End posts, railing and families - Can a newbie master this kind wizardry?

[Anonymous]

I've just started my training in Revit. At school we'v got the assignment to draw our own house. A challenging task, but since there is no way for our teacher to visit all our homes there is a lot of opportunities so choose easy ways out. But I don't find the easy way out interesting. I've built most of my house my self and take some pride in getting it right down to details. Hence the problem...

The railing at the stairs... This I mad my self a summer 16 years ago and I'd like to get it in to my drawing. In the picture I've got my post for the railing. Made it in a copy of an existing baluster in the family "Balusters", this may have been a bad decision. I can't seem to get it in to my work. Maybe it's because it's a baluster and not at post-family. But as you see in the pic, it's classed as a post. 

I've searched both the web and here on Revit Forum but I didn't find any good clues. Maybe my English is too bad, I'm from Sweden. 

To straighten this post out a bit, my questions are:

Is it possible to use this as a post for a railing?

Can i use it as it is, or do I have to transfer it to a new family?

Is railing and posts too advanced for a newbie and I should just leave it and take the easy way out and use a standard railing? 

[bimscape]

COngratulations on your progress to date. If you're new to Revit, then diving into the Family Editor is a brave move! (but why not!)

Yes, you can use the baluster family in railings. There is only one "railing" part to Revit- whether it's used on a stair / ramp, or on a horizontal surface (by sketching) it's path- it's the same underlying code.

[ToanDN]

Make sure you check the box below in the family.

[Anonymous]

This has to be the Internet's fastest forum! 😃 
I managed to design the smaller baluster's an assemble a railing. As you can see in pic 1 the railing is on the floor. If i sketch it using "Place on stairs" I get a railing consisting of the end posts only. I don't realy see why... guess its a bug. If i sketch the railing by path I get my balusters, but I don't seem to be able to choose my end post. 

Further more the railing is supposed to look like pic 2, the rods that binds the balusters together isn't supposed to be there. How do I turn them off?

[ToanDN]

Can you share the file with the stair and railing?  Copy paste them to a new file if needs be.

[Anonymous]

I'll try to paste...

Övningshuset - that's the whole building... probably a bit massive to fiddle with

Ståndare Empire - the balusters

Slutpost empire - The end post

I'e also tried to create a railing top and a bottom part, but I just don't get it right

[Anonymous]

If you download the whole building you'll find a view if the railings in Section 6 (Section view)

[ToanDN · Accepted solution]

Below is what I have got just far... but I've got to run.  There are still some unresolved errors in the corner due the winder steps.

- The baluster family needs void to trim the top and bottom follows the angled reference planes

- The post family needs to be constrained properly to the height parameter

- Various settings applied to the rail family configurations

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all great help!
All these parameters in the railings section is getting clearer to me thanks to the file in your post. Balusters are complicated but no longer pure wizardry 😃
Now my balusters reach the top rail in a straight railing, I plan to place the straight railing on 2:nd floor around the stair shaft. But, the balusters will be placed on a rectangular base, much like a top railing. And then we've got the top rail...I'll have to change this to another profile of my own. This is still pure wizardry in my opinion.

To be continued...

[Anonymous]

The indoor railing worked out, well decent

Now the problem is the balcony railing. I've spent the whole day extruding and voiding to create what you see in pic 1. Bit I've messed up front/back and Left/right.pic 2... Is there a way to turn this baluster 90 degrees? I'v tried the obvious turning tool, but that messes up all the voids in the baluster. 

Please! I do need help here!

 😃

[Anonymous]

I guess this issue is solved now, I managed to rotate the baluster by using that obvious rotate tool. Didn't work yesterday, but this morning it did. At first the voids didn't show, I then adjusted the void depth to far more than necessary, managed to change color of balusters by using this tip:

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/revit-products/learn-explore/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/C...