Glazing surface is recognized as wall surface and an additional glazing in the same size is attached to it

grasshopper honeybee-legacy
1

the following geometry is one single zone for an entire floor with the windows generated from the glazingCreator component with a window-wall-ratio of 0.4.

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However, I got the following severe error running a test using this zone geometry:

** Severe ** GetHTSubSurfaceData: Surface Openings have too much area for base surface=ZONE_0_0_SRF_73_GLZP_0
** ~~~ ** Opening Surface creating error=ZONE_0_0_SRF_73_GLZ_0
** Severe ** GetSurfaceData: Zero or negative surface area[-7.33299E-003], Surface=ZONE_0_0_SRF_73_GLZP_0
** Fatal ** GetSurfaceData: Errors discovered, program terminates.
…Summary of Errors that led to program termination:
… Reference severe error count=2
… Last severe error=GetSurfaceData: Zero or negative surface area[-7.33299E-003], Surface=ZONE_0_0_SRF_73_GLZP_0

It seems that the surface named ZONE_0_0_SRF_73_GLZP_0 is identified as a wall suface in the IDF file, and a glazing surface zone_0_0_Srf_73_glz_0_glzP_0 is attached to it:

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… but this wall surface and its glazing are nowhere to be found in the model. Using the LabelSurfaces component, there is only a glazing surface with a slightly different name zone_0_0_Srf_73_glz_0 that is attached to the wall surface ZONE_0_0_SRF_73 :

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You may also notice that the label of this wall surface is not aligned to its normal as the other wall surface labels do, which is quite strange …

May I have your advice on the following questions:

  1. Why there is the inconsistency between the IDF file and the LabelSurfaces component regarding the name of this glazing surface?
  2. Why a glazing surface is recognized as a wall surface and a new glazing surface is attached to it, if it is the case here?
  3. How to avoid this kind of error?

Thanks.
-Ji

The test GH file is attached here:
test.gh (659.7 KB)
test.idf (163.2 KB)

PS: I noticed the following two posts reporting similar error, but didn’t find solution for my case as the zone geometry is fully closed and the windows are automatically generated:
http://discourse.ladybug.tools/t/energy-honeybee-error-zero-or-negative-surface-area/826
http://discourse.ladybug.tools/t/daylight-simulation-error-warnings/861/8

2

… Once I retrace the building and create a new massing model, there is no such issue as reported… although I still don’t know which part of the original 3D model is causing the problem…

test_2.gh (687.7 KB)

3

Hi @Grasshope,

The original case is the technique that Honeybee uses for non-planar surfaces with windows. It offsets the window slightly inwards. That’s why you get zone_0_0_Srf_73_glzP_0 as a wall and then zone_0_0_Srf_73_glz_0_glzP_0 is the window which is slightly smaller than the parent surface. I assume your remodeling has fixed the issue with non-planarity.

In both cases you should get very similar results.

4

noted with many thanks, @mostapha.

7

Hi

I had an similar issue.
I found that my doors was been considered as an kind of polysurface instead of a surface. - Looked by rhino in properties.