Improvement to Split Railings Tool
The new Revit 2019 feature to "split" railing elements is a step in the right direction, but in most cases still does not offer the flexibility needed to accurately model proper handrail conditions at a landing.
Currently, when using the Split Railing tool, the first step requires that all rail extensions be turned off in the properties settings or deleted, otherwise the user is prompted with an error message: "Cannot split railings with extensions. To split the railing, delete the extensions first, or use the Reset Railing command." This is only slightly frustrating given that after railings have been successfully split, the user can then add/restore extensions to the separate elements.
However, most instances where the Split Railing tool would need be applied, the intent is to create a continuous top rail, with separate handrail components. For example, a continuous auto-rail built with the Place-Railing-on-Stair command will apply both a guardrail & handrail to the entire perimeter path, including at the landings. Since the handrail is not necessary at the flat portion of the landing (beyond the code required extensions, if applicable) the intent would be to remove usually three sections of handrail. By using the Split Railing command, a user now has the ability to remove the unwanted handrail, but in doing so actually splits the rail path entirely, thereby creating separate rail paths, top rails, handrails, etc. Dependent on rail property settings, this often adds additional top & bottom endposts to each section of rail that are unnecessary. The result of the Split tool essentially creates a short-cut to the previous method of modelling separate sections of rail for each run & landing to accommodate an opening.
Ideally, the Split Railing tool would allow a user to split only the handrail, leaving the rest of the rail path & top rail as a continuous element. In doing so, once the unwanted section of handrail has been deleted or modified, the Reset Railing command could then be used on each section of handrail to restore the extensions to floor, wall, post, etc. as needed while maintaining the new continuous top-rail geometry.
If separate handrails within the same overall rail/top-rail component cannot be achieved, perhaps a modification to the Join command would be considered, to allow users to visibly join the two separate rail geometries to each other as to appear as continuous. This may not solve the previously mentioned issue though of duplicate top/bottom endposts...