Hi I am trying to draw a handrail for a straight stair with winders at the bottom and top- so the railing is curved as it goes around the corners. I have tried projecting points up from the plan and joining with curves but it doesn’t work smoothly- could anyone advise?
Thanks
How about sharing the handrail as you’ve got it made so far. upload the SKP file.
Using Follow-me tool would be the usual way of doing these type of things. But cannot give you specific answers since we cannot really understand what you are trying to do as @DaveR said.
Upright Extruder will usually produce a better handrail of this sort than Follow me.
The standard follow-me may work. But it often causes the profile to twist as it goes around a 3D curve, in which case the extension @Box recommended may work better.
I’ve even had good luck with curviloft. The other methods appear to distort the profile a bit more.
Here’s a recent 45° turn.
Shep
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Many thanks to everyone who replied. Here is the file. Using follow me I have something good enough for my purposes at present but it isn’t right on the steeper curve on the first 3 steps.Stair.skp (991.3 KB)
You could draw a better, smoother curve at the bottom. I used the Bezier Curve tool for this example.
That was quick! I tried that tool but found I couldn’t control it- I guess I need more practice…
I won’t say that the curve I drew was exactly correct for your application but here’s how I laid it out.
I extended the straight run down as far as the end of your path and constructed the rectangle. Then I deleted your line segments and used the Bezier curve tool. First point at the end of your straight run, second point at the bottom end you had established and the intermediate control point on the corner where the straight run extension meets the rectangle.
If your treads are laid out well enough you can use them as a form for the handrail. Just plot the curve along the treads. Then use the follow me tool.
Something like this.
Shep
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clueless;
SU usually has multiple ways to model so, another approach + some comments:
The Bezier has a very useful option but do not see it used very often. That is a 3rd order draws real tangents so, used it with 3 control points and seven segs to draw curve at bottom in plane;
Other comments: Multiple balusters some times have one at front and one in middle of tread. They look small you may want newel (aka cylinder) at top floor and first step; check to make sure the walk path for winders meet code or use “dancing winders” The model rail is model so can scale for size you wantStair (1A).skp (1.1 MB)
Thanks very much for your help and model, much appreciated.