Possible Problems

This chapter provides description of possible problems that may occur when you work with Fenix+ 3 Classic.

Problems That May Occur When You Start the Program

When you start the program, nothing happens

Cause:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 runtime is not installed correctly or missing

You should reinstall the framework. For this, do the following:

• Open the Add or Remove Programs window

• Delete (if installed) the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 client profile

• Download and reinstall Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 x86/x64 client package

When you start the program, the message appears saying that the valid license is not found

Cause:

• License is expired.

Solution:

• You should renew the program license (for more information, see Checking License Period).

If You Cannot Open the Project

The project does not open

Cause:

• The project was created with an old version of the program. Some projects created with old versions of the program may not open in the latest versions of the program.

Solution:

Contact technical support. Describe the problem and provide information about the program version you are using (for more information, see Checking Program Version). Add the project file as an attachment. The technical support will send you a copy of the project file, which is compatible with the program version you are using.

Problems That May Occur When You Create a Scenario

You cannot add a person in a specific area of the scene

Cause 1

When you add a person on the scene, the program checks that nothing can prevent this person to evacuate from the place where you are adding them.

Therefore, if a certain object is already located in this place, then you cannot add a person there.

Solution

1. Look for an object in the place where you want to add a person.
2. Edit object properties so that the object does not prevent a person from evacuation.

As a rule, this object can be a slab, which is often hidden so that you can comfortably add people on the scene. Since the slab is not visible, you need to select the lower floor to adjust the level of the slab.

Cause 2

When you add a person on the scene, the program checks that the remaining space above him is not less than the minimum height of the evacuation path (for more information, see Evacuation Simulation Parameters).

Solution

1. Verify the topology of the building and detect the object that does not alloow to position the person.
2. Edit object properties so that you can add a person on the scene.

As a rule, this object can be a slab, which is often hidden so that you can comfortably add people on the scene.

The program checks that nothing prevents a person from evacuation at the moment you add this person on the scene. If you add a person and then make changes that prevent this person from evacuation, then the program will not display any notifications.

Problems That May Occur During the Evacuation Simulation

If you encounter any problems regarding running evacuation simulation, make sure that your scenario is correct (for more information, see Scenario Requirements) and there are no errors that may affect evacuation simulation (for more information, see Checking a Project For Errors).

Some people do not evacuate

1. Make sure that your scenario is correct (for more information, see Scenario Requirements).
2. Make sure that walls of the building have doors so that people can evacuate through them (users often forget to add doors).
3. Make sure that parameters of evacuation routes that people use are not less than minimum allowed values.
4. Make sure that objects located on other floors (and therefore invisible on the selected floor) do not prevent people from the evacuation (very often the height of a wall or the upper level of a slab is not specified correctly).
5. Make sure objects on the scene are aligned with each other.

Wrong start time of evacuation

Make sure you specify the start time of evacuation for people, rooms, and floors correctly (for more information, see Start Time of Evacuation).

Evacuation simulation results in a loop

1. Play the visualization of evacuation simulation and detect people who cannot evacuate.
2. Examine objects, which are located near these people on the scene. look for a narrow door, a wall near a stairway, etc.
3. Verify that objects are arranged correctly. Adjust some objects on the scene, if necessary.
4. Repeat evacuation simulation.

During evacuation people go out of the building and head for the exit

This situation can occur if you assign people a certain exit, which is unavailable (for example, there is no door in the wall), or the shortest way to the exit is located off the building’s premises. Thus, people will evacuate through another exit and then move to the assigned exit.

To resolve the problem, do the following:

1. Play the visualization of evacuation simulation and detect the object that prevents people from evacuation through the assigned exit (for example, there may be no door in the wall or no stairway on the floor).
2. Make corresponding adjustments so that the object no longer prevents people from evacuation.
3. Repeat evacuation simulation.

If you cannot define the cause of the problem and the problem persists, contact technical support.

Problems That May Occur During the Fire Dynamics Simulation

If you encounter any problem associated with modeling the dynamics of fire development, first of all, you need to make sure that all errors that may interfere with the simulation have been eliminated (for more information, see Checking a Project For Errors).

If you ignore the warning and start the simulation of the dynamics of the fire development, then either the simulation may result in an error or the program can perform simulation but then you will need to check that the scene has been processed by FDS correctly.

Table of Contents

• Modeling does not start

• Simulation stops unexpectedly

• Simulation ends, but there is no fire

Modeling does not start

First, do basic checks of the scenario and program settings:

1. Check that all the necessary elements for modeling the dynamics of fire development are present in the scenario (fire bed, calculation area, detector in the calculation area).
2. Verify that the FDS is installed and configured (see General settings).
3. Check that the amount of available RAM is sufficient for the simulation (see section Calculation area).

If after this the simulation still does not start, you should pay close attention to such objects as Fire source and Ventilation, as well as calculation areas (see section Calculation area) in which they are located.

Cause 1

If the mesh size of the calculation area is larger than the size of the objects on which the fire and ventilation are located, then in FDS such objects can be transmitted as obstacles with zero thickness. For FDS it is not permissible if fire beds or ventilation are located on such obstacles.

Solution

Reduce the mesh size of the calculation area so that it is smaller than the size of the objects on which the fire beds and ventilation are located.

Cause 2

For FDS, it is necessary that the fire bed and ventilation are completely located on an obstacle. If at least a small part of them is located outside the obstacle (“hanging in the air”), then this can lead to an error.

Solution

Make sure that fire beds and ventilation are completely on obstacles.

Cause 3

The fire area is located on an object made of non-combustible material: it is marked in the material properties that it is non-combustible (for more information, see Material Editor).

Solution

Note that the material is flammable and set the required combustion parameters.

Simulation stops unexpectedly

Cause

The results of modeling the dynamics of fire development sometimes occupy several gigabytes on the hard drive. Before starting the simulation, FDS does not check the available space, but in the process of work, if the space runs out, it stops its work.

Solution

After the simulation is interrupted, check to see if the disk space has run out. If there really is no space left, then it is necessary to delete all the simulation results, as well as free up additional space. After this, it is necessary to repeat the simulation.

If there is free space on the disk, but the simulation still stops, you should contact the technical support service.

Simulation ends, but there is no fire

Cause

The mesh size of the calculation area is larger than the size of the fire bed, which leads to the fact that the fire bed “disappears” when the scenario is transferred to the FDS.

Solution 1

Reduce the mesh size of the calculation area so that it does not exceed the size of the fire bed.

Sometimes, for large scenarios, it is unacceptable to reduce the mesh size of the calculation area, covering the entire building, since this leads to a sharp increase in simulation time and the required RAM. In this case, it is possible to draw an additional calculation area with a smaller mesh size around the fire bed.

Fire simulation requires too much time

One of the main factors that defines fire dynamics simulation time is the size of calculation areas, in which you perform simulation, and the size of their cells.

Cause 1

The calculation area that you created is too large for the current scenario.

Solution

Reduce the size of the calculation area. Consider recommendations on placement of calculation areas on the scene (for more information, see Recommendations For Reducing Fire Dynamics Simulation Time).

Cause 2

The height of the calculation area is determined by the objects that are located inside its boundaries. The height of the calculation area cannot be less than the height of the floor. Thus, if the height or level of the object that is located within the boundaries of the calculation area is not specified correctly (for example, the height of the wall is set to 3000 meters instead of 3 meters), then the height of the entire calculation area will be equal to the height of this object, which will increase the computational load during simulation. Typically (but not always) this error results in the insufficient memory message.

Solution

Adjust the height or level of the object. To quickly find such an object on the scene, it is recommended to view the scene in the rotation mode (for more information, see Additional tools). Make sure that all objects are displayed on the scene.

Cause 3

The cell size of the calculation area is too small.

Solution

Increase the cell size of the calculation area. If you need to perform the fire dynamics simulatiuon in a certain part of the scene using the calculation area with a small size, then add another calculation area with a small cell size in this part of the scene.

Cause 4

There are too many registering devices in the calculation area.

Solution

The registering device is designed to collect information about how the dangerous factors change in the place where it is installed. If there are many registering devices in the calculation area, this may lead to an increase in the amount of calculations, which can affect the simulation time. You should install registering devices along the evacuation paths (for more information, see Registering device). Do not install registering devices where you do not need to collect information about how the dangerous factors change.

If You Cannot Save the Project

If an error occurs when you try to save changes to the project, the following information message is displayed:

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To save changes, try saving the project in a different location (for more information, see Saving a Project With a Different Name).

Other Possible Problems

It takes too long to create a report

The time required to create a report depends on the number of scenarios and the number of objects in each scenario. People and registering devices play a great role, especially if you include annexes 1 and 2, which provide detailed information about each person and registering device.

Problems that may occur when you transfer a project to a different computer

There are two important things you need to know when you move a project file from one computer to another:

1. Prior to program version x.0.66, project files do not store information about materials. This information is stored in the following folder C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\
   MST\FenixPlus\DataBases.

2. Floor background images are not stored in project files. Such files are stored in the Images folder, which is located next to the project file.

Therefore, when you open a project created on another computer in the program version x.0.65 and older, two problems may occur:

1. The project will not contain information about properties of materials used in the project.
2. The project will not contain floor background images.

Project does not contain information about properties of materials

If the project uses materials that are not in the user material database, then when you open the project, a message appears that the material is not in the database and a material with default parameters will be created. In principle, after that it is quite possible to continue to work.

However, before starting modeling the dynamics of fire development, it will be necessary to set parameters for this material. Otherwise, the results of modeling the dynamics of fire development will be unreliable.

Therefore, immediately after opening the project, it is recommended to set the material properties (for more details, see Material Editor).

Or, in order not to bring the matter to the notice of lack of material, you can copy all the files from the DataBases folder from one computer to another before starting Fenix+ and opening the project.

Starting with version x.0.66, the parameters of materials and people groups used in the project are saved in the project itself. If, when opening a project created in the program version x.0.66 and higher, the parameters of the material or group differ from the properties of the corresponding element (material or group) in the program directory, it will be offered to choose which values to use (click the left mouse button on the highlighted value to be used):

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To use all values for all elements from the project file, click the Apply values from the project button and click Yes in the window that opens.

The button Apply selected values will be inactive until all inconsistencies are resolved.

If any material or group used in the project is not in the program directory, they will be added there, which will be recorded in the event log.

There are no backgrounds

If the project uses backgrounds, then when you open the project, Fenix+ tries to find them in the Images folder, which is located next to the project file. If there is no background file, then when you open the project, substitute backgrounds will be displayed instead of the backgrounds, and substitute background files will be created in the Images folder.

In the project itself, information about the background is stored. If in the future we replace the substitute background files with real backgrounds, then they will be successfully processed when the project is opened.

The figure below shows the substitute background, which is displayed if the original background is not found.

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Recommendations For How To Handle Abnormal Program Termination

When working with the program, an error may occur that will lead to an abnormal termination of the program. As a rule, the program independently monitors such situations and, upon an emergency shutdown, displays a form for sending an error report to the developer.

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To send an error report, it is recommended to do the following:

• In the Brief description of the problem field, describe the essence of the problem (if you create an application, the text from this field will be the subject of the application).

• In the Additional Information field, describe the actions that preceded the error.

• If you just want to report a problem, then click the Send Report button.

• If you need to involve a technical support specialist in solving the problem, then click the Create application button.

• To see the information that will be sent to the developer, click the Report Content button.

All error messages are accepted and analyzed by the developer. Bug fixes are included in new versions of the program.

If You Can Not Find the Answer to Your Question

If you cannot find the answer to the question, create a request to the technical support service. To do this, write a email to address — support@mst.software.

In the letter you need to describe the problem in as much detail as possible, your actions immediately before the problem. In addition, files and snapshots of messages that can help solve the problem must be attached to the letter.

In response to your letter, a message will be received with the number of the created application. If the letter with the application number does not arrive within 10 minutes, then it may have got into the mail client folder where the suspicious letters are placed. Check it.

The technical support officer will respond to the request as soon as possible.

You can create a request directly from the program window. To do this, select Help | Create a request to technical support. The program will start your mail client and create a new letter in which the initial information will already be indicated. Complete the information in the letter and send it.