Nonlinear push-over analysis

[ThingsLearner]

Is Nonlinear SAP200 (v.8 2004) a good software for doing nonlinear push-over analysis for RC moment frame bldgs?

I know that this version has the capability of doing this analysis. Is there anybody out there who has done this analysis with SAP and is there any suggestion/encountered difficulty?

Thank you

 

[cwrugrad]

I am just starting to use SAP2000 for this, though I'm using version 11 (not 8).

It seems OK, but the user has to input the hinge properties (CSI sells a different program, called CSiCOL, that is supposed to calculate the nonlinear behavior of a given RC section).

 

[ThingsLearner]

cwrugrad, thank you for your response. I almost figured out how to do the analysis and actually right now I want to do nonlinear time-history analysis using my nonlinear model. Now my question for you is:

What are the default hinge properties in SAP? why should we change these properties?

Although I wanted to consider some modifications to the default values for theta/theta_y (dimensionless rotation) values of different stages of the behavior (IO,CP,...),I thought that these default hinges (M3, P-M-M and ...) are based on FEMA documents and in the absence of any component testing we can use them. Am I right?almost right?or totally wrong?

Thanks again.