Place and Repair Railings on Stairs and Edges

1. Place a railing directly on a stair or ramp:
   1. On the Architecture tab, open the Railing drop-down and choose Place on Stair/Ramp.
   2. Pick the railing type in the Type Selector, and on the ribbon choose the position: Treads or Stringer.
   3. Click the stair — Revit builds the railing along the full run, following every landing.
2. Place a railing along a floor or balcony edge:
   1. Open the Railing drop-down and choose Sketch Path.
   2. In the Options Bar / Properties, confirm the Base Level the railing sits on.
   3. Draw the path with Line / Pick Lines along the slab edge — the path must be a single connected chain, no branches.
   4. Click ✓ (Finish Edit Mode).
3. Edit an existing railing's path:
   1. Select the railing and click Edit Path on the ribbon.
   2. Drag, trim (TR), split (SL), or redraw segments; keep the chain continuous.
   3. Finish with ✓ — the rail, balusters, and posts regenerate along the new path.
4. Swap the railing type:
   • Select the railing and pick a different type in the Type Selector (e.g. 900mm Pipe → glass balustrade type).
   • The path is kept; only the profile, balusters, and posts change.
5. Fix hosting problems:
   • Railing floats flat instead of following the stair: select it, click Pick New Host on the ribbon, and click the stair or ramp — the railing re-drapes onto it.
   • Railing sits at the wrong height above treads: in Properties, check Offset from Path and, in Edit Type, the rail heights inside Rail Structure (Non-Continuous).
   • Deleted the automatic stair railings? Use Place on Stair/Ramp again — nothing is lost permanently.
6. Verify in 3D and in a Section: the top rail must stay at a constant height above the nosing line along the whole flight, including landings.

Note: A railing is host-aware geometry, not a modelled fence — because it stores its host and path separately, you can restyle an entire building's guardrails by swapping types, and repair a broken one with Pick New Host instead of remodelling it.

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Taught in

• New for 2026 — first taught in BIM + Computational Workflow 2026.