Why does Honeybee (v1.5) add random-character suffixes to the end of certain object names? Examples include:
Room_100_4d4a4d04 [Zone object name]
OpaqueNoMassMaterial_1e9af723 [Material:NoMass object name]
Lighting_4a965edc [Lights object name]
We’ve noticed that the suffixes change after different instances of running an EnergyPlus simulation through Honeybee. For workflows that involve extracting the Honeybee-produced IDF file and running it through other tools like eppy, this presents a challenge when trying to add newly-produced Honeybee E+ objects to a previously-produced IDF file.
For example, we re-ran the Honeybee model to produce new shading objects, with the intent of appending those objects onto our previous IDF file outside of the Honeybee environment. However, the names of the parent surfaces for the shading objects changed (new random suffixes), and so the new shading objects are not compatible with our old model.
I’ve seen a similar question posted in regard to Honeybee-produced schedules, with Chris’s response indicating that the random character suffix was eliminated after Ladybug v1.2. However the suffixes appear to still be present in v1.5 for the objects I listed above, among others.
Thank you!