modelling compression only soil supports to raft 1

[shaheed]

I am trying to model a raft for a 20 story building using shell elements. I then grounded each node of the raft mesh using "gap" link elements to model the compression only spring stiffness of the soil support condition but there are a couple of things which dont appear to be correct with the model for the following reasons:

1) Firstly the gap link elements seem to take tension as well as compression, which is not what I want. I want compression only

2) I can not get a display of the forces in the link elements.

what am I doing wrong. Help please any comments/hints will be extremely appreciated

 

[WillisV]

See my ETABS FAQ on the hoops you must jump through to make gap and hook type springs work in ETABS. The FAQ is for tension only elements but it applies just as well to compression only:

faq802-1169