topic Re: railing question in 3ds Max Forum

railing question

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 19:01:22 GMT

Does anyone know of a free script that will give me more control on aec Railings? I need to cope the joints of hand railing. Thanks in advance.

this is what i get from maxthis is the result i need

Re: railing question

leeminardi — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:20:58 GMT

No script but you could convert the railing to an editable mesh and move the end vertices of the rail into the post. For the example below move them in the -X direction.

Re: railing question

Anonymous — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:25:50 GMT

Thanks @leeminardi however that what I have been doing. I was hoping there was a trim modifier that i could use.

This is time consuming big time.

Re: railing question

irishman_team_kilber — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 21:03:19 GMT

there is a trim/exended that i have just noticed but i don't know how well it will work on AEC rails/objects or even if it will work on AEC objects due to i am using max 9 they mite of improved it in the newer version of max

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/3ds-max/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2019/ENU/3DSMax-Modifiers/files/GUID-BD19474B-AC97-48C9-A234-645AE51723B2-htm.html

autodesk has not updated the AEC since v5 i think, so you are limited in what you can do, they have not updated it because they brough out the BIM (Building Information Modeling) software https://www.autodesk.com/bim-360/

Re: railing question

leeminardi — Mon, 25 Feb 2019 22:11:42 GMT

Here's an approach that may be worth trying:

Change the pivot of the railing to Center to Object.
Set the profile for the Lower Rail(s) to none.
Make a clode/copy of the railing at the same location.
For the copy set the lower rail profile to round, the post and top rail profiles to none and shorten the length enough so that the lower rail does not penetrate the posts of the original railing.

This process can be done to a collection of railings all at once so it should be fairly fast and easy.

Re: railing question

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:36:04 GMT

I see @leeminardi at first i thought too much work but by making a collection as your are saying it makes all the sense it the world! Great idea! Thanks lee!

Re: railing question

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:44:41 GMT

Thanks @irishman_team_kilber . although it does not appear to be available for the railing or the railing as an editable poly, thank you for pointing out the trim/extend command that will be useful! Did not realize that was there

Re: railing question

leeminardi — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 18:20:46 GMT

Mark,

I found that centering the Pivot didn't always do what it was meant to do, that is make it so that when the copied railing that only has the lower rail is shortened it does the shortening from both ends.

The following script will work on a railing that has its pivot at the end. It only works on one railing at a time but requires no user input. You can edit the value for the rails to meet your requirements.

-- creates  a clone/copy of a railing that has a lower rail 2" shorter than 
-- the main rail and then moves the copy 1.0 in local x.
-- LRM 2/26/2019  v1.0
$.Top_Rail_Profile = 1  -- round
$.Lower_Rail_Profile = 0  -- none
$.Post_Profile = 1  -- round
$.Fencing_Type = 1
$.Picket_Profile = 1
$.Lower_Rail_Profile = 0
actionMan.executeAction 0 "40213"  -- Edit: Clone
maxOps.cloneNodes $ cloneType:#copy newNodes:&nnl
select nnl
s = $.Railing_Length
$.Top_Rail_Profile = 0
$.Lower_Rail_Profile = 1
$.Post_Profile = 0
$.Fencing_Type = 0
toolMode.coordsys #local
$.Railing_Length = s - 2
move $ [1.0,0,0]
clearSelection()