[EnergyPlus_Support] Formatting of messages

["JV Dirkes II" <jvd2pe@xxxxxxx>]

Dear E+ Forum,

I'm trying to be a good "citizen" of this forum and that includes posting occasional answers as well as questions.  If you have ever tried to answer any question but the most elementary, you know that it can be very difficult to:

1. understand the problem and
2. investigate the problem enough to solve it.

Solving problems and providing useful answers can be VERY time-consuming!  Since all of us have numerous responsibilities and generally not enough time to meet them, I highly recommend doing everything possible to help someone else want to help you:

1. Describe your problem as clearly as possible, but without excessive detail (I know it's not easy to do!)
2. Provide "visual aids" for the person who attempts to solve your problem.
   

• By this I mean formatting the message itself using, for example, the "Rich Text Format" option when posting a message. An example is below. 
  
• Also, I feel that graphics, such as screen captures, can enable much faster understanding of a complicated HVAC system than words alone.  These can be uploaded as a separate file, much like an .idf

1. Develop your input file incrementally.  If you have a working model, and add one feature or system which causes a crash ... there's only one thing to investigate.  If you added TEN features ... it's a lot harder to investigate.  A corollary to this is to send both the pre-crash (working ) model AND the  non-working model when you upload files. 
   

Some of this is my own opinion, and some is input from those patient development team problem solvers who have reviewed my error-ridden .idfs.  It definitely takes more work to post a problem this way, but I believe that it's faster in the end because more people will be able to respond in an efficient way.

Example typical post format (very hard to read!):

****** COMPACT UNITARY PART OF EP MODEL ******
!- =========== ALL OBJECTS IN CLASS: COMPACT HVAC:THERMOSTAT 
===========

COMPACT HVAC:THERMOSTAT,
TSTAT-ADM_1FL, !- Thermostat Name
, !- Thermostat Heating Setpoint Schedule
22.2222228109101, !- Thermostat Constant Heating Setpoint 
{C}
, !- Thermostat Cooling Setpoint Schedule
22.7777783811828; !- Thermostat Constant Cooling Setpoint 
{C}

Suggested post format (much easier to read!:

COMPACT HVAC:THERMOSTAT,
TSTAT-ADM_1FL,             !- Thermostat Name
,                                       !- Thermostat Heating Setpoint Schedule
22.2222228109101,        !- Thermostat Constant Heating Setpoint 
{C}
,                     
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