252f7bb35c54bf9aee51957f7c2a4.pngimage.thumb.png.888de296b9ea05b4fa0de7942abe76ca.pngimage.thumb.png.84ac0fd1af08bde0374793aa173a1c3c.png

 

You need a sledgehammer to get it all to work...because Chief just won't work on fixing the stair tool.  However....the plan attached looks good to me.  

 

The bounding box of the newel isn't the problem...it's the width of the railing wall...and to some degree you have to adjust the doorway that the stairs create.  Yea...total PIA.  

I used a "countertop" to create the porch overhang with a custom molding edge...and adjusted the display order of each object.  

 

I also changed the way you used the room divider wall...no need to make it as complex as you did.  My room divider walls are on the invisible layer...so, you will have to turn the layer on to see them.  

 

deckrailing1 - Steve Nestor FIX 02.plan

Newel Post for Rob Dyck -02.calibz

 

Don't blame me if it isn't "perfect"...

2020-04-02_10-30-31.thumb.png.896840ba511d13975172945f9ab598f0.png2020-04-02_10-31-18.thumb.png.9ba5396180e4b9bfa6fec63ead4e71ec.png

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