how to set height of a beam in a post to beam fence

[DougWilson]

Hi all,

 

Im trying to model some rural fences for my property.    The fences are several different materials for both posts and rails.   In one specific case, I need to model a fence with 

- Steel Posts (aka Newels) 

- A Steel top rail down about 50mm from the top of the fence newels which is a rectangular steel tubing that is essentially 150mm by 50mm

- 2 wire rails ( about 10 mm diameter), BUT these two rails are white (plastic coated steel), and the white is important for visualisation since these are horse fences and these specific rails are called "sight rails"

 

In other cases, posts are wooden, top rails steel and sight rails are white

 

So, I can build all of these features independently (or in some combinations) using the standard newels and rails constructions.... but 

I'm limited to 3 rails (top, middle and bottom) which is not really the problem..... but all of the the rails must be of the same material (sigh)

 

So I thought to use a "beam" at the top of the fence.    This works like a chap, BUT the height of above the terrain is (as far as I can tell arbitraryand I've not found a way to that height... so I can get all of the properties I want, but the fence is way too tall.

 

I supposed I could make a custom panel but it seems that beam and rails (which are already separate materials) would be much easier.

 

Any thoughts on how to set the height of the beam?

 

 

[DBCooper]

You *might* be able to control the beam height by adjusting your default ceiling heights.  Personally, I would probably go with the custom panel symbol.  

 

[DougWilson]

Thanks DBCooper.... shortly after posting the question I actually tried setting the "room height" ..... and it works... sort of

The interesting thing is to try to decide what room hight specification might be in place for a "fence".     It seems that the default ceiling hight for the current floor is the one in use.   

The bottom height of a "beam" for a porch, for example, is set to room hight of the room of the enclosed space that the railing for the porch create.

This is all well and good for porches, decks, etc.... but not quite clear what room type would govern out door spaces (and in fact, in my view, it's an accidental feature that "post to beam" works at all for fences...   

But if you set your defaults for floor 1 to the hight you want your "beams" on the fence your newels come out the right height, and your beam (by default) sits on top of those newel.  You can then adjust the railing spec for "Post" to vertically offset the beam as you like.

 

So this works... but of course means that ALL fences on the property behave this way and any structures that you create are pretty short until you specify a room type.... probably not ideal

 

So it was an interesting excursion into the behaviour of chief, but I think I agree with you... to really do it as I want, I'll need to create some custom panels.

 

Thanks again for the reply