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UNITS

There is one-to-one mapping between Perform3D and ETABS units for force and length. Temperature unit is automatically determined based on the basis the other unit settings.

An example of the Unit section of the Import report is shown below: 

TOWER AND STORIES

There is no tower and story information available in a Perform3D model. Therefore, ETABS will create one tower and provides an option to select story levels by showing following dialog box similar to other model files importing into ETABS.

The import process will always add the following message in the import report for addition of Stories.   

** Stories Added for Perform3D model in ETABS **

A sample of the Tower and Stories section of import report is shown below: 

MATERIALS

There is a one-to-one mapping of elastic material properties from Perform3D into ETABS.  However, this is not necessarily true for the nonlinear properties.  As such, the import process will always add the following message in the import report for every nonlinear material that gets translated.

** Check Nonlinear Properties of Material <Material Name> **

The importing process will also report the number of each of the following types of materials imported into the ETABS model: 

• Inelastic fiber materials
• Inelastic buckling materials
• Elastic fiber materials
• Elastic shear materials
• Elastic slab materials

The following rules are used during import of concrete and steel nonlinear properties to compute stress-strain curves: 

Notes on the tables below: 

• When an "N" suffix is used (DXN, FUN, etc) this means we're talking about the negative range of stress and strain. 
• When a "P" suffix is used (DXP, FUP, etc) this means we're referring to the positive range of stress and strain, except for steel where the negative behavior is assumed to be identical to the positive behavior.  
• We use a negative sign "-" in front of some terms to indicate that ETABS converts the value from Perform3D into a negative number.  For example FYN in Perform3D may be give as 30 ksi, but it will be converted into -30 ksi in ETABS.

Concrete, No Strength loss, Tension Strength

Concrete No Strength loss, No Tensile Strength

Steel, No Strength loss

Steel, Strength loss

A sample of the Tower and Stories section of import report is shown below: 

FRAME SECTIONS

There is a one-to-one mapping of section properties from Perform3D beam and column Cross-Sections into the ETABS frame section properties. All stiffness modifiers will be set to default in this case.

The importing process will also report the total number of each of beam and column sections imported from Perform3D into the ETABS model. This information is given in the import report.  

A sample of the Frame Sections portion of the import report is shown below: 

SHELL SECTIONS

There is a one-to-one mapping of section properties from Perform3D Slab and Wall Cross-Sections into ETABS Shell section properties. All stiffness modifiers will be set to default in this case.

The importing process will also report the total number of Wall and Slab sections imported from Perform3D model. This information is given in the import report as shown in the sample excerpt shown below:

HINGES

ETABS imports the following types of Hinges:

• For Beams: Curvature Type Moment Hinge
• For Columns: P-M2-M3 Curvature Type Hinge
• For Shear Walls: Inelastic Section Hinge

The importing process will report the number of Hinge Properties imported from Perform3D model, also includes a message for every Hinge property.  This information is given in the import report as shown in the sample excerpt shown below:

JOINTS

There is a one-to-one mapping between the Perform3D Nodes and the ETABS Joints. When importing from a version 8 model, the program will assign a Node ID to a unique joint name.

The importing process will report the total number of Joints imported from Perform3D. This information is given in the import report as shown in the sample excerpt shown below:

ELEMENTS

There is a one-to-one mapping between the 2-noded Perform3D elements and the ETABS Frame elements (Beams and Columns). 

Similarly, there is a one-to-one mapping between the 4-noded Perform3D elements and the ETABS Shell elements (Slabs and Walls).

The importing process will report the number of Frames added, along with the number of End Zones, End releases and Hinge assignments. This information is provided in the import report.

In a similar way, it will report the number of shells along with wall Hinge assignments. This information is shown in the import report.

A sample of the Elements section of the import report is shown below: 

ADDITIONAL MASSES

Additional masses are imported from Perform3D to ETABS. A sample excerpt of this import report section is shown below:

RIGID DIAPHRAGMS

When importing from Perform3D, ETABS will assign rigid diaphragm to all Joints at same story.  A sample excerpt of this import report section is shown below: