Error "Construction Name is required but was blank"

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I have created custom constructions and materials as I work in NZ and none of the standard libraries elements will work for me, but when I run simulations none of my constructions come through. The only way I can get around this is to manually input all of the surface and sub-surface constructions one by one in SU. This is extremely time consuming. I notice if I drag standard constructions out of the library and drop them into the construction sets EP recognizes them right away. Does anyone have an answer for this?

petherington

asked 2016-04-02 23:43:23 -0500

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__AmirRoth__

updated 2016-04-17 09:33:29 -0500

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Please remember to use appropriate tags in the future :) Using 'openstudio' here will do two things: make it clear that you're talking about openstudio, and allow people who watch the tag 'openstudio' to spot your question more easily.

Julien Marrec (2016-04-03 05:33:55 -0500) edit

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Couple of things:

Constructions need to be assigned somewhere. Take a look at the inheritance diagram

Inheritance diagram

In practice, what you can do for example is to bundle your new constructions in a Construction Set, and apply this construction set to your entire building.

Once you've done this there are very classic mistakes that could lead to the EnergyPlus error "Construction Name is required but was blank"
Your construction set does not have a construction for one of the surface types that your model has. For example is your have no construction for "doors" in your construction set but your model does have a door.
Adiabatic surfaces currently need to have a hard-assigned construction

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Julien Marrec

answered 2016-04-03 05:41:03 -0500

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@petherington: did that solve your problem? If so, please mark the question as accepted so we can close it.

Julien Marrec (2016-04-05 15:52:27 -0500) edit

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Sort of. I had created a construction set, I did select it in Open Studio, I assigned all of the constructions in Open Studio a construction from that construction set. What I didn't do was select the whole model and then assign the all of the constructions to that Set using the "Set Attributes Tool" in Skecthup. All working now. Cheers, Phil.

petherington

answered 2016-04-17 02:35:24 -0500