Units Horror Show 3

[271828]

I've been using SAP2000 for 14 years and I knew this would happen someday. Today's the day.

I input an entire floor model with moderately complex geometry, hit run, and it computed natural frequencies in the kHz range. I had forgotten to change the units to feet. Thus, my 28 ft long members are 28 in. long in the model.

Is there a fast way to fix this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[sticksandtriangles]

Not sure how viable this would be, but I do know that CSI models can be exported to Revit.

Revit has a scale button that works on beams and floors, not sure how it would work on exported loads.

Worth a shot though if you have the export feature that CSI produces.

S&T

 

[Agent666]

In etabs if drawn on grid, you could move grid with an option to glue the structure to the grid and move it with the grid. Maybe the same option is available in sap2000?

 

[271828]

Thanks, S&T and Agent666. I don't have Revit, so first idea is NG. The floor is weird and there's no grid, so second idea is NG also.

CSi's tech support recommended to go to Edit, Interactive Database Editing. Export the joint coordinates to Excel, manipulate them, and bring them back in. (I had tried this using File, Export / Import, but that didn't work.) Their suggestion worked and the model was fixed in five minutes or less.

I found the Interactive Database Editing to be a bit confusing. At the following link, W&L #7 helped a lot.

https://www.csiamerica.com/products/sap2000/watch-and-learn

Now that I know how to use this feature, I think I'll probably use it a lot.

Thanks again and have a good rest of your weekend.

 

[sticksandtriangles]

Good to know.

Feels like the interactive database editing should have been implemented like in RAM elements (e.g. directly accessible and editable) rather than being locked away under tables. Seems very powerful.

Maybe I should play with it more before I critique it . I've only used it sparingly.

S&T

 

[271828]

Unfortunately, it's not all good. For example, I wanted to rename all of the frame element labels. I changed them under one table (connectivity, IIRC) and retrieved the excel file. It inexplicably changed all of the property assignments also. Then, I tried to change both the connectivity and frame assignments and retrieve both excel files. It inexplicably deleted four of the members. After 30 min. of messing with it, I gave up.