Need equal distances that all depend on a base distance between objects in block

[Anonymous]

I am not sure if what I need to do can be done with a dynamic block. But I am reaching out to the Block Gods for their thoughts.

For reference, Let’s assume I need to create a railing. We all know that the railing has top, bottom rails and newel posts. (for simplicity, lets for now keep balusters out of the equation)

Thinking along these lines, we all know that there are max spans for rails between the newel posts before you need to add another post.

Is there a way to create a dynamic block in such a way that (in plan view) lets me see my post and a simple set of horizontal lines that represent the rails so I can stretch the block and when it hits a given length say 5’-0” max spacing, it would add another post.

Continuing with this thought, let’s say I stretched my block out to 24’-9” (given my 5’-0” max spacing for posts) I am just shy of my 5th post. What I need is as I stretch my block it keeps all of my posts equally spaced between each other until I hit that magic number of my 5’-0” spacing, where it would add the next post and once again re-balance to maintain equal spacing between all posts. I would need this to continue nearly indefinitely.

I don’t have any issue creating the block with stretching and it automatically adding the next post, my hangup is maintaining equal spacing while doing this.

Thoughts?

[Libbya]

Yes, it can be done as long as you do not need infinite stretch length.  It becomes progressively more work, the more objects you add.  

[Anonymous]

HOLY O-SNAP! LOL. I figured there was some way to do it. I am going to give it a whack. THANK YOU!!!

[Libbya]

You need to add a new visibility state for each new object.  With each additional object, you will need to add the appropriate stretch actions and modify their distance modifiers accordingly.  The number of additional stretch actions needed goes up with each additional visibility state.