How do I describe a roof surface with a hole (a 'ringed' surface)?

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You can fix this situation using geomeppy (PyPI, GitHub). The function geomeppy.polygons.break_polygons splits the larger surface into two surfaces that surround the hole.

To use it you need to convert the surfaces to geomeppy.Polygon3D objects.

from geomeppy import IDF
from geomeppy.polygons import Polygon3D
from geomeppy.polygons import break_polygons

# set your IDF up as normal, but using the IDF object imported from geomeppy

# get your surfaces
# larger_surface is the one which has a hole
# smaller_surface is the one which is a hole

surface = Polygon3D(larger_surface.coords)
hole = Polygon3D(smaller_surface.coords)

new_surfaces = break_polygons(surface, hole)  # produces two sets of coords for the split surface

# get the global geometry rules for your IDF
try:
    ggr = idf.idfobjects['GLOBALGEOMETRYRULES'][0]
except IndexError:
    ggr = None

# add the new surfaces to your IDF
for i, new_coords in enumerate(new_surfaces, 1):
    new = idf.copyidfobject(larger_surface)
    new.Name = "%s_%i" % (larger_surface.Name, i)
    set_coords(new, new_coords, ggr)

# remove the old surface
idf.removeidfobject(larger_surface)

Alternatively, if you read your IDF into geomeppy then it will take care of all the surface intersections for you. Just call idf.intersect() on your geomeppy.IDF object.

Here's the result of calling idf.intersect() on a test building similar to the one in your example.

Hi Jamie and Yair,

Another approach can be to subtract the hole from the base surface by adding the coordinates of the hole in the opposite direction from the Vertex Entry Direction specified in the GlobalGeometryRules object. For example if the Vertex Entry Direction is Counterclockwise than the hole coordinates direction has to be Clockwise. However, the outer ring has to be connected to the inner ring somewhere (red line in the chart bellow). The surface with hole presented in the chart, in order to be recognized by E+, should have the following coordinates:

(0,0,Z),(4,0,Z),(4,3,Z),(0,3,Z),(0,0,Z),(1,1,Z),(1,2,Z),(3,2,Z),(3,1,Z),(1,1,Z)

This can get a bit more complex if there is more than one hole. In that case there have to be more than one connection between the inner ring and the outer ring. I found the most suitable place to connect inner ring with outer ring to be the shortest distance between coordinates of these two rings as shown in the second figure.

No, you can't put a hole in a BuildingSurfaces:Detailed object (other than as a sub-surface). You can however put two or more BuildingSurfaces:Detailed objects together that result in a hole.

Look at the stacked spaces on the left of the screenshots in this post. It shows how to model a "hole" in the roof by having 4 non-convex surfaces.