Creating a Handrail for an Accessible Ramp

Using the Cadimage StairBuilder and Railing tools you can easily create a handrail that utilizes the powerful display options of the Railing tool.

Create your ramp using a combination of roof planes and slabs, meshes, or your own methods. Once completed, open the Stair Selection Settings dialog for the Cadimage Tools StairBuilder by double clicking the Stair icon within the ToolBox. Go to the Treads & Risers > Dimensions tab and adjust the treads to smaller dimensions. (The example shown allows a finer step and therefore a more accurate railing placement as it follows the top of the stair.).

Simply place a stair including landings while tracing your already built ramp, then in the 3D window adjust the overall height of the stair to match the ramp.  (You may also preset this value in the Dimensions tab of the Stair Selection Settings dialog.)

Once your stair is placed it is simply a matter of applying a balustrade using the Railing Tool, adjust the settings to your requirements and attach.

As you cannot delete the Stair without affecting the placed railing, you can put the Stair on a non used layer to quickly hide it. If you prefer not to keep the Stair, drag a copy of the railings to create separate and non associated versions. The original Stair can now be deleted and the original railings will disappear with it.

Tags: ramp, Stair Builder

Straight Downpipe in Roof Builder

Sometimes you don’t want a neck on your downpipe and simply want it to be straight.

To get a straight downpipe, simply set the Neck Angle to 90°.

Tags: roofbuilder

GDL Handbook News

Following the GDL Handbook launch in March, the ArchiCAD-Talk forum Libraries / LibraryParts / GDL has been flooded with questions and comments. Many of the questions have come from people who are working through the book, and need a little extra help to understand a point here and there.

We’re delighted that people are using the GDL Handbook to learn GDL programming techniques. This has always been the aim, to provide a learning resource that doubles as an on-going reference.

For anyone who wants to more discuss aspects of the book that don’t naturally fit into the ArchiCAD-Talk forum, we’ve opened a new forum on the CadimageTools website. This forum is dedicated to the GDL Handbook, so you can start a new topic on just about any related topic – from creating parameters to curve approximation and texture mapping. We’ll also let you know about new resources (examples, sub-routines and .pdf documents) that can be downloaded to help you as you work through the book.

To use the forum, just log onto the CadimageTools website and browse to Resources > Forums > GDL Handbook.

Editing the Shape of a Stair Builder Stair

You can easily edit the overall shape of a single Cadimage Tools Stair.  Go to the Cadimage Pulldown menu, select Stair Builder then Stair Shape Edit Mode.

This activates additional hotspots to the stair; selecting the middle hotspots allows you to add a curve, selecting the corner hotspots allows you to change the edge angle.

Tags: Stair Builder

Linking Materials in the Accessory Tool

When using the Cadimage Accessory Tool – Wall Builder, you can use the “link material” checkbox to quickly change a batch of materials.

When the checkbox is checked,  change of one material will automatically update all matching materials.

Tags: WallBuilder