Relations used to model railings number of balusters

[canoemike]

Hi All,

I am replacing my deck on my home. So I decide to model it in Pro-e. I have gotten to the railings and would like to get the correct number of balusters for each length of rail section. This is where it gets interesting.

The inputs are
1) spacing of balusters = 4" Dia of baluster is 3/4
2) Baluster pattern must be centered.
3) Length of railing section is the variable number.

Example 1: if the length of railing section where 7" there would only be one baluster needed. It would be centered so the spaces to meet town railing codes does not exceed 4"

Example 2: if the length of railing section where 10" there would be two balusters needed. They would be equally offset from the center 2" in each direction meet town railing code does not exceed 4"

Below is a relation I am using to get this to work for my test, but it will require many more statements to work for other possible lengths of railing section.

/*to determine number of balusters per space between post.
/*sketch is the l driver.
IF length>4.00 & length<8.00
offset = 0
pattern = 1
ENDIF
IF length >8.1 & length <12.0
offset = 2.3750
pattern = 2
ENDIF

Can you think of a better way to pull a relation to evenly space centered balusters on a variable length of railing ?




Thanks for the input on the railing quest.
Mike

 

[canoemike]

Ya , relations can be a little boring. Sometimes its best to keep it simple.