Deck Railing With Balusters Above Low Wall.

[Stuart_C]

I would like to draw a deck rail similar to the one in the photo.

 

 

I have tried two different methods, both of which seem cumbersome.

 

1.  I drew the deck rail with balusters and raised the bottom rail to the desired height and then inserted a polyline solid below the bottom rail the thickness of the wall with siding texture.

 

2.  I created a deck with a low half wall with siding and then created and open below room above it with a low railing with balusters then I made room height for the deck 12" tall and lowered the open below room to 12" above the deck.

 

There must be a better way!  

 

 

[yusuf-333]

I would use ramps as a virtual bed for raising and lowering railing bottom heights. Try this simple steps.

1. Draw a ramp some were outside your drawing area, set it open under side, thickness 0 and its top and bottom height set to a figure equals the desired bottom height of your railing.

2. HERE IS THE STEP WHERE THE BIG TRICK LIES. YOU HAVE ALREADY CREATED A THIN(zero depth and small width) HORIZONTAL(0 SLOPE) SINGLE SEGMENT RAMP WHICH IS IN ANOTHER WORDS THE VIRTUAL BED OF RAILING HEIGHT CONTROL.

3. Select the ramp and make curve, then convert it in to a number of segments equals to the number of sides of your deck.

4. At this step you have to see how much flexible it is to edit by dragging each vertex to the nodes of your deck edges. So you have a bed running along your deck sides that can be raised, lowered or offsetted from the sides as you need. You can use the railings of the ramp it self in your case, or make railings that "follow stairs" by

Making the ramp "no rails left and right"

This way you can make fancy railings of different kind.

Wait , wait... one more idea . ... Your case can be solved by simply assuming the waste depth of the ramp as the lower wall and its railing as the upper baluster rails as I can see in the picture you posted by making the deck walls invisible.

[jcaffee]

Symbols!  Create a "Panel" and "Newel" symbol; use railing tool as normal.

 

jon

[Joe_Carrick]

Use a normal Wall 16" tall as a Solid Railing.  Then draw some normal Railing Walls outside of the balcony and check "No Room Definition", "Include Bottom Rail", adjust the Railing profiles and heights.  Now move these railings so they are on top of the Solid Railings.

 

You might need to add a Molding Polyline so the bottom rail will mitre at the corners.  Or, you can just leave off the bottom rail and make the first rail a half wall with a Cap Rail.

[Stuart_C]

I tried all three solutions and Joe's worked best for me.  The key is creating the second (upper)  railing with the "No Room Definition" checked.  It also works well for decorative panels.

 

Thanks for the help!

[yusuf-333]

Actually, a lot of ways may work, my method works not only for your specific case but more generaliatic.

No molding,posts added manually. Simply the above steps gives such result.