PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S.

Saad

SAP2000 Tutorial to Model & Analyze a Building

Description of the Plan:
This tutorial describes the modeling and analysis of a two-story building with the following details & plan views:

Floor Elevations: A B C
Footing bottom elevation = -1.50m
Footing thickness = 0.60m (RC) & 0.10m (PC)
GB2 (300x800)
1
Ground floor elevation = 0.00 m F1
F1
First floor elevation = +3.50 m
2nd floor (Roof) elevation = +7.00 m

GB1 (300x600)

GB1 (300x600)
Beam sizes:
Ground Beams
GB1  0.30m x 0.60m;
GB2  0.30m x 0.80m;
GB2 (300x800)
First Floor Beams 2
B11 to B13  0.30m x 0.60m; F1 F1
B14 & B15  0.30m x 0.80m; Foundation Plan
2nd (Roof) Floor Beams
A B C
B21 to B23  0.30m x 0.60m;
B14 & B15  0.30m x 0.80m; 1
B(300x800) - B14

C4 C3

Slab Thickness: 120

1.50

All slab thicknesses are 120 mm. +3.50

1.50
B(300x600) - B12
B(300x600) - B11

First floor includes an opening of 1.5m x 1.5m size.

B(300x600) - B13
6.00

Column Sizes: 120

All column sizes are 0.3m x 0.3m

Applied Loads
B(300x800) - B15
Live Load = 2 KN/m2 2
C1 C2
Floor Finishing Load = 1 KN/m2 2.00 6.00

Walls and partitions = 8 KN/m (only on the outside First Floor Plan
beams)
A B C

B(300x800) - B24
1
C4 C3

120
+7.00
B(300x600) - B22
B(300x600) - B21

B(300x600) - B23

6.00
120

B(300x800) - B25
2
C1 C2
2.00 6.00

2nd Floor Plan (Roof)

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
1- Initiating the Model
Open SAP, select New Model, select the proper units for the project (KN, m are recommended), and select Blank to
initiate your own grid layout.

To define the grid (axes), go to Define Coordinate/Grid System then click on Modify/Show System to insert your
building grid data depending on your axes (centerlines). The following are the axes information of the tutorial building:

X-Direction Axes Y-Direction Axes Z-Direction Axes

A 0 1 0 F0 0
B 2 2 6 F1 3.5
C 8 F2 7

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

Place your grid date and adjust your bubble size to fit your screen:

2- Define Materials
To define the materials that will be used in your model go to Define Menu  Materials  Modify/Show Material for
the 4000 Psi concrete. Place your specified concrete unit weight and the selected f’c (concrete compressive strength)
and E (Modulus of Elasticity). There is no need to adjust the reinforcing steel properties for now.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
3- Define Beam/Column Sections
Define Menu  Section Properties  Frame Sections  Add New Property  Select Concrete then click Rectangular.

Here you can define all sections in your structural layout (Note: Name the sections in a way to recognize their sizes)

Similarly, other beam sections shall be defined in the model (In our tutorial, B 30x60, B 30x80 and C 30x30 are defined).

Note that ground beams are not defined as we will just place restraints (fixity) at the bottom of the columns and
footings will not be modeled.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

4- Define Slab Sections

Define Menu  Section Properties  Area Sections  Add New Section then name your slab based on your thickness.

Make sure that both your membrane and bending thicknesses are the same.

Thin plates are the best option for regular thickness slabs.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
5- Define Load Patterns & Load Combinations
In this tutorial, we will only define two load patterns, Dead Load (DL) & Live Load (LL). We will also define only
one load combination (1.2 DL + 1.6 LL).
Define Menu  Load Patterns then place all the load patterns. Remember that self-weight multiplier shall only
be 1 for the DL case and zero for all other cases. This ensures that the self-weight of the members are
automatically added to the DL pattern and not included in the other patterns.

Load combinations are defined from Define Menu  Load Combinations then add new combo

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
6- Drawing your Structural Elements
To draw your structural elements, switch the view to the plan view of the first floor.

View Menu  Set 2D View then click on X-Y plane and set your Z = the first floor elevation (3.50 m in our tutorial)

Note: View tab on the SAP screen also switches between different views

After switching to the floor Plan View as shown above start drawing different elements:

i. Draw Menu  Quick Draw Area  select the slab size then click on the area to
draw the rectangle of slab.

ii. Draw Menu  Quick Draw Frame/Cable/Tendon  select the beam section
size then click on the grid line to draw the beam line. Remember that two different sections will be applied
in this tutorial (B 30x60 & B 30x80) in the plan view.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

Switch to the 3D view by clicking on to see your first floor elements

To generate (extrude) the columns, select the joints at the column locations (corner columns) then

Edit Menu  Extrude  Extrude points to Frames/Cables then type in the distance and section for extrusion.

Note:

Top elevation of footing = -0.8m

Elevation of first floor – top elevation of the footing

=+3.5-(-0.8) = 4.3m

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

7- Applying the restraint (fixity) to the column bases

On the 3D view, select the base joints for all columns then Assign Menu  Joints  Restraints then click on the fixed
support to restrain all 6 degrees on freedom for the selected joints.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

8- Assigning loads on the slabs and beams

Switch back to the plan view to assign loads on the floor elements.

(Note: switching to the plan view can be done using then to go up and down in the Z-direction)

i- Assigning Surface DL

Select the shell elements in the plan view then Assign Menu  Area Loads  Uniform (Shell)

The DL already includes the slab own weight, so we only need to add the floor finishing load in the DL case (1 KN/m2)

ii- Assigning Surface LL

Next is to add the Live Load (LL) by selecting the same shell elements then Assign Menu  Area Loads  Uniform
(Shell) then add the value of the LL (2 KN/m2)

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
iii- Assigning Partition line load on beams (DL)

Switch back to the 3D view and select the beams that support the peripheral walls then Assign Menu Frame Loads 
Distributed then input the assigned load of your walls in the DL load patterns as shown.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
9- Meshing the slab
Since loads are only transferred between different elements in SAP through joints, the slab (shell elements) must be
divided (meshed) into smaller sized shell elements. This is done by selecting the shell elements then Edit Menu  Edit
Areas  Divide Areas.

It is recommended to use a mesh size not larger than 0.5m x 0.5m for accurate analysis. For a 6m x 6m slab the meshing
is to divide it into 12 x 12 and for the 6 m x 2 m, the slab is to be divided into 4 x 12 as shown. This way, we guarantee
having a 0.5m x 0.5m shell elements sizes.

Note that all the assigned loads/sizes on the large shell element are automatically kept with the smaller shell elements.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

Final shape of your first floor slab after meshing

10- Generating the second floor

Since the second floor (system and loads) is similar to the first floor, then we can replicate the first floor in the Z-
direction by a distance equal to the difference between them (3.5 m). This is done by selecting the first floor elements
(slabs, beams and joints) then Edit Menu  Replicate then specify a 3.5 m in the Z-direction.

Note that replicate command is better than copy command as it keeps all the assigned loads and sections with it to the
next floor. Now switch back to the 3D view to check if your second floor elements were generated.

Note that at this point, the second floor is generated with

its loads and section assignments but without the columns.
We will extrude the columns in the next step.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

To generate the columns of the second floor, switch to plan view, select the column joints (corner joints) then Edit
Menu  Extrude  Extrude Points to Frames/Cables then type in the distance between the first and second floor
(-3.5m in our tutorial)

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
11- Removing the opening in first floor
These openings are found in floors for different reasons (e.g. Ducts, Elevators, stair cases, etc.). To remove the slab in
this area, select the shell elements within the opening then press the delete button on your key board. In this tutorial,
the opening was 1.5m x 1.5m, this is why we selected 3 x 3 = 9 shell elements (Remember, each element is 0.5m x 0.5m).

12- Understanding the display options (Set Display Options)

The set display options button on the tool bars controls the display of different elements in your model. You can
turn on/off the sells, joints and frame elements, you can also display their labels, sections. The best part is also you can
extrude the view, which enables you to check the member sizes in a 3D view

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

13- Beam Insertion Points

Since SAP2000 automatically generates its members in the centroid of the member, the beams insertion points needs to
be fixed to be projected downwards (like a regular beam) instead of being in the middle:

Sap Default insertion point of beams Beam projected downwards

(Incorrect) (correct)

To do so, select all the beams by going to Select Menu  Select Properties  Frame Sections then select all the
beams from the list as shown in the figure then hit select. This way you can select all beams in the model without having
to go over the views.

After that go to Assign Menu  Frame  Insertion Point and select “8 (Top Center)” to switch the insertion point to
the top of the beam (8) instead of the centroid.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

14- Analysis Options

Since we are running the analysis in the 3D, it is important to open all degrees of freedom in the model. This is done by
going to Analyze Menu  Set Analysis Options then selecting the space frame, which checks all the six degrees of
freedom in the same window (most probably this is the default option in SAP).

15- Running the Analysis

Run the analysis by hitting the key or pressing “F5” on your keyboard, it can also be accessed by Analyze Menu 
Run Analysis

A window will pop out with all load patterns (cases) that were defined previously. In addition a “Modal Analysis” case
will be there to generate different modes of your building (used for lateral analysis). Select the “Modal Analysis” and hit
“Run/Do Not Run Case” to avoid this analysis as it consumes time for no reason, unless you are running lateral analysis.

After that hit “Run Now”

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

16- Analysis Results

i- Beam Results
To display the results of only the beams, it is better to hide the areas (shells) and the joints by using the “set
display option”

Then use the display tool bar to find the results on the beams as shown:

For Beams Design:

Applied Moment of vertical loads on beams are displayed using “Moment 3-3”,

Applied Shear forces of vertical loads on beams are displayed using “Shear 2-2”,

For Columns & Footing Design:

Axial forces of are displayed using “Axial Force”, which is useful to display column forces

By hovering the mouse over the shape, readings of the moment, shear or axial force values are displayed next to your
cursor as shown in the figure.

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

Bending Moments

Shear Forces

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad
A right click on the member displays more detailed output of the forces and deflections.

Axial Forces

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

i- Slabs Results

To display the slab results, switch to Plan View of any floor then use the display tool bar to find the results on the slabs
(shells) as shown:

Then select the desired load combination and the moment direction of the result (M11 or M22)

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PBL-2 (CVE322) SAP2000 Tutorial Dr. Ahmad S. Saad

Hovering over the shell elements will display the moment value as shown.

Notes on the slab moment output:

1- The displayed moments are per unit length of the slab (e.g. for the displayed value in the above figure, the
moment in the 1-1 direction is 8.95 KN.m/m.). This enables us to directly design a 1-m wide slab section.
2- The positive moments give positive value (near the mid-span) and the negative moments give negative values
(near the supports).
3- There is no moment redistribution, if you are following a design code that requires moment redistribution,
hence an increase in the positive values and a decrease in the negative value will be required.
4- The directions of 1-1 and 2-2 are the local axes of the shell elements. This means all shell elements need to be
oriented in the same direction during the analysis. To check this, go to set display options and check the Local
Axes of the Areas as shown to check the directions:
Local Axes color

Red 1

Green 2

Blue 3

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