[Radiance-general] problem of gencumulativesky driven through Python

[J. Alstan Jakubiec]

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Hi Joe,

I haven't automated gencumulativesky through Python, but I do a fair 
amount of automation of Radiance commands using Python. I find that most 
commands will not work unless you run the command with shell emulation 
enabled. I'm not familiar with os.system or os.popen, but this is an 
example of my process using the subprocess module, and I hope it helps you.

    import subprocess as sp

    process = sp.Popen(['pcomb', '-e', '(expresssion)',
    fullpath_hdr_fname, '|', 'pvalue', '-d', '-b', '-h', '-H', '>',
    'tmp.txt'], *shell=True*)

    process.wait()


Note that the subprocess Popen command takes a list of individual 
command elements, and the shell=True portion is crucial.

 > /Moreover, I got a lot more error messages when running the 
gencumulativesky program directly in the terminal of Mac OS X using 
Singapore's weather file:/
I am not sure where the 'official' gencumulative sky is available from 
these days, but we noticed an issue way back in 2012 thanks to some 
sleuthing from Ji Zhang 
<http://diva4rhino.com/forum/topics/gencumulativesky-exe-problem>, and a 
patched version was issued. Unfortunately, I only have the Windows 
binary of the fixed version, and the code is not open. A kind of dumb 
fix is to reverse your longitude input, as I believe the original 
version had issues with areas in the eastern hemisphere.

Best,
Alstan

On 2/20/2015 12:21 AM, Thomas Bleicher wrote:
> Joe
>
> I don't have a solution for your problem but on some previous versions 
> of Mac OS X the standard Python installation had "issues". You could 
> try installing a custom version from python.org <http://python.org>.
>
> Also, I recommend switching to os.popen instead of os.system. You have 
> much more feedback from the output stream and any errors that show up. 
> Converting the code is usually very easy.
>
> Regards,
> Thomas
>
> On Wed, Feb 18, 2015 at 10:43 PM, Joe Smith <the.oat.cracker at gmail.com 
> <mailto:the.oat.cracker at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     ... to add a bit more info:
>
>     1. the same approach of using Python to execute Radiance programs
>     works fine on another Mac and Windows7 computers
>
>     2. I'm using *Python 2.7.9* for Mac
>
>     3. The Gencumulativesky executable is probably compiled from the
>     source code from Daysim3 ... but I'm not sure if it is the latest
>     version ...
>
>     4. the Radiance is version *4.3.a.2* installed from
>     *https://github.com/NREL/Radiance/releases/download/4.3.a.2/radiance-4.3.a-Darwin.dmg*
>
>     Thanks!
>
>     On Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 11:32 AM, Joe Smith
>     <the.oat.cracker at gmail.com <mailto:the.oat.cracker at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>         Hi, guys,
>
>         I don't know if you can kindly advise me on a Python related
>         problem, or suggest a source for help:
>
>         1. the following gencumulativesky command runs OK in the
>         terminal of Mac OS using London's weather file:
>         *GenCumulativeSky  +s1  -a 51.15  -o 0.18  -m -0.0 -h 0  -E 
>         -time 0 24 -date 1 1 12 31 ./London.epw > ./gcs_London.cal*
>
>         ... with two lines of error message:
>         *There were 4586 sun up hours in this climate file
>         Total Ibh/Lbh: 0.000000
>         *
>
>         2. But I can't get it working at all by running a Python
>         script with the following contents:
>         *import os
>         cmd = "GenCumulativeSky  +s1  -a 51.15  -o 0.18  -m -0.0    -h
>         0  -E -time 0 24  -date 1 1 12 31 ./London.epw > ./gcs_London.cal"
>         os.system(cmd)*
>
>         There is no error message in the Python IDLE, but the .cal
>         file generated is zero ...
>
>
>         Moreover, I got a lot more error messages when running the
>         gencumulativesky program directly in the terminal of Mac OS X
>         using Singapore's weather file:
>
>         Command:
>         *GenCumulativeSky  +s1  -a 1.37  -o -103.98 -m -120.0    -h 0 
>         -E  -time 0 24  -date 1 1 12 31
>         ./SGP_Singapore.486980_IWEC.epw > ./gcs_SG.cal*
>
>         Errors:
>         *Error!  Solar altitude < 6 degrees and Idh > 10 W/m^2 on day
>         1!  Attempting to continue!
>         ......
>         Error!  Solar altitude < 6 degrees and Idh > 10 W/m^2 on day
>         365!  Attempting to continue!
>         There were 4354 sun up hours in this climate file
>         Total Ibh/Lbh: 0.000000*
>
>
>         Thanks for your help!
>
>
>
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