direction of the decking

[Elovia]

Mark,

We may need a little more to go on before being able to solve your problem. Once you apply changes to settings on the Deck tab, have you then used the Advanced Deck Framing tool to build the deck framing? When you say that your decking is perpendicular to the house, are you referring to the actual deck planking or the texture applied as flooring to rooms designated as "Deck" in the Room Specification dialog?

For a solid rail next to your stairs, use the Railing Tool to draw a rail next to the stairs (take care to NOT place them under the stair edge) and open its specification dialog to change it from the default to solid. Then open the stairs dialog and change (or deselect) the "railing at wall" options on the Railing tab if desired.

Hope this helps.

Edit to add: On the Deck tab of the Room Specification dialog, you should be able to specify the planking direction (angle). Make sure you uncheck the Default direction option.