RatedPower (pvDesign) is a cloud tool that generates automated plant designs and is positioned for utility-scale projects. SolarSimPro brings the cycle from drawing to quotation into one place for rooftop and mid-scale ground-mount work. The distinction is rarely in a feature list; most often it is in the scale of your projects.
Automatically configuring a single site in the megawatt range is a different job from turning out several rooftop and mid-scale ground-mount projects a week. If yours is the second, throughput matters more than depth of features.
SolarSimPro covers six roof types, parapet and chimney obstacles and a real layout. Tools focused on utility scale generally leave rooftop work outside their scope.
Bill of materials, line-by-line cost, feasibility and a client-ready report all come from the same model; the setting-out plan is delivered as DXF.
Parcel lookup, slope and aspect analysis, inter-row shading distance and tables following ground elevation are all part of the ground-mount workflow.
On a utility-scale site the design itself takes weeks, and automation delivers its gain there.
In rooftop and mid-scale ground-mount work, by contrast, the bottleneck is not the design but the proposal cycle: measure, build the layout, produce the cost, show the feasibility, hand over the CAD file. That cycle repeats several times a week, and every hand-off step costs time.
The table below shows where and how the same job gets done in each tool.
| Step | In RatedPower | In SolarSimPro |
|---|---|---|
| Setup and access | Runs in the cloud. | Opens in the browser; no installation, licence key or hardware dongle. |
| Defining the site | Positioned for utility-scale sites. | Draw the roof outline, or pull the parcel in by cadastral query. |
| Terrain data | Topography is part of the utility-scale design. | Slope, aspect and contours are derived from the site itself. |
| Module layout | Automatic plant layout at megawatt scale. | Generated automatically from obstacles, slope and setbacks; editable by hand. |
| Near shading | Shading calculated as part of the utility-scale design. | Ray-traced near shading with an hourly loss map. |
| Yield calculation | Yield estimates are produced. | 8,760-hour simulation; PVGIS-SARAH3 irradiance data, PR and P50/P90. |
| Bill of materials | Produced for utility-scale projects. | Derived from the layout and the DC capacity. |
| Cost and feasibility | Utility-scale investment assessment. | Unit-price database, cash flow, payback, NPV, IRR and net metering from one model. |
| Deliverables | Engineering documents and design report. | Setting-out DXF, coordinate list CSV, KMZ and a client-ready report. |
The lower half of the table is what the proposal is made of: materials, cost, feasibility and CAD output. In SolarSimPro these follow directly from the layout — change the module count and all four are recalculated, with nothing carried across by hand.
When the layout changes, module count, bill of materials, cost, yield and payback all update together. With separate tools that update is manual — and often does not happen.
Having the figure in the quotation come from the same model as the design also prevents discrepancies surfacing later.
Rebuilding a typical project and looking at the deliverables gives you an answer faster than reading a feature list.
On a single utility-scale site the bottleneck is the design itself. On rooftop and mid-scale ground-mount work the bottleneck is the proposal cycle: take the measurements, build the layout, produce the cost, show the feasibility, hand over the CAD file — and repeat that several times a week.
At that pace the gain comes from shortening the cycle, not from deepening a single design. In SolarSimPro, change the layout and the bill of materials, cost, yield and payback update together; the setting-out DXF and the client report are regenerated from the same model. Because the figure in the proposal comes from the same place as the design, there are no discrepancies to discover later.
The ground-mount workflow covers mid-scale plants end to end, from parcel to setting-out plan: topography, layout, ray-traced shading, 8,760-hour yield, bill of materials, cost and feasibility. Our focus is the proposal cycle of teams producing several projects a week; single sites in the tens of megawatts fall outside that focus.
Yes. Six roof types, parapet, chimney and vent obstacles, a real layout and near-shading analysis are all part of the rooftop workflow.
Yes. Payback, net present value and internal rate of return are calculated from the consumption profile, tariff and net metering, and exported as a client-ready report.
There is. Register and request a demo; once approved, your time starts the moment you first open the application.
Yes. Six roof types, parapet and chimney obstacles and a real layout are part of the rooftop workflow; it runs in the same model from taking the measurements to the setting-out plan.
Cadastral query, slope–aspect–contour analysis, automatic layout, ray-traced shading, 8,760-hour yield, bill of materials, cost and feasibility; on the delivery side a setting-out DXF, coordinate list CSV, KMZ and a client report.
Rebuilding a typical project that represents your workload and timing the run from drawing to feasibility is the truest comparison; that duration is the real measure.
Rebuild a typical site and compare the time taken and the deliverables. Runs in the browser.