[esp-r] Re: "Found surface attribute... ANOTHER" and Changing Names for Constructions

[Jon Hand]

A series of questions with answers added ::
________________________________________
From: esp-r-bounces at lists.strath.ac.uk [esp-r-bounces at lists.strath.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Ian McCall [ijmccall at yahoo.com]
Sent: 22 July 2010 14:13
To: ESP-r
Subject: [esp-r] "Found surface attribute... ANOTHER" and Changing Names for    Constructions

Hello ESP-r,

1) I have the following Error Message: "A model with inconsistent surface topology attributes might fail when simulated. Found surface attribute... ANOTHER" error message appears when I activate the "simulation".

:: the attribute ANOTHER is a correct attribute.  It tells the simulator to look in the connections file
to get the details.

:: the message about inconsistent surface topology is something to pay attention to.

Background:
I am working with an apartment building (currently 15 zones) designed in ESP-r 11.9 windows native version.

- In the model management option I have loaded a copied version of the construction database.
- I then deleted unnecessary constructions in the database.

:: removing constructions from a database will have no impact on surface contiguity.


- This change cause many contiguity errors so I used the  “Clear ALL CONTIGUITY” option and then automatically re-created (several times) all the connection / contiguity.
- The connections in the "cnn" file looks correct but ESP-r threw up a long list of many "Duplicates Surfaces <> master list" and problems with the "Zone surface <> master list" etc...

:: if your cleared the contiguity and then asked to check contiguity again it should find
   the matches.  It would fail if you had a duplicate zone and it might fail if you had
   duplicate surfaces with duplicate names in the same zone.  That is very difficult 
  for it to detect and correct.

- So, I went in the individual zones and manually re-re-created the all the boundaries "surface in another zone" connections / contiguities that ESP-r automatically created. This manual intervention has eliminated the list of errors except for the one listed above.

I can run the simulation without any further apparent errors. Any ideas of how to eliminate this "Found surface attribute... ANOTHER" error? I have looked at the QA report but I do not see anything that would cause this error.

:: you need to find the specific surface in the zone geometry file and also look in the connections
   file for that same surface and see what is different.  There might be two other surfaces
   that point to this one surface.

2) Changing Names for Construction Geometries
- I created a new wall construction of pure concrete called “IntnaWallCav” in the constructions database. I assigned this construction to the walls in my model. For some unknown reason when I now exit the respective zone this walls at times change to a construction called “rete”. There is no item in the construction database called “rete”. The thermal properties and construction of “IntnaWallCav” and “rete” are exactly the same. Does ESP-r change the construction name “IntnaWallCav” to “rete” because “IntnaWallCav” is too long?  Any other ideas?

:: you are allowed 12 characters, some people stop at 11 characters to be safe.  Is there any other construction
   that includes the characters rete ?

Regards,

Ian

Ecole des Mines de Nantes