Issue: When exporting grids from Etabs to Speckle, all grids export successfully. However, if a grid system has a rotation applied, the grids do not export correctly. During the “send” process in the connector, the issue occurs. This problem is significant as many projects have angled grids and basic rectangular buildings are rare nowadays. Despite researching on GitHub, I couldn’t find any code that processes grids with an angle, though I might be mistaken. I need to know if anyone else in the community has encountered this issue or successfully exported rotated grids. Is the problem originating from our Etabs model, or is it an issue with the Etabs connector?
The rotation highlighted in yellow is the parameter I believe needs to be extracted from Etabs. It is a starting point. The rotation is performed from an origin point for this axis system.
This looks definitively like a bug in our conversion logic.
We introduced grid support in 2.17, and what seemed a simple enough task at first became apparently very complex, with all the software we support treating grids entirely differently.
I think we are due a grids epic.
Is this process of converting an Etabs grid to revit something that is commonly done, and likely to be done frequently?
I am aware that this task will require a lot of effort, but we’re almost there!
Personally, I would have preferred to manage the grids in Revit and send them to Etabs. However, currently, the link is only one way (from Etabs to Revit). The ideal workflow I have in mind is to start the model in Revit to create the grids, levels, and georeferencing, and maybe even do the preliminary modeling. When ready, we send everything to Etabs and begin the analyses from there, adding the loads, etc. When done, send back to revit the whole thing.
We can start by getting it to work in the opposite direction; if at least the angled grids can convert to Speckle, it’s a start. Loading all columns and beams into Revit without the grids wouldn’t be very functional, in my opinion.
Having another perspective would be interesting if someone has a functional workflow without using the grids.
Thank you for your follow-up. To my understanding and based on tests, if the levels and grids are not originally created in Etabs, there cannot be any mapping in the Etabs connector. I also found a post on this subject, and it seems that @connor has clarified this as well.
Thanks for your patience on this one! In the next stable release you will be able to work with rotated grid systems. See a sneak preview below:
Worklows supported:
Grids created outside of ETABS (e.g. in Revit) are imported into ETABS. Multiple mutually orthogonal cartesian grids can be imported, each defined as a new grid system in ETABS (as one would expect)
Grids created in ETABS can be sent to Speckle with rotation transformations applied (fixing your initial issue raised above)
Grids sent from ETABS to Speckle can also be received in Revit
I’ll drop you a message when the update is available in Manager
