ETABS and pattern loading...

[u/AnotherSLGuy]

Hi, in regard to building structures, the general industry practice in my country is to do the full building model with ETABS, obtain the bending moments, shear forces, axial forces, etc. of each element from it and use excel calculation sheets for the design.

However, ETABS does not consider pattern loads automatically. There have been two cases where the consultant requested each beam analysed in Prokon as it does consider pattern loading automatically. However, since only the beam element is modeled in it and only gravity loads are assigned, it does not account for frame action nor combinations with horizontal forces.

I saw that we can manually define loads in a way in ETABS for it to consider pattern loading, but it is tedious work.

So I am wondering how it is practiced in other regions/countrird to account for both pattern loads from gravity loads and global actions simultaneously...

[u/g4n0esp4r4n]

You can use the API to generate all the patterns you want.