This tutorial will take you through the steps necessary to model, analyze, and design a 4 story steel

moment frame building with composite beam floors, a common application for ETABS.

To begin, click the New model button or File>New Model and you will see an option to choose an .edb file. With ETABS, you can open a model based on the defaults of a previous model in order to access previously defined load combos, sections, etc. But for this exercise, press No

This is the screen where you set up your initial grids, story heights, and define similar stories. Although the templates may be occasionally useful, typically you will model with Grid only, which is what we will use in this exercise. The default grid is a 4 story building with 12 ft. story heights and 3 bays in the X and Y directions, default values which we will change. Please keep in mind that the concepts and modeling techniques in this tutorial can be applied to any model.

Leaving the 4 story data defaults in place, select custom story data and click the edit story data button, because we will review the defaults and make 1 change. Note the units button on this dialogue which you can change at any time

Here you can click to activate cells to specify story heights, master stories, splice points and units. While in Kip-in units, change Story 1 height to 156 inches by entering 13ft or 13 then tab and ETABS automatically converts to current units. Accept the other defaults, which designate Story 4 as the Master story similar to stories 1 3 which will be used for similar story operations later. With similar stories defined, you have the option to have changes made on one story automatically ripple down to similar stories without having to manually change the model on every story. It is possible to have several master stories with different stories being similar to them

Next, change units to Kip-ft then specify 7 grid lines in the X direction and 6 gridlines in the Y direction, and change and the uniform spacing in the Y direction to 22 feet between gridlines as shown below. Next, select custom grid spacing and click the Edit grid button in order to review gridlines and spacing

After pressing the Edit grid button, the Define Grid dialogue appears, enabling you to add or modify grid lines and/or Grid ID names. Here is where you would specify additional grids, modify existing grids for irregular spacing, or Hide gridlines. Each grid automatically generates its own planar view as we will see in a moment. You can add grid ordinates at the bottom which are out of sequence and ETABS will automatically sort them. Later, if you want to add or modify grid lines, you can access this dialogue directly within ETABS by double clicking any gridline in the model in planar view to make it appear. For this exercise accept the data shown below by pressing OK, then click Grid only in the next screen

After clicking Grid only, then press OK and you should see the split-screen view below. Note that the planar view on the left is highlighted in blue on the 3D view. Units are in the bottom right corner and can be changed at any time. For this example, each gridline represents a bay, but it doesnt have to be like this. You can define intermediate gridlines between bays to help you model walls, beams, trusses, or whatever you want to model

Units

As an exercise double-click one of the grids in plan view to display the Define grids screen shown below. Use Kip-ft units and change the ordinate for G grid in the X direction from 144 to 160, then add another ordinate below for 108 as shown below. Make sure you click to add line type, visibility and Bubble Loc. or you will get an error message when you try and save it. Press OK

This is what your grids should look like now. This exercise is to demonstrate how you can add and modify grid lines. Double-click the grids once more to open the Define Grid dialogue

In Kip-ft units, change Gridline G ordinate back to 144 and then select the row with the X 108 ordinate and use the Edit menu to Delete Row and press OK after making those changes to return to the original grid layout.

As another exercise, click the elev button at the top and then click 4 in the Set Elevation view list to switch from XY plan view to elevation view along grid 4. You can change the view of each window by first clicking anywhere inside either window to make it the active window, then clicking 3-D, plan, or elev buttons to specify which view you want for a particular window.

After clicking the elev button and selecting elevation view 4, we switched from plan view to elevation view. Clicking the up/down arrows lets you scroll through the model. Again, note how the 3D view highlights the location of the planar view on the left

Now click the plan button at the top, then click Story 4 to return to XY Plan view shown here.

Well start by defining materials, Define menu>Material Properties, although we can add or modify materials at any time. You will see that ETABS provides a default concrete and a default steel material. By clicking Add New material button, you can add additional materials of any type, including aluminum, wood and orthotropic materials. For concrete in particular, its common to add several different concrete materials to account for different concrete strengths and density for slabs, beams and columns.

Next, well define frame sections using Define>Frame sections, where you will see the screen below. There will be a default working list of sections on the left which may or may not be applicable to your project. For that reason, its usually best to delete them to eliminate the clutter. Delete all of the sections on the list except for a few (must be at least 1 section in the list) For standard steel sections and joists, you use the Import pulldown list, because youll import them from a sections library. For concrete sections, nonstandard steel & concrete shapes, nonprismatic sections, and auto select lists, you use the Add pull-down list.

Use the Import pull-down and mouse click Import I/Wide flange to Import Wide flange sections and ETABS will pop-up a window from the ETABS directory asking you to specify which library you want to use. Click Sections8.pro for the latest AISC library. Alternatively, you could have selected from Canadian or international section libraries. If you need to import other standard steel sections, return to Define Frame Properties and click Import Tee or Import Box/tube or whatever steel section you wish to import.

After you click Section8.pro section library to open, a list of wide flange sections from that library will appear. Use your shift and Ctrl key to select which ones to import into your working list for your structural model and lets you select the steel material. Go ahead and select through the W14s for this exercise and press OK. If you did not delete the default sections, ETABS will automatically relabel the new ones if there are duplicates. Repeat this import procedure for each different steel section type or joist section import. For example, you would click Import Tee to import WT sections.

After importing your standard steel sections, as an exercise, return to Define>Frame sections and review the Add pull-down list. Here you can define and add concrete or nonstandard steel sections of different shapes such as plate girders, solid rods, L shapes, or cables, and nonprismatic sections. There is also a section designer available under this pull-down using the Add SD Section. The Set Modifiers button on the section dialogue enables you to assign factors to section properties. This feature is commonly used to reduce moments of inertia for concrete cracked sections or to zero out weight and mass. The Reinforcement button for concrete material sections enables you to specify reinforcement parameters. Below are just a couple of examples of what you can define using the Add pull-down

Utilize auto-select lists to optimize for lightest steel section based on design code strength and user specified deflection criteria. Define>Frame sections> click Add Auto select list. In this example, create an autoselect list named AUTOW14 for selected W14 sections by picking W14 sections on the list, then add them to the Auto selection list. And press OK until you return to the main menu screen

Next, were going to learn about some of the draw tools by first doing a little exercise before we create our building model. Click the create lines in region or at clicks button on the left. Specify the W12X35 section property in the pop-up window by clicking the property and choosing from the list as shown below with continuous connection. After youve specified the properties of your frames, while holding down your left mouse key, drag to window around gridline 6 as shown below to draw frames. You can always select and assign later in order to change sections, moment releases, etc.

Next, click the Draw lines button on the left and click once on the intersection of gridlines 5 and A and then click once more on the intersection of 5 and D to complete drawing the frame. To continue drawing, you could right click to lift the pencil off the paper and draw elsewhere, but for now, press the Select object arrow button on the left or press Esc on your keyboard in order to go into Select mode

Select button

Draw lines button

In select mode, either individually left click the end joints to select, or window select as shown below in order to select the end joints

After selecting these 4 joints, go to Assign menu>Joint/point>Restraints(supports) and assign fixed restraints as shown here. Press OK

Go to Analyze menu>Run analysis and name the model Tutorial. After running the analysis, click the Show member forces button on the top right portion of your screen as shown below, then select Frame/pier/spandrel forces which displays this next screen shown below where you select Dead load (which by default is the self weight) Moment 3-3, which is major moment. Press OK

Show member/forces diagram button

Right click individual frames along gridlines 5 and 6 to review moment diagrams. A noticeable difference being that that the create lines in regions or at clicks draw tool automatically divides the frames at each grid intersection, generating 3 separate moment diagrams along gridline 6. But using the Draw lines draw tool along gridline 5, the user is able to control the length of a frame for analysis and design, in this case spanning one beam across 3 bays. These draw tools can be used to draw/model either beams or columns, and the Draw lines tool can also be used to draw bracing

Click the Set building View options button on the top of your screen as shown below and un-checkbox the Invisible point objects, as joints in ETABS are by default invisible unless you do this. Click OK

If you click rubber band window zoom, you can now see the joints as shown below. You can see that the create lines in region or at clicks draw tool option automatically divided the frame at each grid intersection whereas the Draw lines option did not. The create lines in regions or at click draw tool has the advantage of being able to window around areas to quickly draw a lot of frames on grids, but it will divide each frame at grid intersections. The Draw lines draw tool gives you more control over the physical length, and also lets you draw at skewed angles on or off the gridlines

Rubber band zoom

Now that weve covered the differences between the two frame draw tools, were going to delete these frames and model a building structure. First, unlock the model by clicking the padlock button, then click the Select all button to select all, then press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete everything

You may have to reactivate your snap to grid intersections and points snap tool as shown below. Go to plan view story 4

Activate Similar stories as shown below in the bottom right part of your screen, then use create lines in regions or at clicks draw tool and hold down your mouse to window draw around the area as shown. Use section property W12X35 with continuous moment connection. For moment connection, there are two options, continuous or pinned. You can later select frames and Assign>Frame/line>Frame releases to modify or assign other release options

This is what your model should now look like. Note that with the Similar stories feature activated, modeling and load assignments automatically ripple down to stories which were designated as similar. You can toggle back to One Story or All stories, depending on what you want to model and whether or not you want changes to ripple down

Using the same draw tool and technique to window around the area shown below

Next, window around the area shown below with your mouse to draw additional beams. The bays between gridlines F and G are empty at this point. We may utilize those grids later.

Press Esc key on your keyboard to exit draw mode, click once anywhere in the 3D view window on the right to make it the active window, then click the Set building view options button at the top and activate the extrusion view option. Press OK

By activating the extrusion view for the right window, we have a rendered view which is convenient for visual checking of sections and local axis. Next, click the rotate 3D button and use your mouse to drag and rotate

Rotate 3D button

Rotate the model, then click the Restore full view and/or 3-d button

Next we will draw columns. Columns can be drawn in either plan or elevation view. For columns which go from top to bottom with each column member spanning one story, its usually faster to draw in plan view with similar stories or all stories activated. With ETABS, it doesnt matter which order you model beams, columns, slabs/decks, walls or bracing. Click once in the left plan view window to make it the active window and make sure that similar stories is activated. Next click create columns in region or at clicks button. Click the property to change to the AUTOW14 auto-select list defined earlier with continuous connection, then window around the area shown below

Create columns in regions or at clicks button

After drawing columns, you can visually check their local axis. Click the same column draw tool again but this time click the angle in the pop-up properties box and change to 90. Window around the area as shown below. Note the ETABS by default adds a pinned restraint at the base of each column. You can select joints and Assign>Joint/point>restraints to modify or delete restraints at any time. ETABS does not require you to model in any particular order. We could have modeled columns first, then beams, whichever is most convenient.

Use rubber band zoom button to zoom in to the plan view to graphically view the different local axis assignments of the columns. Local axis can be changed by selecting columns, either selecting them in elevation view or by clicking on them in plan view. After they are selected, Assign>Frame/line>Local axes. Click restore full view button to return to full view in plan

Rubber band zoom and restore full view buttons

Note the different local axes for columns

In plan view, to select columns hold down the Ctrl key while mouse clicking a column. A list appears like the graphic below where you would click Column to select. If you have similar stories activated, all the columns at that location on other stories would be selected. In elevation view, you would simply click or window around columns to select them. After they are selected, you can use Assign>Frame/line to assign local axes to rotate, frame releases for moment and/or shear releases, different section, insertion points (cardinal point) and other frame assignments

As an exercise, we will next draw columns in elevation view using different frame draw tools. Click the elev button to switch to elevation view, then click 3 and press OK to go to elevation view on gridline 3. Click Draw lines button, make sure the section property is AUTOW14, and make sure the snap to grid intersections snap tool is activated. Click once at the base of 3A and click again on the second floor to model the column spanning 2 stories. Continue by clicking again on story 3 and again at story 4 to draw additional columns which span one story each.

Snap tools

Next, click the create lines in Regions or at click button, make sure you have AUTOW14 as your section property, and window vertically along gridline 3B to draw columns. As you will recall, this draw tool automatically divides the frames at each grid intersection, so therefore columns will divided at every story level in this example. If you had windowed around the entire area including and between 3B and 3C, you would have assigned the AUTOW14 section to beams as well as columns within the selection window. So to avoid selecting beams, window vertically around 3B as shown, and then repeat this procedure by windowing vertically around 3C

Below is what your model should look like after completing the columns in elevation view 3. Note that ETABS by default automatically assigns pin restraints at the base. You can change this restraint assignment by selecting restraints in elevation view or selecting them in plan view (base) and then Assign>joint/point>Restraints (supports) to modify or delete selected restraints, or alternatively assign joint springs or links.

Click the plan button and select Story 4 to switch the left side window to XY plan view. Next we will cover a couple of different options for modeling the framing system. First, activate the snap to line ends and midpoint snap tool, then click Draw lines, change the section to W10X26 and change moment releases to pinned. Move your mouse along gridline 6 between A and B and when you have a midpoint snap, click once, then move your mouse perpendicular to the girders down to gridline 5 as shown below and click once more to draw the secondary beam

Activate the snap to midpoint button

Next we will use special joints to connect the dots to add framing. If the Draw point objects button is not on your list of buttons, you need to add it as shown on the left below. Next, change units in the bottom right portion of your screen to Kip-ft, then click Draw point objects and type 9 in Plan offset X as shown below. This will draw a joint 9 feet in the Y direction from wherever you mouse click. Now click the intersections of gridlines 6 and B, then 5 and B. If you dont see the joint, use set building view options to make joints visible as we covered earlier. The Draw point objects can be used to draw joints on or off the grid

Zooming in to the area, this is what your model should look like. Next, change the Plan offset X to 7.5 (feet) and click the two joints which were just added in order to add two more joints 7.5 away in the X direction

Click Draw lines and connect the dots drawing the beams using the properties and moment releases shown below, W10X26 Pinned. After drawing one beam, right click to move to draw the second beam between the other pair of joints. If you had not wanted this framing to ripple down to other similar stories, you can always switch the setting in the bottom right part of the screen from similar stories to one story. As you can see, the Draw lines tool is versatile. It can be used to draw columns, beams, or bracing. Modeling with point objects on existing frames, adds a joint only for internal analysis. The girders will be reported and designed using the length in which they were drawn. In other words, the girder on Gridline 6 between B and C will have 1 moment diagram, not 3 separate moment diagrams.

Click create secondary beams at regions or at clicks button, change property to W10X26, Pinned, and No. of beams 2, then window around the area shown to draw. For modeling equally spaced beams or equally spaced by proportion of grid spacing, this draw tool is very productive

Secondary beams draw tool

Your model should look like this. The secondary beam draw tool automatically divides at existing grids and between existing frames. By double clicking a gridline to display the Define grid screen, users can hide gridlines to assist in modeling with this draw tool. Next, use the same secondary beams draw tool with same properties, releases and 2 beams, and draw them in the rest of the bays which have no secondary beam by clicking individual bays or windowing around entire areas.

Below is what the plan view should look like. Next, use the down arrow to move the plan view from Story 4 down to Story 2, and change from Similar stories to One Story.

Use up / down arrows to move to scroll through the model

On story 2, click Esc key on keyboard or click the Select button to go into select mode and left click the frame shown below to select, then press the Delete key on your keyboard to delete it. Next, click the secondary beams draw tool with parameters shown below and click once in the empty bay to draw 3 secondary beams in that bay. Note that without the Similar stories option, these changes did not ripple down to other stories

1 1 . 1

To add a modeling twist, activate similar stories feature, then click Draw lines tool to draw a frame as shown at an angle using W12X35 section continuous connection shown below, modeling on Story 2

Click secondary beams draw tool using parameters as shown below and click the bay where the skewed girder was drawn to add secondary beams. In some cases ETABS automatically draws the secondary beams to stop at an angled beam, but in other cases it doesnt. In this case, well need to select and divide beams using Edit>Divide lines, then delete the bottom portion to trim. You may want to de-activate the snap to midpoint tool as it can be distracting when trying to select (optional)

Hold mouse and drag right to left to select

Edit menu>Divide Lines using the option as shown. Press OK Left click beams as shown to select Press delete key on your keyboard to delete/trim

Use Select menu>by Frame sections and click girder section W12X35 in the list to select. Next, go to Assign menu>Group names, give it a name as shown and press OK. Do the same for W10X26 as shown. Groups can be convenient for making assignments, viewing by selection, and for selecting to organize output and design results.

How you model floors depends on the design and how you want to model load transfer. Go to Define>Wall/Slab/Deck sections and Modify/Show SLAB1. Important information about Shell type finite elements: A) they carry in-plane and out-of-plane loading. Out-of-plane moments are why we design steel reinforcement for slabs B) They transfer load 2 way, and transfer load only at shell joint locations, so meshing can be important. It is possible to mesh the shell type and use property Modifiers to force shells to distribute load one-way. At present, the special one-way load distribution feature is not working consistently, so ignore it for now. C) by default, Shell type elements do not automesh. This means that users must use Edit>Mesh areas, or in regular rectangular designs, you can select shell type areas and Assign>Shell area>Area automesh for automeshing

No matter what the current units, users can input using architectural units and ETABS will automatically convert

Using the Set modifiers, users can assign multipliers to section properties in order to reduce stiffness in selected directions, for example, minimize slab contribution in resisting lateral loads, or to reduce EI for cracking. The values used here are just for demonstration purposes. Keep your modification factors at 1 for now

Define>Wall/Slab/Deck sections, then modify/show DECK1 to view the dialogue box below. Important information about Deck type floor sections: A) Deck sections are always membrane type finite elements, which means that they resist in-plane load only, not out-of-plane load. B) Deck and slab membrane type floors transfer shear load only (pin connection) as distributed lineal load to beams, and they transfer the distributed load one-way only C) By default, membrane finite elements will automesh at gridlines, beams and walls. Sometimes the automesh works well, particularly in rectangular designs, but in other designs you may want to use Edit menu>Mesh areas to control the mesh. A useful meshing technique is to draw beams with property None. ETABS automesh will mesh using those lines, and you can also use these None property meshing beams with Edit>Mesh areas>Mesh quads with intersections of selected line objects D) When modeling with Deck area elements, ETABS by default will assign secondary beams to be designed as composite with the deck. This default can be changed by selecting beams then using Design>Overwrite Frame Design Procedure

For some applications, you may consider defining a material with zero weight/mass and use it with slabs or decks in order to use the floor area as an area load transfer tool without self weight. Otherwise, the self weight of the floor area will be automatically calculated and included. To disregard self weight, youll need to zero out the metal deck weight too. If a deck vendor provides exact psf loads, that would be a classic application where you would model with a dummy zero weight material and assign weight from the vendor as an area load to the DEAD case

Modeling floors Floor meshing is important whenever there are different area load assignments on different areas of the same story, or different section assignments on the same story (drop panels, change of materials, etc), and meshing is important for load distribution. When drawing floors (slabs or decks), its not a bad idea to use as your default draw tool the create areas at click. This area draw tool will divide/mesh the floor at grid intersections. Click the create areas at click button, choose DECK1 section property, make sure the similar stories option is activated, and window around the area between gridlines 4 and 6 shown below to draw floor areas. Next, click in the two bays between gridlines 3 and 4 to draw two more rectangular areas, but click the Draw areas tool in order to draw trianglular areas as shown below on the right.

Click the 3 corners of the triangular area using Draw areas tool to draw the triangular floor shape

Use the create areas at click draw tool to finish drawing your floors. If you still have the extrusion view activated for the 3D view window, your model should look like this

In plan view, window select the entire model as shown below left, then Assign>Shell/area loads>uniform and type 60psf for LIVE load case and press ok

Next, click once in the 3D window to make it the active window, then click Set building view options and turn off the extrusion view by un-checking the Extrusion box. Next, analyze the model Analyze>Run analysis. After the analysis completes, click the Show member forces/stress button shown below, click Frame/Pier/Spandrel forces, then change Load to Live and Moment 3-3 which is major moment

Below left is what your model should look like with moment diagrams. Click plan button and switch this 3D view to plan view story 4 as show below right. As you can see, the Deck membrane type finite elements distributed the Live load to the beams one-way as distributed lineal frame loads. Right-click one of the frames to view a moment diagram

Moment diagram makes clear that the live load was distributed as distributed frame load. Press Done button

Click the lock/unlock button and press ok to unlock. Next, Select menu>by area object type and click floor as shown to select floor elements. Next, Assign>Shell/area>Wall/slab/deck sections and click Slab1 to change from Deck1 to Slab1 which uses shell type finite elements by default, but which can be modified to use membrane. Click refresh button, re-analyze the model with the new floor elements, and review the moment diagrams for Live load case as we did before. As you can see, load was not transferred as distributed frame loads, but instead transferred to joints based on shell element mesh

Select the slabs using the Select menu again, Select>by area object type, and click Floor. Next, go to Edit>Mesh Areas and Mesh quads/triangles 1 by 8 as shown below to try to make the slab elements transfer load 1-way

Typically you would need to rotate shell/area local axis for this triangular area, but ignore that for now

Analyze>Run analysis and then check moment diagrams on the girders. As you can see, this meshing with narrow strips forced the slab to transfer load mostly one-way to the girders. As stated before, the shell element by default transfers moment as well as shear load. Something to be aware of is that the secondary beams underneath default to automatically divide at intersections with the meshed slab. To modify these defaults, unlock the model, then Define>Wall/slab/deck sections, click SLAB1, click the modify/show sections button, then click the Set modifiers button and type .001 multiplier in the bending fields as shown below to modify the shell element to transfer shear only

Next, use Select menu, Select>by frame sections, and click W10X26 from the list to select as shown

Next, Assign>Frame/line>Use Line for Floor Meshing and click No. Select the same W10X26 beams again if they are not still selected and Assign>Frame/line>Automatic Frame Subdivide and select No auto Meshing and press OK. Re-run the analysis

Click the Show member forces/stresses button to display moment 3-3 diagrams for Live load case as shown, and right click beams to check. Through use of section modifiers and by de-activating the frame automesh defaults, we are able to control where and how we distribute the load, and the direction the load is transferred. Moments being transferred are negligible after applying the property reduction factors to the slab section.

Next, Select>by area type, click floor to select, then press the delete key on your keyboard to delete the slab sections. Then redraw areas as we did initially using Deck1 section using create areas at click draw tool
Slabs deleted Membrane elements redrawn

Use Set Building View options button and checkbox Object fill for both windows as shown below. This will make it easier to visualize what were about to model next

To add equipment load, zoom in the area shown below, click Draw point objects and type -70 inches for Plan offset Y and click to draw joints as shown below. Next click Draw areas with Property None, and click all for corners to create the green colored area as shown below where we will assign equipment load. None type areas automesh by default

Click these joints

Which adds these joints

Use Define>Static Load cases to add a load case for equipment weight and name it EQUIP, load type Other, and press the Add new load button as shown below. The Type of load is useful if you let ETABS automatically combine load cases, as ETABS can automatically create factored load combos based on the design code and load type. Note that the DEAD case by default has a Self Weight multiplier of 1. Almost never would you have more than 1 load case with a self weight multiplier of 1 since that would double or triple the self weight load. Multiple load cases with a self weight multiplier is a common new user error. After creating this new load case as shown below, click to select the area where the equipment load will be assigned as shown and Assign>Shell/area load>Uniform and type 250psf for Load case EQUIP. By typing psf, ETABS will automatically convert to current units. None areas automesh well, and loads assigned to them are additive for a specified load case to loads assigned to the larger area below for the same load case

Next, were going to define the boundary of a corridor using point objects. Click Draw point objects, type 12 inches in the Plan offset X, and click the intersection of gridlines 5 and B to add this joint. Next, change the Plan offset X to 60 and click the joint you just added in order to add another 60 away as shown below

First joint 12 away from B5 intersection, then 2nd joint 60 from the first joint

Follow these steps: 1) Zoom into area shown and use Draw point objects to specify Plan offsets 12 inches X and 48 in Y. Click at the intersection of gridlines 1 and B in order to add another joint. 2) Change Plan offsets to Plan offset x 60 and offset Y zero and click on the newly added joint. 3) Next, change Plan offsets to offset X 60 and Plan offset Y zero, and click each of the two joints you just added. 4) Now change offsets to Plan offset X 730 with offset Y = zero. Click the point shown in the bottom right graphic and click the point just underneath it using the same offsets

Click these joints With 730 Y offset

New joints added as shown

New joints added

Click Draw areas draw tool , change Property to NONE, and connect the dots to draw the corridor shown below. You will need to zoom in using rubber band zoom and zoom out with restore full view several times to draw the corridor

Zoom in and left click anywhere in the green corridor area. A dialogue box should appear with two choices, a deck and an area. Click the area to select the corridor. If the dialogue box has only Deck choices, then zoom in closer and try again

Use Assign>Shell/area loads>uniform, LIVE load case, change units to lb-ft and type 15 for the load and press OK. This load will be additive on top of loads assigned to the floor areas for that LIVE load case. Load assignments to the None area are always additive to loads assigned to the larger areas beneath.

In this example, we will assume that floor loading patterns are the same on all stories, so activate the similar stories option and make sure you are in select mode. If loading was different on each floor, you would use One story instead of similar stories to make individual assignments. In plan view, window around the area shown below to select areas for load assignment. This method of selecting areas should not include the corridor area but it will select the EQUIP load area, so click to de-select it. Note the selected joints in the bottom right graphic which do not seem to be connected to anything. Sometimes joints get added as part of a diaphragm or other assignment. In most cases these ghost joints will not affect results, but in other cases, you may want to select them and delete them if ETABS is reporting unstable joints in the output.

De-select this Area

Since ETABS provides you with a default DEAD case (self weight + any additional loads assigned to this case) and LIVE case, we go to Assign>Shell/Area loads>Uniform, select Load case name LIVE and type 75psf and press OK. The load assignments should then appear on your plan view window in current units. Press the Show undeformed shape button on the top right part of your screen to clear

Undeformed shape button

Next, select the remaining areas by clicking them or windowing around them, then go back to Assign>Shell/area loads>uniform, and assign 85psf to these areas. Go ahead and accept the Replace Existing Loads option since this is the first time we assigned Live load to these selected areas. As before, use show undeformed shape button to clear the graphical display of load assignments

Loads can also be assigned as joint loads or lineal loads (uniform or trapezoidal). First, make sure you have One story and are using Kip-in units. Zoom into gridline 2 as shown on Story 4, click Draw point objects button and type Plan offset Y of -80 inches. Click on the second and third joints along gridline 2 as shown to add joints.

Newly added joints

Click the Select object button or press the Esc key on your keyboard to go into Select mode. Click the 4 joints as shown, then Assign>Joint/point loads>Force and assign 250lb in the Z direction for EQUIP load case in order to assign the load for equipment to 4 joints. In other cases, you may want to assign equipment loads to the Dead load case for simplicity

Next, we will assign a distributed lineal load to some beams on the first floor only. Make sure the model is set to One story, not similar stories, then use up / down arrows or plan button to move to story 1, zoom into the area shown below along gridline F and click to select the two beams. Then Assign>Frame line loads>Distributed for Load case DEAD and type 150plf in the uniform load and ETABS will convert to current units. Note that using this dialogue, users can assign trapezoidal distributed loads as well. Press OK and click show undeformed shape button to clear screen display of the distributed load assignment

Right click one of the frames that we just assigned distributed loads and a line information dialogue box appears with 3 tabs. This is a useful way to spot check assignments. You can right click joints, frames, or area elements. Other than joint location, data cannot be modified using this dialogue at this time like with SAP2000. Note that this girder defaults to Steel Frame design. You can select frame elements and Design>Overwrite Frame Design Procedure to alternatively have selected frames designed as Composite beam or No design.

We will define a wind load by going to Define menu>Static load cases, type load name WINDX for wind load, Type Wind, and select ASCE 7-05 for Auto lateral load, then press Add new load button. Then press Modify lateral load button to specify wind load parameters like wind direction and 100 mph wind speed as shown. Use default Exposure from extents of Rigid Diaphragms. Later we will define a diaphragm in order that ETABS knows the areas and heights for automatic wind load generation. ETABS automatically creates additional wind cases per ASCE 7-05 Fig. 6-9. ETABS offers two ways to automatically generate wind loads. One, using the extents of the diaphragm locations, and the other method is to use area objects to tell ETABS where and where not to apply wind load

0 angle = X direction, 90 angle = Y direction

Define a seismic load case, name it QUAKEY, type Quake, and select Auto Lateral load IBC2006. Press Add new load then press Modify Lateral load to specify IBC load parameters. Input Y direction with 5% eccentricity in the X direction as shown. Press OK on both screens to close.

Open again use Define>Load cases to see that ETABS automatically generated the additional wind load cases per ASCE 7-05, Fig. 6-9. The 2005 AISC code requires that users generate notional loads to account for out-of-plumbness, lateral loads that are typically .002 of the gravity loads in the X and Y directions. Type a load name NOTXDEAD, Type = Notional, Auto lateral load and click Add new load button, then click Modify lateral load button. ETABS will automatically take .002 of selected gravity load (DEAD in this case) and assign it as a lateral load at every story level per code.

Add another notional load named NOTYDEAD in order to generate Notional loads for the DEAD case in the Y direction. Add new load then Modify lateral load

Dont forget to add notional loads for X and Y directions based on the LIVE load case too. See below

With similar stories activated and in select mode, window around the entire plan area (doesnt matter which story if you have similar stories activated) to select as shown and Assign>Shell/area>Diaphragms and add a new diaphragm Semi rigid type and name it SEMI

A Semi Rigid diaphragm uses a flexible diaphragm based on element stiffness of beams, columns and deck, but indicates story level diaphragm locations solely for calculation of wind loads. Based on story diaphragm levels, ETABS uses the distance above and below diaphragms in order to calculate wind load area and wind load as a function of height per the selected code.

In order to remove diaphragms and other assignments from graphics view, click the undeformed shape button. Next, click Options>Preferences>Steel frame design to specify global design parameters including Design code as shown below using 2005 AISC Direct analysis method. ETABS offers US, Canadian and international design codes for steel and concrete design. Individual design parameter assignments can later be made by selecting certain members, then Design>(select type of design)>View/revise overwrites. ETABS offers numerous US and International design code options
.

Since we have lateral loads with an Autoselect list for our column design, we will need to iterate between design and analysis. Change Max Auto Iteration to 3

Go to Select menu>by Groups and click W10X26BEAMS to select secondary beams, then Design>Overwrite frame design procedure and select Composite beam design. Alternatively, users have the choice to design the girders as Composite beam as well, or design everything as Steel frame design or no design.

Press the clr button to clear selection and Select>by line object type and click Column to select columns. Next, go to Design>Steel Frame design>View/Revise Overwrites. This is where you would assign design parameters to selected frame elements depending on the design code. ETABS uses intelligent defaults for K factors, unbraced lengths, Cb and other parameters, but these defaults can be overridden using this dialogue. Since this example will utilize the AISC Direct analysis method which always uses K = 1, that saves us from having to worry about assigning K factors for stability design.

Clear button

Go to Analyze>Set analysis options. Since p-delta analysis, including the p-delta effects on local members, is an explicit requirement of the 2005 AISC code, click the Set P-delta Parameters button and choose Iterative Method. Here we define the nonlinear P-delta combination which will be used as the stiffness for all load combos in the analysis. The factored P-delta load combination below is a conservative approach. If you modeled this structure correctly per the instructions, it should be stable. However, in some cases you may have to experiment with Max p-delta iterations and Relative Tolerance in order to get the P-delta analysis to converge. Use the values below as a good starting point. You may possibly have to modify the Relative tolerance later.

In this example, we will let ETABS automatically combine factored load combos by Define>Add default design combos. Since we will do both steel frame design and composite beam design in this example, checkbox both, and also checkbox convert to User combinations (since we may want to edit them) and press OK. Next, go to Define>Load combinations to view the load combos which were automatically generated. Here you can review, modify, or add to the load combos which were automatically generated. Alternatively, you can File>Export>ETABS .e2k file to generate a text file of your model where you can add and modify load combos and then Import the modified .e2k file.

.e2k text file

Do an Analyze>Run analysis. After the initial analysis completes, click the Start steel design/check button to run the steel frame design (but not yet composite beam design). Since we specified 3 iterations between analysis and design, these iterations could take several minutes to complete. Because the columns were assigned as a list of W14 sections, ETABS initially uses the median section in the list to calculate loads. During design, ETABS will then optimize to select the most economical section which meets design, so its not uncommon to have to iterate back and forth between analysis and design until the design section matches the analysis section.

Click here to start Steel design

After 3 iterations, if a few sections are different between analysis and design, for this exercise go ahead and click No so that we can review results. You can come back later to reiterate the analysis and design. Since we assigned an Autoselect list to columns, ETABS iterates between analysis and design in order to optimize for the lightest section

ETABS provides a color-coded plot for steel design reports. Red means that the member has failed, or exceeded the user specified ratio for design code limit (default - anything 95% or higher of allowable displays red)

From the color-coded model, you can zoom to right click individual frames to review results. To determine the ratio, ETABS cycles through all the design load combinations at every station along the frame (default is to check every 24 inches along the length of each section, and that default can be modified) and highlights the load combo and station which had the highest ratio for that frame. For Beam B21 below, the worst case load combo was DSTLS2 with worst case station at 144 inches from I to J end resulting in a stress ratio of .966 of allowable. The Overwrites button tells you what design parameters were used, which can affect the stress ratio. Click Details button for more info.

By clicking the details button, you can get a nice summary for the design of that member. Note that ETABS automatically applied reduction factors to section EA and EI per AISC2005 App.7 Chapter C and automatically determined that this beam is a compact section.

If you click the overwrites button instead of details, you will see the design parameter defaults which were used for the frame. ETABS uses intelligent defaults, but one thing it does not do automatically is modify minor direction unbraced length ratios to account for the bracing which decks and slabs provide to the girders. If you right click a girder which failed design and change the unbraced length, you can interactively review the change in design results. In this example, its typical to change the Unbraced length ratio (Minor direction) to .1 since the filled deck offers bracing

To make changes to design parameters for one or more elements, select frame elements, then Design>Steel Frame Design>View/Revise Overwrites and then change design parameters as desired.

Click Show deformed shape button and select load cases or combos to spot check deflections and check connectivity. Select WindX-3, which is one of the auto generated ASCE 7-05 Wind cases

HEADS UP - If, after you select a load case, then click Start animation and it doesnt animate or barely animates, sometimes the Auto scale factor incorrectly selects miniscule scale factors. In these cases, switch from Auto to Scale Factor and type in a higher multiple of the scale factor determined by Auto

When interactively reviewing deflections, if you are not animating the deflections, you can right click individual joints to spot check deflections, then click Lateral Drifts button to view the interstory deflections for that joint. ETABS automatically assigns the same name to joints on other stories which have the same XY coordinates.

Similarly, you can interactively check shears and moments for frame elements. If, for example, several members were overstressed due to UDSTLS2 load combo, you can do an animated deflection for that combo to view how its deflecting, then plot moment diagrams. Moment 3-3 is always major moment. Right click individual frame elements to review moments, shear and deflections along the length of the selected frame.

Youre not limited to viewing results in a particular view or angle. Using Options>Windows, you can add windows then switch windows to selected plan or elevation view to display different results for different load cases/combos for different views simultaneously

For output reports, there are two areas to familiarize yourself with: File>Print tables and Display>Show tables. With both, you can select frames and/or joints to be included in the reports. File>Print tables>Steel Frame Design offers the best design reports. See some snippets below. File>Print tables>Summary is also very useful. Before generating reports, you can select frames, joints and areas to generate reports only for that selection

Display>Show Tables lets you customize output. Before generating the tables, you can select individual frames and/or joints, then choose the Cases/Combos that you want to report and the type of output results (displacements, story shears, base reactions, etc.)

Choose which Combos/Cases to report

Limit output to Selected frames and joints

Use the drop down to move between report tables

Use the Edit>Copy Entire Table and paste directly into Excel to sort and format

Click the graphic to view mode shape

Use View>Create Open GL View and create walkthroughs. A nice option for communicating design ideas with clients

Another Open GL view

Click the Start composite beam design/check button as shown below, and after the design is completed, you will see color-code results which you can right-click individually to review design results, just like with steel design or concrete design. You can generate design reports for composite beam results using Display>Show tables or File>Print tables

Click this button to begin composite beam design

To run dynamic response spectrum analysis, you first must define a function. If your model is locked, unlock it, then go to Define>Response spectrum functions where you can define a user function or use one of the library functions. In this example, well choose the NBCC 2005 case. Press the Add New Function button

Here you can give the function a name and input other parameters associated with the NBCC2005 code for your particular site location. As you can see, the response spectrum function is just time period vs Acceleration. For this example, we will just accept the defaults by pressing OK, then pressing OK again.

Next, Define>Response spectrum cases and click Add new Spectrum button. Give it a name and specify direction and magnitude which is scaled to G in current units. Lets assume that we need to scale response spectrum loads to .2 G in order to match with the static equivalent seismic base shear. If the units were Kip-ft, 6.44 scale factor is .2 G. Apply an eccentricity factor of 5% (.05). If we were in Kip-in, we would input 77.2 scale factor if we wanted to scaled down to .2 G using inches. Unless the support points have had their local axis rotated, U1 = Global X, U2 = Global Y, and U3 = Global Z. There is an option to specify different eccentricities at each different diaphragm level. Input values as shown and press OK. Press Add New Spectrum button again and add another response spectrum case for U2 Y direction scaled to .2 G in current units. Press OK and OK again. Weve defined two response spectrum cases with eccentricity. You will have to modify your load combinations to account for these seismic cases.