The most common mistake on rooftops is estimating installable capacity as "roof area × coverage ratio". Once ridge lines, parapet height, chimneys and HVAC units are taken into account, the real number is usually different. SolarSimPro generates the layout from the actual geometry of the roof.
Once the building footprint is drawn, the roof type is selected; gable, hip, mono-pitch, sawtooth, flat and mixed roofs are supported. Ridge and eave lines and the slope direction are derived from that choice. Each roof face becomes its own layout area with its own tilt and azimuth — faces pointing in different directions on the same building can be worked on together.
On flat roofs the modules sit on tilted frames and row-to-row shading comes into play; on pitched roofs they lie parallel to the surface.
Defined with its height, and used both as a setback in the layout and as a shadow-casting surface in the shading analysis.
Position and height are entered, and the clearance around them is deducted from the layout.
Modelled together with the space needed for service access.
Surrounding objects that cast shadows are included in the analysis even though they are not on the roof itself.
The distance left from the eave and parapet edges is set to your own project standard.
Corridors left between module blocks for maintenance can be defined.
What you get when the layout is finished is not a picture but a dimensioned plan. The same file goes into the proposal annex and into the installers' hands, so no version gap opens between them. The plan is exported as DXF with module numbers, block boundaries and dimensions, and the 3D KMZ serves anyone who needs to understand the building without visiting the site.
From building footprint to an installable module plan.
Gable, hip, mono-pitch, sawtooth, flat and mixed roofs are supported. Faces pointing in different directions can be worked on together in the same project.
Not from an assumed coverage ratio, but from the real geometry of the roof: modules are placed on the area left after ridge and eave lines, parapets, obstacles and setbacks have been deducted.
It is. On a flat roof the modules stand at an angle on frames, so rows shade one another; that loss is computed by the ray-traced analysis.
Yes. The plan is exported to DXF fully dimensioned; the file attached to the proposal and the file that goes to site are the same.
Let us run a session on your own building and generate the layout together.