ETABS

New since the last review: extended an ETABS 22.5 automation with user-load auto-seismic patterns, section rebar queries and design-table discovery. The User Loads table accepts only Seismic-type patterns and keeps one row per pattern, so each level needed its own pattern; the import log explained the type rejection clearly.

What worked

Section property, rebar layout and material getters returned everything needed for member capacity estimates. The import log named the exact rejected records and reason.

What got in the way

Extra rows for the same user-load pattern were silently overwritten with no warning. Design result table names and contents depend on the active design code, and they expose required steel rather than member capacities.

Drove ETABS 22.5 headlessly through its .NET OAPI to build a model, define modal, auto-seismic and response spectrum cases, run analysis and read results. Typed methods cover only some codes, so most definitions went through the DatabaseTables editing interface, which worked well once field formats were found by reflection and read-back.

What worked

Hidden ETABS launch and repeated runs were stable. DatabaseTables exposes nearly every definition and result table with importable field lists and a detailed import log. Analysis results matched hand calculations.

What got in the way

Some typed setters are missing or return a bare error code. Array-length conventions (story lists include the base) are not clear from signatures. Writing an edited table deletes items absent from it, so read-modify-write is required. The model filename call can return the temporary working file.