ETABS Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcuts in ETABS

Out of the box, ETABS does not have many shortcuts, but thankfully it does allow customization. To add your own, click the drop-down arrow at the right-end of any of the toolbars and select “Customize”:

Hit “Keyboard” at the bottom. You’re now in the “Customize Keyboard” dialog, where you can specify new shortcuts for any commands (including some that are not active and hint at features that never made it to prime time, e.g. Steel Beam Connection Design). Note that the ‘Shift’ key cannot be used alone nor can the ‘Escape’ key (which should be used for clearing the selection, but isn’t).

Shortcut to Shortcuts

You were hoping for this, I know: you don’t have to create your own. At the link below, you can download a .tb2 file containing all of my custom shortcuts. Here’s a partial list:

• F2 – Rubber Band Zoom (Zoom Window)
• F3 – Restore Full View (Zoom All)
• F5 – Run Analysis (default shortcut)
• Insert – Set Default 3D View
• Home – Set Plan View
• End – Set Elevation View
• Page Up – Move Up in List (moves one story up in plan)
• Page Down – Move Down in List (moves one story down in plan)
• Ctrl+E – Set Building View Options
• Ctrl+Shift+W – Show Selection Only
• Ctrl+Shift+Q – Show All

All shortcut keys are displayed in the tooltip (displayed when hovering over a button) and on the menus. To install the shortcuts, close ETABS and then paste the .tb2 file here:
C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Windows
(If UAC is disabled or if you’re still inexplicably using XP, paste it here: C:\Windows)

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