Railing Pattern Design

[IMCornish]

I am struggling to reproduce what seems to be the most simple of railing patterns and am getting quite frustrated  since I can't work out the logic of the 'Main pattern' for Balusters and how it relates to the 'Posts' layout.  The railing has 4 baluster styles and 2 rail styles.  It is all of galvanised steel with the top rail being the handrail which has a rounded top and a flat underside whilst the lower rail, being 150mm off the ground, is a simple rectangle, no problem with that but the balusters present a greater challenge.  This railing is on a cantillevered balcony and has two sides and a face on the edge of the simple rectangular balcony.  The first 'baluster' is of the same profile as the lower rail and connects between the handrail and lower rail whilst being screwed to the face of the block wall thus holding the railing secure to the back wall.  Between the wall and each corner there are two baluster styles, one a simple 10mm metal square section, the other being the same but having a decorative twist.  These alternate with the 'twisted' style on each corner.  All these balusters run between the upper and lower rails and do not extend to the floor level.  The stability of this balcony railing is assured by the fourth 'baluster' style which is introduced as 3 balcony legs located between the balcony floor (host) and extending up to the lower rail whilst being spaced evenly accross the front railing face.

My conclusion is that whilst the two ends have similar patterns, the long face has a different pattern and Revit is not able to cope with this even if you have a line in the Baluster Placement pattern for every baluster? Trying to use different patterns for each face results in no railing mitres at the corners.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Mirko.Jurcevic]

Can you, please, provide an image of what are you trying to achieve. Maybe a sample piece of your model including your progress so far?

There are many options in Baluster placement dialog, I think providing some additional info would be the fastest way to the solution.

[IMCornish]

Thanks for your timely response mirco.  I am being pedantic here but wish to be able to understand the railing pattern rules.  The railing is within a project so I will try and provide sufficient information in a visual way.

Firstly herewith a photo of the balcony railing that I am trying to create in a building survey:

Herewith an image of my 'Edit Baluster Placement' dialog

my 'Edit Rails' dialog:

and a 3D of my progress, balcony and railing temporarily isolated from project:

I hope this and the scrippled baluster and rail keys help?

Thnks again.

[alex60]

Hi all, to make the railing with a full line in all the balcony, you should use the posts in the baluster placement window, but you have only 3 options, start, corner and end positions, see the attached image. When you want to use more posts than those before, you have to create a pattern using the baluster from railing one up to railing two on top and add a new one from host to bottom railing, but this makes the railing a little more complicated because you have to create as many pattern as dimensions of railing in your balcony, otherwise you will see spaces with no balusters.

I hope this will be helpful. Thanks, Alex

[IMCornish]

If I understand you correctly then you have missed the point, which I could have explained better, that the legs which you have interpreted as 'Posts' do not occur at the start end or corners whereas two of the balusters do and only extend between the lower and upper rails but do not extend down to the base (host).  Please explain further if I have missed your point and thank you for your interest.

[Alisder.Brown · Accepted solution]

IMCornish

See the attached image and Revit project file, is this what you are looking for? 

The issue seems to be the "excess fill length" option and the "break pattern"option. due to the size of the pattern and the edges being to small to fit a whole iteration of the pattern it has a fit and wont do it. Just tell it NEVEr to break the pattern and choose to Truncate the excess fill length.

Should sort your issue

Hope this helps 🙂

[alex60]

Hi all, thanks you Alisder, I down loaded your railing and made my own version and it was really helpful. See the attached image.

thanks, Alex

[IMCornish · Accepted solution]

You pretty much got there Alisder.  My mind had pretty much clicked into full working mode earlier and I realised that I had to complete a line of pattern for every baluster because the distance between them, on the sides, is greater than on the face and each 'leg' had to be inserted as well.  I also cottoned on to the fact that the pattern should never break, be justified from the beginning with no excess length fill.  By ensuring the correct spacing I was also able to dispense with the  'Corner Post' by ensuring that the pattern located the correct baluster in the correct place.  The pattern therefore has 52 lines to 'Pattern End' therefore terrifically complicated to produce such a simple railing!  The alternate regular balusters also makes it very complicated.  See the image below.

 

 Thanks to all contributors for your help.

[ranjitdurai0104]

You’re not alone—Revit railings can get frustrating when patterns vary across different faces. The issue is that the baluster placement pattern is applied uniformly, so mixing different layouts (like your front vs sides) doesn’t work well, and it breaks mitres at corners.

A practical workaround is to:

• Split the railing into separate railing elements for each face

• Or use in-place families / custom components for more control over balusters

That way you can manually control the alternating styles and spacing without fighting Revit’s pattern logic.

If you’re looking for real-world design inspiration for similar railing styles, you can check this out: