ArchiCAD and ETABS

[Anonymous]

On this page, GraphiSoft mentions ETABS:

https://www.graphisoft.com/archicad/open_bim/structural_workflows/

Is there some documentation how you get the ArchiCAD model into ETABS and back?

[Steve Jepson]

IFC
ETABS supports import and export of IFC 2x3 and IFC 4 formats.
In version 21 you just open an IFC file with ArchiCAD as you would open any other file type ArchiCAD can open.



However in the latest version of 22 I don't find any .ifc file types you can open from the Open menu.

[Anonymous]

ETABS expects a surface model for finite element analysis; ArchiCAD doesn't support surface models.

[Steve Jepson]

So perhaps the question is how to get a Surface Model from an IFC model using ETABS ?
https://www.csiamerica.com/sites/default/files/pdf/S-TN-IFC-001.pdf

Probably not easy. But I don't know of any programs that can generate file formats that ETABS can use for structural surface analysis either. Probably have to just use the IFC model as an aid in modeling it all over again with ETABS ?

Did you try classifying the ArchiCAD IFC model as "IfcStructuralSurfaceMember" before saving it as an IFC file?
Theoretically that should be a part of the IFC file that ETABS can import and use for analysis.