posts for covered decks

[SH_Canada]

I'm having problems just getting 2 posts to show up on a covered porch. I can live with 2 plus two at the house. But whenever I add the stairs CA creates 2 new posts at the stairs or just 1 if I move the stairs to the corner perfectly). I fiddled with the spacing but to no avail. images with and without stairs are below. Is there a way to just get two posts on the corners, through the railing wall configuration without having to draw posts? I had a heck of a time just getting those four. It seems like all three railing walls have to have post to ceiling in order to get the two corner posts (but then by setting the two little walls to post to ceiling, I get the posts next to the house). I've had this problem before and chose to put in posts manually, which is NEW PLAN 20x72.plannot ideal.

 

I watched the CA video, but it shows the posts beside the stairs, and the actual video has no stairs

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/1509/adding-a-deck-with-a-roof-and-ceiling.html?playlist=94

 

Thanks!

 

 

 

 

[SH_Canada]

plan

NEW PLAN 20x72.plan

[Mark3D]

Check this file out I put invisible material on the railing posts and made new posts with slabs

1871838887_NEWPLAN20x72.plan

[rlackore]

1. Select the two end railing walls and set Rail Style>Start/End Posts>Start Type to None:

 

2. Select the front railing wall and set Rail Style>Newels/Post to Rail to Post:

 

3. Enjoy the result:

[SHCanada2]

that was simple, 

 

Thanks a lot, I appreciate it

[Mark3D]

9 hours ago, rlackore said:

1. Select the two end railing walls and set Rail Style>Start/End Posts>Start Type to None:

 

2. Select the front railing wall and set Rail Style>Newels/Post to Rail to Post:

 

3. Enjoy the result:

Good solution

[SHCanada2]

so had this problem again today. Looked at the settings from the above plan and compared to the new plan and everything seemed the same. After spending 45 minutes changing parameters with no success, I redrew the end railing and it just worked.

 

Anyone know what causes this where the post shows in the preview panel,. but not on the 3d, and then redrawing it fixes it?

 

 

[Kbird1]

Possible the direction the wall was drawn in?  start/end settings can effect this , but as noted it is sometime a battle , and like you I sometimes just delete a wall and redraw it and things will work .....it also seems you may not be in X14 , so you may need to report this.

 

M.

[SHCanada2]

I'm still getting this issue. the dialog shows it as full post, but it is not in 3d

 

if I pull back the front railing, then a post will draw 

 

 

any idea how to fix?

 

I tried redrawing the wall, rotating the wall 180 degrees, extending it out then back. nothing seems to work

 

the corners do show differently on plan view:

 

just not sure how to get it to be a post

 

attached\24x50 2 bed.plan

 

[glennw]

Open the dbx for the long railing at the front.

Rail Style panel>Newels/Posts.

Check Post To Ceiling.

[SHCanada2]

the issue with that setting is then there are posts where the stairs are, which given it will be trussed, are not required. Any idea how to get rid of them?

[Chrisb222]

7 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

the issue with that setting is then there are posts where the stairs are, which given it will be trussed, are not required. Any idea how to get rid of them?

 

That's the nature of how the program currently handles parametric railings, which is pretty limited. You're gonna have to do that manually, lots of different methods. Here's a video of one method which isn't super simple but very effective:

 

 

My personal method is to set all railings to have short posts, then manually add the full height posts at the corners. Pretty simple.

 

 

But it would be nice if we could control this parametrically. Would make a good Suggestion.

 

 

[Kbird1]

2 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

My personal method is to set all railings to have short posts, then manually add the full height posts at the corners. Pretty simple.

 

Mine also , but being able to set that in the Dialog would be great....

 

M.

[SHCanada2]

..but...

 

It auto worked before per the earlier part of the thread (and I verified it works with the other plan from above)

 

But I tried changing per above and comparing the settings to see what was different and could not find the problem, which leads me to my question:

 

Have people found that it randomly works, so in reponse to this people do it manually?

 

...or (and is my hope) there is a way to make it auto work?

 

[Chrisb222]

2 hours ago, SHCanada2 said:

Have people found that it randomly works, so in reponse to this people do it manually?

 

Personally I've not had it ever work, but I did download both the original plan which @rlackore was able to resolve, and the most recent plan. His solution DID work for me on the first plan, but not on the most recent... which is very strange, and I spent some time (more than I should) matching up the settings and trying to find the difference in the plans, but was unsuccessful. Even with identical settings (as far as I could tell), one worked and one didn't. I even went as far as using two different railing wall types on the last plan (as was the case in the original plan), with no luck. So IDK what's going on, but when I run into this I don't fight it, I just manually set full height posts on the corners.

 

Maybe someone else can find the difference in those two plans, why one works and the other doesn't...

[Kbird1]

13 minutes ago, Chrisb222 said:

Maybe someone else can find the difference in those two plans, why one works and the other doesn't...

 

It's not related to the direction the railings are drawn in is it ?  ie where the Start/End of the wall is....

 

you may need to enable that if not already done.... ( it does sow i the wall DBX though too )

 

 

 

[Chrisb222]

23 minutes ago, Kbird1 said:

It's not related to the direction the railings are drawn in is it ?

 

Not in my testing. I reversed them all trying to get it to work.

[Chrisb222]

If you go through the steps rlackore used on the original plan, you'll see wall direction doesn't matter.

[Kbird1]

2 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

 

Not in my testing. I reversed them all trying to get it to work.

 

Okay, sometime I was able to get it that way after messing with the End Post configuration but in the end just found it easier to place the full height ones myself  (less frustration)

 

M.

[SHCanada2]

17 hours ago, Chrisb222 said:

spent some time (more than I should) matching up the settings and trying to find the difference in the plans, but was unsuccessful. Even with identical settings (as far as I could tell), one worked and one didn't.

what I did as well.

 

I also tried reversing the wall, to no avail

 

I might try and verify using the object properties macro and comparing in excel to see if there are any differences. if not I will send it to support.

 

 

 

 

[glennw]

I think the best way to compare the properties for various objects is to multi select the objects and then open the dbx and go through looking at each property.

If the objects have any properties that are different they will be indicated by No Change, or tick boxes will have a horizontal bar in them.

This make it very easy to identify and change the properties that don't match - no messing with spreadsheets.

 

 

[SHCanada2]

4 hours ago, glennw said:

no messing with spreadsheets.

i saw this after i did it. and actually doing both identified different differences. I made them as close as I could (cant change some things on the object properties, but did use the no change thing to identify differences, and then changed them

 

The only i saw which was kind of different was the stair location. so I moved the stair and it left the opening, moved it again, and it left it again. ...in both plans. I tried rebuild framing but that didnt work

 

I had to pull the wall back and then rebirng it back to fix it.

 

anywho, once the railing was back to normal on both, cheking the object properties, other than wall id, there are only 2 differences between all three railing walls:

 

Top railing wall - No differences 

Bottom railing wall: (works on left, doesnt work on right

num_whole_newels ----------------------- 1              num_whole_newels ----------------------- 0 Right railing wall:             num_whole_newels ----------------------- 2                   num_whole_newels ----------------------- 3

 

 

and these would look to be calculated numbers...so no more insight today than previous. attached is the spreadsheet and both plans made to be as close as I could for those 3 walls

 

 

deckcomparison.xlsx 1543674498_24x502bed doesntwork.plan

[SHCanada2]

plan 1871838887_NEWPLAN20x72actually works.plan that works

[glennw]

Is this what you are after:

Select the short rail on the top of the deck.

Drag the right hand corner down over the long rail.

Drag the rail over the lower end of the deck back to the house,

Go back up to the top rail and reverse it.

Select the long rail and make it Post To Rail.

Edit your top rail sizes as desired.

 

Dragging one rail over the others, ensures the rails are all the same.

 

[SHCanada2]

..well that worked, plus change the end type to none to eliminate the post at the wall, and then changed the newels on the right railing wall to 4" and voila

 

thanks Glenn. That was a long haul

 

Now we all know how to get it to that look..from scratch