Summary By Story — Etabs Mass

In fact, most convergence errors, unexpected mode shapes, and even incorrect base shears can be traced back to a single misunderstood line in this table.

If you model a semi-rigid diaphragm, ETABS distributes mass to every joint in the slab. If you model a rigid diaphragm, ETABS lumps the entire floor’s mass at the Center of Mass (CM).

The "Where is my Mass?" Mystery Here is the most common panic moment for engineers: "I assigned a 10-inch slab, beams, columns, and walls... so why does the Mass Summary show almost nothing on the roof?" etabs mass summary by story

But here is a hard truth:

He forgot to check the Mass Summary. The summary showed that 70% of the building's mass was concentrated on the 5th floor (UX value was huge). No amount of shear walls on floors 1-4 could fix that torsion without massive foundation changes. He had to add stiffness at the 5th floor . In fact, most convergence errors, unexpected mode shapes,

Let’s dive into what those numbers actually mean, why ETABS sometimes lies to you (well, not lies , but misleads you), and how to use this table to save your design. In simple terms, the Mass Summary tells you how much weight is pushing down on each level of your building—and more importantly, how that weight moves sideways during an earthquake.

But when he ran the modal analysis, the building had massive torsion. He spent days adding shear walls. The "Where is my Mass

If you modeled a concrete slab but forgot to assign Self Weight Multiplier = 1 (under ), ETABS will only include the superimposed dead loads (finishes, partitions) and completely ignore the 150 pcf concrete you just modeled.