Hi Guys,
Can anyone give me some ideas how can I create the handrail end but on on Sketchup Pro?
Cheers mate for your support. How can I create the spiral?
I used the Helix tool in the Curve Maker extension from the Extension Warehouse and then added on the straight segment at the top.
Honestly I donât think thatâs the proper shape.
The handrail hand is not just a protruding rounded shape.
It actually doesnât protrude at all.
It just a matter of grooves fading away toward the end and flowing into each other.
You canât get away with just extrusion and/or booleans.
You better off modeling it lowpoly to take care of the grooves termination and then subdivide it.
Hereâs a quick and dirty proof of concept of what I mean.
It can (and should) be done better with actual drawings, proper reference images and a bit more time to spend.
I wasnât trying to duplicate the exact shape of the railing at all. Just show a method.
Yeah, but the hard part is the groove, the spline extrusion is trivial.
He asked about âthe handrail endâ, I believe he really meant that.
The extrusion should be done low poly to allow for further detailing of the âflowing shapeâ.
You canât achieve the proper groove whith booleans at the end of the process (good luck with that).
You need subdivisions, or (at the very least) lofting.
Thanks guys for the help, I would like to try to see the exact shape on my handrail. The issue is that Iâm still struggling with the spiral shape - there is no proper tutorial for curve maker.
The issue Im also facing is that since the staircase is a winder stairs, the handrail is quite angled. I have attached the sketchup file if someone can help.
COMMON AREA.skp (1.3 MB)
Is the design of the stairs messy on purpose, I mean the shape I understand that follows the shape of the internal part of the building, but the height of every step has different sizes. I´m going to try to fix that if i have your approval, that would make it easier to make te handrail, By the way your file has some of the classic beginner issues, length and radial sapping is activated and by some reason the linear dimension was set to millimeters while areas and cubic dimensions were set to square and cubic meters respectively, and for my workflow I consider that working just with one decimal could lead to inaccurate measurements.
Hi Francis,
Thanks for this.Youâre right, Iâm still a beginner. Im also European which means that we use metric system, however for the sake of the exercise, feel free to choose whatever you are comfortable with.
Re stairs - this is my house where I am going to have an extensive renovation and extension, therefore itâs almost impossible every level has the same stair height.
Atm I have deleted the existing and done it again using the Extrude Lines by D.BUR. Please find below a cleaner version.
COMMON AREA.skp (1.3 MB)
Iâm not European but I also use the metric system, like the 99% of the countries.
Iâll check your file and fix it if itâs necessary.
Bro, you are trying to model such a fine detail more than 170 meters away from origin (in negative space)?
Are you kiddinâme? 
Plus, the actual section of the rail (or at least decent reference images) are not included.. how do you think you can produce âthe exact shapeâ without that?
At best you can try to do something that âresemblesâ that shape.. but we have no information about the actual thickness of the rail, the size of the grooves and how the grooves are terminated (the front one is barely visible in your photo, the back one we cannot see at all).
BTW Iâm not sure what are you trying to do with that spiral.
Thereâs no spiral here.. Just a curved rail.
You could step it down a notch..
@Josef1 clearly states that heâs still a beginner at SketchUp!
Maybe itâs better to explain why thatâs not a good idea..
So, if you think itâs better, just explain it.
I at least suggested that is not a good idea at all.
He can just trust me (which he should), or read your detailed explanation (when itâs done).
If you feel that youâre too much of an expert to handle the mistakes in my file, feel free to move on to another post.
Iâm working on your file, I fixed the steps and now all have the same height, I havenât had much time but Iâll try to share today the fixed file.
Iâll move for sure, but still youâll need to use proper sections and dimensions to do the exact shape. Otherwise it will just resemble it and will not be exact.
Thatâs what I said and I confirm it.
Then youâll have to solve the issues I highlighted.
And when youâll do, you better draw near model origin. Learned ones will explain you why.
Iâm done.
Update, I moved the model closer to the axis, I made a small redesign to the stairs so the handrail can be done with the shape you want without any gaps, that took me some time cause the stairs do not follow the same pattern on its path, some corners have rectangular breaks and some doesnât, I didnât change that cause I guess thatâs how itâs done in situ. The only thing left to do is the handrail that after all the other problems fixed itâs not going to be the âeasiestâ part to model, I had a long day and Iâm very tired but Iâll keep working on it tomorrow, I really like a good challenge.
For someone aggressively demanding accuracy you might consider tidying up your profile. Iâve not heard of the âvertex toolsâ operating system.