EASY FENCES AND RAILS in SketchUp with Instant Fence and Railing from Vali Architects
This SketchUp extension from Vali Architects allows you to quickly create fences and railings within SketchUp!
Do you like these SketchUp tutorials and videos?
If so, please consider supporting me on Patreon (click here to support) or by visiting my Support the Show Page!
THE SKETCHUP ESSENTIALS COURSE
http://www.thesketchupessentials.com/course
VALI ARCHITECTS SKETCHUP EXTENSION LINK
https://www.valiarchitects.com/sketchup_scripts
Plugin Name –
Instant Fence and Rail
Plugin Developer –
Chuck Vali
Plugin Cost – $26/year
Where can you get it?
You can download it from Chuck Vali’s website – valiarchitects.com, or by visiting the link in the notes below
Instant Fence and Rail Functions
Occasionally, I come across a tool where I’m not sure that I can do it justice by doing a short intro video. That’s basically the case with every single one of Chuck Vali’s extensions, but I’ll try to give you a good overview.
Basically, this extension is designed to help you create fences and railings within SketchUp.
It actually allows you to create many different kinds of fences and railings, including wood and metal fences, stair rails, handrails, and much more.
It actually comes with a library of approximately 300 preset styles.
The way it works is fairly intuitive – select a grouped path, activate the extension, and it will generate a fence based on a style that you select.
It can follow straight and curved paths.
Many of the assemblies created allow you to select which direction they face.
One of the things I really like about this extension is that it will drop your fences along a face. Even if I draw a straight line between points on this sandbox face, you can see that it drops the fence automatically down so that it follows the face.
It pairs well with another of Chuck’s extensions – instant stair for creation of many different kinds of railings.
You can also adjust the parameters of the different fencing pieces that are created – everything from if the object gets dropped on terrain, all the way through spacing and other options as well.
If you’re interested, I can create a video about more of the settings and possibilities of instant fence.
That being said, this is easily the most robust fence and rail extension that I’ve played around with. I wouldn’t compare it to profile builder because they’re really designed to do fundamentally different things – Profile Builder allows you to create just about any profile you want, while this extension is specifically designed for fences and railings, and it’s very good at it.
About Justin Geis
Hi, I'm Justin Geis, and I'm the founder of The SketchUp Essentials. I started using SketchUp as part of my work as a general contractor in 2008. I quickly realized the power of the software and started using it for personal projects. I started The SketchUp Essentials as a place to share easy to follow SketchUp tutorials and tips to help everyone harness the power of 3D Modeling in their lives. When not working with SketchUp, I enjoy playing soccer and spending time with my wife and our two dogs.
