A couple of issues if I may;

1) solar incidence analysis: I have tested and retested solar incidence analysis without getting a consistent result out of it. I have used the adjacencies trick too, without success.

My issue is that I don't exactly get how Ecotect calculates the shading mask in order to derive the radiation from the climate data. If I may be more specific:

a) if you look into LondonE.wea there are some radiation values which are negative , how come?
b) given that the shading masks should register obstructions based on geometric angles (maybe I am wrong here...) this is how you can derive the angle of incidence (cosine law) at which radiation hits the tested surface, and find out where this is obstructed or not.
When I tested various orientation and angles I did get different results, which is positive. Although, when I tested a very simple flat horizontal plane, I do not achieve the irradiance (horizontal) I expect from the climate file values I am using. Even more specifically, it seems that Ecotect manages to calculate the diffuse part pretty fine (I bet this is because it is independent from orientation), whilst it seems to underestimate the direct component.
What am I missing?

c)if i repeat the flat plane exercise with the analysis grid, my results then are simply incomparable, although I go through the same wizard choices. This is confusing.
I have noticed that the results you get from the grid analysis are expressed as W/h whilst the ones from the surface analysis are expressed in Wh/sqm.
This is once again trivial; does it mean that if you run the analysis on a grid , the resulting values get divided per area covered? I have tried to do that manually (on a 1sqm surface) but the results do not match.

If instead I run my surface analysis and I calculate average daily values, shouldn't the scale read: W/sqm? This should be the case, because in a single hour case, solar flux and irrandiance match and mathematically the 'h' value can get omitted.

As you can read I am in need of clarification..

Three last unrelated things;

1) In version 5.5 one used to be able to control a group on zones (i.e. switch them on/off or make them thermal zones, all at once; how come you decided to take such a handy option out in 5.6?

2) In 5.5 one used to work back the drawing of a line or surface point by point by going 'Crtl-Z), now if I click one time too many I have to start from scratch, again a very useful option which I would love to see come back.

3) I am used to write my own rad materials, build my Ecotect library(with same names) and then export my geometry having Ecotect look up for .rad files and substitute them to the ecomaterials straight away; somehow this does not work any longer. Is it a possible bug or am I doing something wrong?

Sorry if this is so lengthy, but I am very fond of the efficiency of Ecotect, hence I get anxious when I stall because I can't work it out.

Kind Regards,

Simone