Window shade generator (sometimes) won't output HB object.

Hi!

And thanks for all the great work. I'm having the following problem with the HB window shade generator.

Ive been trying to produce shading and discovered that the different versions behave differently - same input given. The concern is that the newer version seems to not produce any HB objects while the old one did. When using version .58 and setting it up as can be seen in the "first error..." file below I am able to succesfully produce a HB object.

However: Why am I not able to produce a HB object when using _numofShds? I can only get it to work using _distBetween. Why is this? This is my main question, the following one is a possible bug report.

When using the exact same setup as used in the .58 version that did produce a HB object on the .60 version it will not produce anything at all. And when I have them both in the canvas simultaneously (I realize its a sketchy thing to have two versions of stuff at the same time) the .58 gives me another error about materials input and EPfenSurface, as it turns red. This can be seen in the other file I input submitted.

What should I try?

Attachments:

first error EnergyPlus_Window_Shade_Generator.gh, 634 KB
shade generator error.gh, 567 KB

Replies are closed for this discussion.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Abraham Yezioro on November 8, 2016 at 8:46am

Ludvig,

You are right that the previous version performed a bit different than the new one. Though the component was updated quite a few months ago.

The actual one, allows almost (if not all) the possibilities of shade definitions allowed in E+.

Saying that, your file works fine with me AFTER i updated ALL components (with the updater). Notice that, depending which shading option you choose, the geometry produced here will or not be part of the E+ simulation. In any case you can see the shadeBreps output, that will give you the geometry you are asking for. If you want to use it in the simulation you have to use it as a context. Otherwise E+ will use a blind/shade object (not geometry).

Hope this makes clear things for you. If not ... ask again.

-A.

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on November 8, 2016 at 8:52am

Hi Ludvig,

The writeEPObjs_ input was set to Tree access, rather than Item access, which was generating the error. I checked the most updated version of this component, and it doesn't have this checked off, so I'm not sure why it was set that way.

See attached file for working versions of your examples.

Attachments:

shadegeneratorerror_fix_SV.gh, 545 KB

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on November 8, 2016 at 9:11am

Whoops, I guess Abraham and I were responding to this at the same time!

Anyway, Abraham's suggestion should also be correct.

Permalink Reply by Ludvig Haav on November 8, 2016 at 2:27pm

Hi!

Thanks for your help, but I feel that Im not there yet. I will try to simplify and rephrase the issue so that it is more clear.

I am not looking to use the component to produce shadeBreps for normal context, as I need the material properties of the shade to work. The setup I use here to exemplify me not getting OBJ output in version .60 is straight from the hydra example file for the shade generator.

What could be the cause of this? Are you getting the same output as me?

Thanks for your time!

Attachments:

EnergyPlus_Window_Shade_Generator version 58.gh, 471 KB
EnergyPlus_Window_Shade_Generator version 60.gh, 480 KB

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on November 8, 2016 at 2:46pm

Hey Ludvig, try the example file I attached in my previous post, it produces a HBObjWShades for the latest version of Honeybee.

Permalink Reply by Abraham Yezioro on November 8, 2016 at 3:02pm

I see Saran and i were responding at the same time ... again ... :-)

The reason the input was set to Tree is becouse of the change of input numbers. Becouse you didn't reinstalled the component you see the definition for the new one without beign updated. In short, reinserting is the correct answer.

-A.

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on November 8, 2016 at 4:59pm

Haha, yes, I'm sure we've thoroughly confused Ludvig. That being said, I found it helpful to read about your reasoning tackling the same problem, I think I'm better for it.

Permalink Reply by Abraham Yezioro on November 8, 2016 at 2:59pm

OK.

Two things here you need to do:

1. Reinsert the component. There were changes in the number of inputs that compels you to do that.

2. Notice that you didn't create a zone. You connected only the surface to the _HBObjects input.

See inage for those issues addressed and working.

-A.

Permalink Reply by Ludvig Haav on November 10, 2016 at 8:45am

Thanks a bunch to the both of you!

Forgetting to connect all wires and looking only at the version number as the milliseconds profiler widget hid the release date so that I forgot to consider it. Now both versions work in the same way. Thanks for the assist.

However, I have a follow up question, now that Im past this hurdle.

I´d like to only have a single shade on the window, it seems there is a minimum allowance of 2 or more. A single window overhang seems like a fairly standard shading solution, so I'm guessing there should be a way to achieve this in E+?

Attachments:

shade generator one blind.gh, 492 KB

Permalink Reply by Abraham Yezioro on November 10, 2016 at 9:11am

I don't get what you did in your last file, so i took the previous one and set the number of shades to one.

I see that you keep using Saeran's fixed component. I believe this is not a good choice. It solved a previous issue but you don't know what else can be needed from the updated one.

Anyway, the attached file works.

I'm sure Saeran is writing right now to keep the "tradition" on this discussion :-)

-A.

Attachments:

EnergyPlus_Window_Shade_Generatorversion60_AY.gh, 490 KB

Permalink Reply by Saeran Vasanthakumar on November 10, 2016 at 9:19am

I defer to your expertise Abraham!

I'm just glad to hear that the latest version does indeed solve this issue, because it was only a month ago that I was rewriting some of the code to fix exactly that problem :)

(I'm pretty sure there are a couple of edge cases that will still cause problems though)

Permalink Reply by Ludvig Haav on November 10, 2016 at 9:48am

On my computer the file that you just posted does not produce any HBObjWShades when I open it up. It is set to 1 shade. Can you confirm that it does work on your comp?

Its been a roller coster juggling the different versions, and how they seem to interfere with each other when they are in the same canvas at the same time or maybe even when having different files open. And I must confess I dont really get much of the coding lingo and whats going on underneath. But I understand that I should switch to the standard .60 version from the 4 of november from now on!