FDS Feedback

[Kevin McGrattan <kevin.mcgrattan@nist.gov>]

All,

A reminder to those providing us feedback on FDS/Smokeview
problems:

1. Do not send input files that reference an external
database. As we say in the manuals, the database is NOT
referencable or archived. We change our database often, and
we make no attempt to maintain any version control over it.
If you have a problem with FDS, send the complete input
file, and embed any external references.

2. Do NOT comment out NAMELIST lines like this

*&SURF
/&SURF
 &SURF

If you do not want the line, get rid of the &. The & is the
magic character that the code looks for. Get rid of it.

3. Use color as much as possible to check if your SURF lines
are being recognized.

4. Clean up the file as much as possible before sending it.
We're spending too much time hunting through files of
thousands of lines trying to find some tiny mistake. We're
getting too old for this.

5. Try to make the runs short and still display the problem,
especially those with multiple meshes.

6. If you are using FDS 3 or lower, we're not going to fix
the problem until it is shown to exist in FDS 4 or Smokeview
4.


We like getting feedback, and we want to fix bugs, so do as
much of the work on your end. The easier you make it for us,
the sooner we can get back to work on improving the model.

Kevin


-- 
Kevin McGrattan
National Institute of Standards and Technology
100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8663
Gaithersburg MD 20899-8663

Telephone: (301) 975 2712
FAX:       (301) 975 4052