RuntimeError when setting porous_zone direction_1_vector — Object not active

[magicprograming]

I'm experiencing a persistent error when using the PyFluent API to programmatically set properties on a porous zone. Specifically, whenever I try to set direction_1_vector or related properties of a porous zone, I encounter the following error:

Error Object: setup/cell-zone-conditions/fluid/source_1/porous-zone/direction-1-vector

I have set porous = True before accessing any sub-properties.

Here is a minimal example that reproduces the error:

cell_zone = solver.setup.cell_zone_conditions.fluid["source_1"]
cell_zone.porous_zone.porous = True

porous = solver.setup.cell_zone_conditions.fluid["source_1"].porous_zone
porous.dir_spec_cond = "Cartesian"
porous.direction_1_vector = (0.0, 0.0, 1.0)  # Raises error here

When inspecting porous_zone properties with cell_zone.porous_zone(), the keys direction_1_vector and direction_2_vector do not appear, suggesting these properties are not currently exposed by PyFluent.

{'porous': True,
 'dir_spec_cond': 'Cartesian',
 'rel_vel_resistance': True,
 'viscous_resistance': [{'option': 'value', 'value': 211100000},
  {'option': 'value', 'value': 211100000},
  {'option': 'value', 'value': 211100000}],
 'alt_inertial_form': False,
 'inertial_resistance': [{'option': 'value', 'value': 0},
  {'option': 'value', 'value': 0},
  {'option': 'value', 'value': 0}],
 'power_law_c0': 0,
 'power_law_c1': 0,
 'porosity': {'option': 'value', 'value': 1},
 'relative_viscosity': {'option': 'constant', 'value': 1.0},
 'equib_thermal': True,
 'solid_material': 'aluminum'}

Environment details:
Python version: 3.10.16

PyFluent version: 0.34.0

Fluent version: 2024 R2 academic version

Does anyone have insight into:
Why the direction_1_vector of porous_zone remains "not active" even after enabling it and refreshing the object?
Is this a known limitation of the PyFluent API for this version? How can I set porous media direction vectors programmatically? Or is there a required activation step I might be missing?

Any help or pointers would be appreciated!

[prmukherj]

The issue might be case specific? Could you please try to replicate this behaviour with the classic mixing_elbow example.

I am getting expected behaviour:

[magicprograming]

Thanks for your replying. After trying these commands on the classic mixing_elbow example, they worked as expected. However, the current case I'm working on still doesn't allow me to use these commands to set the porous.direction_1_vector. I'm curious—what exactly do you mean by "case specific"? Is there a way to make these commands work for my model?

[prmukherj]

@magicprograming, glad to know that it's working for other cases. What I mean by "case specific" is that there might be some other settings in your case file that might cause it to behave this way. Is there a way you could share your case file with us via a github issue?

[magicprograming]

Here is the model I'm working on.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15sQJP7FXqhYdcj7b8TIM1eG08EKzx535/view?usp=sharing
I'm testing the conversion of source_1 to source_9 into porous zones. Eventually, I'll scale this up. Using a Python loop is essential—doing it manually would be extremely inefficient.
I really appreciate your help!

[magicprograming]

I got it working using the following code:

porous.dir_spec_cond = "Conical"
porous.dir_spec_cond()
porous.dir_spec_cond = "Cartesian"
porous.dir_spec_cond()
porous.direction_1_vector = (0.0, 0.0, 1.0) 
porous.direction_2_vector = (1.0, 0.0, 0.0)  

To activate the function properly, just insert a dummy line porous.dir_spec_cond = "Conical" before switching to "Cartesian". This ensures the direction specification is initialized correctly.

[prmukherj]

ok, strange, but fine it works.
Thank you @magicprograming.