Etabs Specifics

Items Specific to the Etabs plug-in

The below headings relate to specific features within the standard plug-in tabs.

Base

Grids

Grids will only work for Etabsv18 and greater.

You can use the ggETABSCreateGridAxisSystem under the ggETABSElement panel to parametrically define a grid axis system within Etabs. X and Y ordinates should be defined by a list of dimensions, as you would define them in Etabs. General grids can be provided by a curve input. For complex geometry you may find that it is easiest to define all input grids as curves.

You can specify a lower level and a upper level story for which the grid system should be applied in the model. This input can be provide by selecting a specific item from a ggEtabsCreateStorey component.

It is possible to provide multiple grid systems in a grasshopper script.

Decomposing a grid axis system

Grid systems can also be imported into Grasshopper from an existing Etabs file and decomposed in respective X / Y co-ordinate values and general curves. This can allow for easier selection of elements and frames, especially when querying results. Use the ggEtabsDecomposeGridAxisSystem to easily decompose a grid axis system into the resulting grid curves.

Stories

You can use the ggETABSCreateBuildingStorey component in grasshopper to create building stories in Etabs. To conform with Etabs story functionality you must have a minimum of two stories defined in grasshopper.

Etabs always requires you to provide a base story. If a story is defined (in GH) with a base elevation of zero, then the name of that story will then be negated and assigned as the base in Etabs.

Although the elevation of this story will generally be zero, if you do not provide a story with an elevation of zero the base elevation in Etabs will be changed to the story elevation closest to zero and again the name defined for this story will be negated and assigned as base in Etabs.

You can have a multitude of story components on the canvas to define stories separately.

Not here? See general base page

Attributes

Frame Sections

Create a None frame Section

Sometimes in Etabs you may wish to create a dummy frame element with no section properties assigned. This may be to define a line load within a slab for instance. You can assign a None frame section in grasshopper by providing a string input of 'None' into the name parameter input on the ggEtabsCreateFrameProp component or the ggEtabsCreateFramePropGeneral. We would typically recommend using the later as the frame prop general does not have a requirement for a Profile to be defined.

Not here? See general attributes page