Railing me this, Railing me that

Nostalgia can be defined as a "sentimentality for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations. The word nostalgia is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of νόστος (nóstos), meaning "homecoming", a Homeric word, and ἄλγος (álgos), meaning "pain, ache", and was coined by a 17th-century medical student to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home. Described as a medical condition—a form of melancholy—in the Early Modern period, it became an important trope in Romanticism" - Wikipedia

People are resistant to change. This is normal. People are naturally afraid of the unknown and yearn for "those good old days" when designs were "simply" created with a pencil and sepia paper. I have a lot of respect for these old school skills; however, times are changing: In order to survive, we need to embrace change. Change is fun; Embrace technology to make your life easier. Never. Stop. Learning! 

This Revit Recess blog entry will investigate how Railings can be used to create completely different objects using different modelling and assembly methods.

1. How do you find a missing train? Follow the tracks

In this example, a railway track was created by creating a new railing profile and baluster family.

These families were used in the type properties of a newly created railing system family, by editing the Railing type properties. 

Tussen Treine - Richard van der Westhuizen & Gerhard Steyn

2. Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"?

Even though creating a forest natively in Revit might not be the best-practice option, it is possible and actually very easy to do. One can nest a planting family in a baluster family. The amount of planting RPC's will depend on how many rows of trees you require (Or how many times you need to replicate your treeline).  

I nested 5 Eastern Hemlock trees into a baluster family and created a new railing. Depending on the direction the rail is sketched, the trees will either be added on the left, right, top or bottom of your sketch line.

Suikerbos, Ek wil jou hê - Unknown musicians at the Brass Bell tunnel

3. Stay ahead of the curve

Using very similar nesting methods as described above, a simple horseshoe arch was created as a generic model family. This generic model family was nested into a new baluster family. You will notice that not every arch has a lighting fixture attached to it. Because we can set up multiple balusters per railing, all that was needed was to have an Arch-With-Light, and an Arch-Without-Light baluster family set up within the Type properties of the railing.

David Kramer - Stoksielalleen