ETABS

TUTORIAL FOR
BEGINNERS

Prepared by :
Vaibhav Mittal

Under Guidance from :

PK Relhan ; Munish Bansal

DESIGN SOLUTIONS INC.

S.C.O. 34, 2nd Floor, Sector 11, Panchkula, Haryana 134109,
Tele/Fax : 0172 4668010, Mob : +91-9357029010,Email: dsindia1@gmail.com

Getting familiar with Draw Bar

Select object

Draw lines (Plan Elevation 3D)

Create lines in region or at clicks

Create columns in region or at clicks

Create secondary beam in region or at clicks

Draw areas

Draw rectangular

Create areas at clicks

Draw Walls

Create Wall at clicks

Select all

Select previous

Clear selection

Select by intersecting lines

Snap to grid intersections and points

Snap to end points and mid points

Option to work on one story,

All stories and similar stories

Units to be followed

New model and grid specification

Choose .edb if you need to inherit

definitions from previous models.
For starting from scratch new models
select No.

Edit the Grid and story data in

custom Grid Spacing and

custom Story Data

Custom grid data

Custom story data

Selecting the code for design

Getting familiar with define menu

Used to define material properties

Used to define desired line objects
Used to define desired area objects

Used to define diaphragms

Used to define static load cases

Used to define different type of load combinations

Used to define mass sources for earthquake loading

Defining materials, frames and area sections

Frame sections

Click on this tab on define shortcut to or

from define menu

define frame sections

Delete the unnecessary

frame sections

Add rectangular section

Adding columns section

Adding Beams section

Define area sections

Click this tabon define shortcut or from

define menu

define area section

For slabs

For walls

Drawing/Creating line
sections
`
To draw beams in plan
select
and left click once
at the beginning of the line.
Drag the mouse to the end
location of the line and left
click again. Note that as the
mouse is dragged a dashed
line is visible. It indicates the
current extent of the
lineobject.

To create beams in plan

select
and Click on any
grid and a line object is
drawn on that grid line
between the two adjacent
intersecting grid lines from
the same coordinate/grid
system.

To create columns in plan

select
and Left click at
any location in a plan view to
draw a column (vertical line
object below).

Drawing/Creating area
sections

To create slabs in plan

select
from draw bar. Left
click once at the first corner
point of the area; drag the
mouse to each corner point
of the area object.
Alternatively you can also
use

or

To create walls in plan

select
from draw menu
Left click once at the first
corner point of the area, drag
the mouse to each corner
point of the area object.

Defining load cases

Click this or select load cases command

from define menu to define load cases.

Click to add new loads as per

data shown in top row
Click to modify the highlighted
load as per the data shown at
top
Click to modify load

*Self-Weight multiplier to be
given unity for dead load only
and zero for rest

Modify lateral load form modify

as specified

Defining load combination

Click this tab form define
menu to specify load cases

OR alternatively Etabs provides us to load default set of load

combinations

Click to add default Combos.

Use concrete frame designs

Select objects

Etabs provides a variety of ways to select objects to ease and speed up the user
as per his requirement. Here are some ways select objects:

Select an object by click on it

Select an object by clicking and dragging your mouse from left to right
around the object forming a rubber band box. It selects the objects fully
inside the box.

Select an object by clicking and dragging your mouse from Right to left
around the object forming a rubber band box. It selects the objects
intersecting the box and the objects fully inside the box.

Selection can also be done by

intersecting the selecting lines.

Another way of selecting objects is by selecting from select menu

Also selection can be made using the set building view options
and viewing only the desired objects (say beams)

intersecting line. It selects objects

and select the required beams.

Also as defined earlier

and
perivious selection respectivly.
is used to deselect all.

are also used to select all and get

Getting familiar with

assign menu

Hinged support
Fixed support

* By default ETABS takes support as hinged

For proper allocation of frame

sections

For releasing frame releases

For proper allocation of local

axis

To define area sections

To define diaphragms
To assign local axis to area sections

Used to assign loads to line objects

Used to assign Point loads to

lines
Used to assign distributed
loads to lines

Defining mass source

Click to define Mass source

To define Mass from loads

take dead and live loads as a
combo shown or as specified.

It is necessary to define mass source to apply earthquake load.

Defining frame output stations

Select required line type i.e. beam or column

For beams set as 13 (or as required).

For columns set as 3 (or as required).
More the number of station more accurate the analysis is but it is
more time consuming.

Analysing the model

Set analysis options

Check model for warnings
Run Analysis

Post analysis

Start concrete design/check of

structure

Click for concrete design

View shows longitudinal

reinforcement

As our unit was meters and

reinforcement is comparatively
small, it is shown e.g. as
1.56e-04 so it becomes difficult
to read so change to a smaller
units.

Now value of longitudinal

reinforcement is easily visible

Shear reinforcement

Click display design Info in the drop down

beside

Select shear reinforcement from the

drop down box beside design output
and click OK

Now Etabs shows reinforcement

required by the sections against
shear at ends and in middle.

The values shown here shown are

used to calculate the specification of
shear stirrups to be provided in
accordance to
ASV/SV= shear reinforcement req.
Where ASV is area of stirrup
SV is spacing of stirrups

Display Tables

Before selecting any tables following steps are common for all.

Show tables

Select cases/combos

Now select tables to be seen as shown and click ok

Select the table to be seen from the drop box

Story response plot

Show Story Response plots

Select story range

Select static load case

Displacement coordinates

To view bending moment diagram

Select from here

Or here

Select load case

Select component