Every time I have to model a guard railing this issue has me perplexed. Why in the world would the picket spacings be driven by the measurement from center of post to center of first picket? As far as I know the building codes in north america are very similar and thus 99% of fabricators use 4" center to center for picket layouts. By removing or adding a picket and centering the whole setup, the space between post and first picket is kept under 4". The spacing can be any number, I am just using what is spec'd by building code. I have a hard time believing other companies space the pickets at 3 11/16" eg. Our fabricators have jigs that they use to layout the pickets at 4". Having to make new jigs for every railing is very time consuming! Right now I have to change Distance from post in 1/32 increments or less to get 4" spacing. Very time consuming!!
I think advance steel SHOULD have:
1. an option to set the picket spacing to a specific distance (4" in my case) , not a max. distance!
2. the ability to add or remove pickets by entering a quantity (after which the array of pickets is automatically centered between the two posts) and through that increase or decrease the measurement between post and first picket / last picket and other post.