Here is a little gift to all my readers.  The link below allows you to download a 2012 version RVT project that contains In-place and Component versions of families that are of the Category ‘Stairs’ and ‘Railings’.
Download link

Revit does not allow this to happen out-of-the-box, so you can be sure that this hack is not best practice, and it won’t be supported by Autodesk.  Use at your own risk!

Having said that, if you know what you are doing, these families could be quite useful to you.

Revit Family Stair Category

RFA Railing Category

Did you know that there is a different style of Railing description?  This style does NOT have a ‘Baluster Placement’ dialog box.  The only Baluster settings in this form of Railing are essentially to select a Baluster family and set a separation (see image).

If you want to use this simpler type of railing definition, you can still download a sample file from Autodesk that includes this older method.

Link to download the file here.

Lightweight version here

Sample file index page:
Revit Instruction & Help SamplesRevit SamplesMetric

This issue is similar to using legacy mass forms in newer versions of Revit.

Stairs and railings in Revit can be extremely frustrating.
In fact, I’m often annoyed that I can’t even model a Railing in-place, as the Railing category isn’t available for in-place families!
So, how do you make an unusual ‘custom’ railing connection work?
In 10 steps:
  1. Create a 3D view with section box around the connection you would like to resolve
  2. Export this 3D view to a DWG file.
  3. Create a new Generic Model family.
  4. Import the 3D DWG.
  5. Using the context you have now imported, model the rest of the baluster / railing connection.  I recommend that you use Reference Lines and then create Sweeps using ‘Pick Lines’.
  6. After you have modeled the custom 3D geometry in the Generic Model family, create a Baluster Post family.
  7. Load the Generic Model family into the Baluster Post family.
  8. Load the Baluster Post family into the Project.
  9. Apply your new custom Baluster Post to the Start / Corner / End post of the Railing you are trying to correct.
  10. In the Baluster Post family, rotate and move the Generic Model family around until it is in the right place and reload into the Project.
For a sample project showing one of these connections, open the following file:
For a sample Baluster Post family, download the following file:
I found this ‘section box’ technique in the book Mastering Revit Architecture 2011.