Lets first take a look at the “old school” way of setting up grids in ETABS. Setting up your grid system is one of those such tasks. Most of the old ways of doing things in ETABS are still available to the user, however there are also new and quicker ways of doing certain tasks in ETABS. In the 16+ years I have been practicing as a Structural Engineer the software has changed considerably. It has progressed from a data entry software to a slick 3D interface FEA modelling juggernaut. The “Old School” Way of Setting up Grids in ETABSĮTABS has been around for quite a number of years. (Do you enjoy using ETBAS? Would you like to learn more? Take a look at THIS article which explains a step-by-step process to modelling cracked shear wall behaviour in your ETABS model). There is also a neat (best practice) way to set up grids in ETABS to ensure your model is efficient and easy to analyse as well as check.

Then to change the grids within that grid system, navigate to that grid in the previous dialog box and press “Modify/Show Grid System”īut there are more options available to set up grids in ETABS.

The Edit Story and Grid System Data dialog box will then display.

In the simplest way possible, to set up grids in ETABS, you need to navigate to the following location…

So lets take a look at how to set up grids in ETABS… It also assists in coordinating your analysis model with the design drawings. They are equally important for your analysis model to assist in providing snapping points. They provide reference points which helps the reader identify the same locations on each disciplines drawing set. Grid lines (reference grids or simply grids) are the glue that ties all of the engineering and architectural drawings together.

Microsoft excel snap to grid