Regarding getting a surface cardinal direction, does this help? https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-extension-gem/blob/e354355054b83ffc26e3b69befa20d6baf5ef242/lib/openstudio/extension/core/os_lib_geometry.rb#L913https://github.com/NREL/openstudio-extension-gem/blob/develop/lib/openstudio/extension/core/os_lib_geometry.rb#L913