Stair handrail creation problems

pns000 · 18 Mar 2008, 12:15

Hey guys,

I have been a silent observer here for some time. I work in a very high-end architectural firm in CT and 95% of my day is creating 3D models and renderings. I have experience in the 3D and VR worlds professionally going back as far as 1993 and SGI Onyx boxes, for those who remember those lovely machines. My personal experience however precedes that much further. Hopefully I would like to branch out on my own and work for myself but have no idea how to do so.... anyways to my topic.....

I am trying to use follow me to articulate a continuous handrail for an interior rendering only to find myself frustrated at this point. I have a manufacturer-specfic profile for the rail, which I attempt to send along a 3d line. As the rail turns and starts to dive down the staircase, it slowly starts to twist so by the time is reaches the bottom of the stairs its rotated 90 degrees... not good. How can I avoid this, fix this or is there a way to loft along the path and simply define the profile at points to keep it from twisting on its way down?

I am sure I could model elsewhere and just move on, but I am trying an experiment with current work to see if I can utilize SketchUp for all the modeling and pre-render work, doing finals with Maxwell. Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

watkins · 18 Mar 2008, 12:33

Use Search and key in Curved Wall. There are lots of posts on this problem, with solutions

pns000 · 18 Mar 2008, 13:28

Perhaps I am just blind to it, but I found no real solution to the problem I am facing. Can you be a little more specific as to where you think the solution to my problem lies? Imagine a very complex profile shape that goes around the second floor balcony, comes to the stairs, curves downward and then starts to follow the steps down, which are curved and decend, where the rail then returns to a flat plane and curls outward onto itself to end the railing. I do not see any correlation between my situation and the curved walls in the search results you gave me, although I found a very nice push/pull ruby script

I have to imagine I am not the first person trying to make a handrail for stairs with anything but a circle for a profile....

dtrarch · 18 Mar 2008, 15:14

Hi pns000

The truth is that you cannot do what you want with a sweep in SU.
The twist is built in and no one to date has come up with a fix.
Only a circular section will look OK but the twist is still there.

Best bet to date is to use an external program and import to SU.

Some of the less faint of heart have stitched a section at a time while rotating end faces/outlines.

Big PIA and not getting better.

dtr

watkins · 18 Mar 2008, 15:31

I think there is a plugin that one can buy to do this (turn without twisting), but I just cannot remember from whom it is available. I thought it was RPS but when I looked on their website I couldn't find a reference to the plugin.

Perhaps someone else can help.

Regards,
Bob

watkins · 18 Mar 2008, 15:33

Go here:

http://groups.google.com/group/Sketchup-Pro/browse_thread/thread/22b20d8e5fe6e2cb/52d58ff1ea58b7f8

Hope that helps.
Bob

Rob D · 19 Mar 2008, 12:05

Hi

Complex section handrails with curve can be done (see attached). Does your handrail path contain a helix? If so, how have you constructed it?

Regards
Rob D

Daniel · 19 Mar 2008, 14:23

pns000, what is your handrail's profile like? I've noticed when working with small curved profiles with the follow-me command, they don't always behave as expected. Usually, enlarging it say 100x (after copying the profile and path to another file) it works correctly; then I just reduce it.