Slab and Beam Design in ETABS

[N G P]

Dear All,

I have been encountering some 1 and 2 storey building design. I have modelled the buildings in ETABS and applied the wind and earthquake loads. Also, I used the property modifiers for the elements as recommended in ACI 318.
My question is that when it comes to the design of the beams and slabs should we transfer the floor to SAFE or design in ETABS would be adequate?
When I tried to transfer the floor, it could be observed considerable differences in the design forces and the reinforcement required. Could someone shed some light on this?
I saw different threads regarding similar questions and the question may seem repetitive. But from ETABS 16 onwards, there is a separate module in ETABS for slab design itself. So could we not rely on SAFE for the slab design.

Thanks in advance for your help.
NGP

 

[SunshineTown]

Although ETABS 16 has slab design feature, I don't think you can design slab in Etabs because it doesn't design for long term deflection (crack/shrinkage) unless deflection is not an issue for your project.
Without a model in particular it is hard to tell why there is difference in force output between EATABS and SAFE. But I guess it might be because when you model in SAFE it is a floor model instead of a full structure in ETABS.