Problem Connecting to Server Error

mstrongmann121 · February 25, 2020, 8:42pm

Hello,

I’ve been using sefaira since late 2019 and I’ve rarely had this issue. However, ever since last week, I’ve been getting nothing but nonstop connection errors. I updated Sketchup, reinstalled sefaira, and even made a simple model thinking it was my model’s problem but all of that gave me the same result: Problem connecting to Server.

Is there anything I can do that’ll remedy this problem ASAP? I have 4 models ready to run through sefaira but this error just won’t let me do it. Does anyone else have this problem too, for the past week?

Thank you all in advance!

niraj.poudel · February 25, 2020, 8:45pm

Hi @mstrongmann121, thanks for reaching out and sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue. I noticed some downtime in the application today as well and have notified our development team to look into this. I will be sure to provide an update here as soon as we know what is going on.

mstrongmann121 · February 25, 2020, 9:26pm

Thank you, please let me know if anything changes.

niraj.poudel · February 25, 2020, 11:19pm

Hi @mstrongmann121`, the issue should be resolved now. Could you please give your analysis a go and let us know if you still encounter any issues.

mstrongmann121 · February 26, 2020, 12:50am

I still have the issue.

niraj.poudel · February 26, 2020, 12:55am

Hi @mstrongmann121 could you share your model here with us to take a look? That way I can check to see what might be going on.

mstrongmann121 · February 26, 2020, 1:00am

ITERATION1.skp (412.2 KB)

This is one of the 4 iterations I made on this model.

niraj.poudel · February 26, 2020, 1:12am

Hi @mstrongmann121, For some reason the analysis is coming back fine on my end.

I am trying to think why you might not be getting the results back. Has anything changed on your machine recently with regards to hardware/software settings?

Secondly, it looks like you might have imported the models from elsewhere? The triangulated faces tend to increase simulation run times because of having to calculate heat/mass transfer through the surfaces using 6 coordinate points (vertices of 2 triangles) as opposed to 4 coordinate points in 3D space for a quad instead. Although this model is so small that the difference is practically irrelevant, but as you model gets larger with more surfaces it is worth considering drawing everything in SketchUp or using Thom Thom’s cleanup extension to correct the triangulation.

mstrongmann121 · February 26, 2020, 1:15am

Well, nothing has changed with my machine, all I did was update sketchup. I drew a small box and ran it through sefaira just now, it seems to work just fine. These four models I have though aren’t running through at all though.

Yes, I imported all four iterations from Rhino 6.

niraj.poudel · February 26, 2020, 1:16am

Hmm. Its quite strange that a box model is running on your machine but these models aren’t and that these models are running fine on my end. Can I ask what weather data you are using for these runs? Or where this project is located?

mstrongmann121 · February 26, 2020, 1:21am

I use residential in New York, NY, USA. I didn’t bother using the sliders from the properties tab since I was only doing a daylight analysis for these models.

Other than that, I just assigned entities to each plane. I did a larger project just a while back and that ran fine, imported from rhino and all.

I’m completely confused myself.

niraj.poudel · February 26, 2020, 1:25am

Yeah. I am so sorry that I do not have a solution for you since I cannot identify why one model would run versus the other wouldn’t on your machine, when that model runs perfectly fine on my end. As a last resort, can I ask you to copy the geometry >> ctrl+A >> and open a fresh SketchUp file >> ctrl+p into this fresh SketchUp file and try running the analysis. And see if that will work on your end?

Second thing to keep in mind is that because of the triangulation of surfaces and when Sefaira places daylight sensors on floors, it will not interpolate between the edges if those edges are below a certain threshold 1’ or so. And for that reason you see a discontinuity in results at the corners. Essentially two grid sensors are tussling over how to display the results. Another reason to “de-triangulate” the surfaces.

mstrongmann121 · February 26, 2020, 1:29am

I pasted the model into a new file, and I got the same result.

niraj.poudel · February 26, 2020, 3:19am

Hi @mstrongmann121, not sure what else we can recommend here especially since its not a pervasive problem on your machine (i.e., other models are running fine) and its not a problem with this model alone, because it is running fine on my machine. This has got something to do with this specific model on your specific machine. The only other thing that I can recommend is for you to clear your history/cache from internet explorer on your machine and give the analysis another go.

Lakshmee · May 5, 2020, 3:22am

Hi Niraj,

I’m having a similar issue with my SketchUp model, it was working properly yesterday but made a few minor changes to the model and today I cannot run the energy analysis. The daylight analysis works fine though.

I tried running the model through the sefaira web application but it gives me this error message “An error was encountered but no err file was produced: failed executing eplus energy analysis run”.

Can I send you model through email?

niraj.poudel · May 5, 2020, 3:48am

Hi @Lakshmee, before you decide to send the model please share screenshots of the model and let us know what minor changes you made since it was working and then stopped working.

Check the entity types >> look at the number of floor designations >> isolate the floors and see if there are any floor designations that are not a part of the conditioned space. Preferably share the screenshot of the model with the entities tagged.

If you haven’t already then please also view the first two videos on this playlist (less than 5 mins each), so that any modeling related errors are ruled out.

Lakshmee · May 5, 2020, 3:58am

Hi Niraj,

Here is my model

I was missing one floor in the previous model, so I’ve added that in. And two walls was wrongly assigned as floors, so I’ve changed that. Plus since I was aiming for a green roof, initially I set up the big part of the roof as a shading instead, but changed it back to roof in the new model. Those were the 3 changes I made I believe.

all floors are part of the conditioned space. There are no internal walls in between, so each floor is a zone.

niraj.poudel · May 5, 2020, 4:09am

Hi @Lakshmee, a couple of things that jump out at me:

The railings on the balcony, although they are glass, the extension of the balconies (the cantilevered part), what are they tagged as? Are they properly tagged as Shading?
The wall designations on the roof, they are not a part of the conditioned space so need to be tagged as shading or ignored.
The level of detail of the shading elements, while not a deal breaker, need to be simplified. The guiding principle for Sefaira analysis is “do not model things that you know will not participate in blocking the sunlight reaching your building”. And if they do, then simplify it as much as you can. The idea is to reduce the plane count while maintaining the integrity of your building.

Could you check those things and also upload your model here so we can take a look?

Lakshmee · May 5, 2020, 4:21am

I’ve changed the wall designation on the roof to shading and ignored a part of the surrounding building (previously set as shading) The railing on the balcony (glass) were set as fixed glazing, while the extension were set as shading.

The skp file could not be upload here. Can I send it through via email or something?

niraj.poudel · May 5, 2020, 4:29am

Hi @Lakshmee, Please check your message inbox.