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

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.

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:

Image 4

Image 6

… 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 :

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

… 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)

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.

noted with many thanks, @mostapha.

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.