Getting started
What you need before you can generate anything, the regions of the main window, and the order the work happens in.
Three things have to be in place before the application can place a single module table: the application installed on a Windows PC, a valid licence for that machine, and one file describing where the plant goes. Every other input ships with a working default, so a first run needs almost none of them.
The work happens on your own machine. The steps that reach the internet are verifying this device's access, fetching weather data for the energy estimate, and fetching elevation data for the terrain check — the latter two are optional.
Before you start
| What you need | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|
| The application | A Windows PC, installed from the Microsoft Store | Install on Windows |
| This device activated | The application opens without it, but Generate Layout — and every export, plus the SLD and BOM tools — is blocked until access is active | Activate your licence |
| A boundary file | The plant boundary, and any water bodies, obstructions and transmission lines inside it | Boundary files |
Access is tied to this computer by a Device ID — the same value shown at Settings ▸ System ▸ About ▸ Device ID. There is no licence file to install, copy, back up or keep safe: the Device ID is the key, and status is verified online with the server. Open Help ▸ License / Subscription…, copy your Device ID, and click Get Free Access to activate this device — see Activate your licence.
The boundary file can be a Google Earth file (.kmz or .kml), a CAD drawing
(.dxf or .dwg), or a raster image with a scale you supply. A Google Earth
file is the recommended input, because it carries geographic position and the
site's features in one place. A CAD drawing carries no position, so you are
asked for the site latitude and longitude — without them the layout is still
generated geometrically, but energy cannot be calculated.
Two decisions at launch
Every launch opens a four-card window before the main window: how the plant is mounted — Fixed Tilt or Single Axis Tracker — and how it is wired — String Inverter or Central Inverter. The choice controls which input groups you see and how the plant is put together, and it cannot be changed for a session already in progress. See Choosing a design mode.
The main window
- What it shows
- The whole main window straight after choosing a design mode: input panel on the left, empty plot area, toolbar, and the empty summary table.
- How to get there
- Pick Fixed Tilt + String Inverter at startup and capture before loading any file. Maximise the window first.
- Callouts to add
- Bracket the left third and label it Input panel; bracket the right and label it Plot area.
| Region | What it is |
|---|---|
| Menu bar | File, Edit-Pile and Help. Projects, mode switching, the pile editor, the in-app guide and the licence window. |
| Input panel, on the left | Every design input, in groups from the boundary file at the top down to energy assumptions at the bottom, with Generate Layout below them. |
| Toolbar, above the plot | Saving, view modes and the three editing modes — hand editing, the bill of materials, and the single-line diagram. |
| Plot area | The plan drawing of the plant. Standard pan and zoom controls, except that Home (⌂) fits the view to the plant. |
| View switches | On/off switches for cables, terrain contours, the layout itself, the legend, lightning arresters and the summary. |
| Summary table, below the plot | Layout & Energy Summary — one row per plant boundary and a TOTAL row, with a ⛶ Maximize button that opens it in its own window. |
| Access-status chip, in the top toolbar | A coloured dot and short status text — Active — until <date>, No active access, Access expired, Access revoked, or Access status unavailable — always visible, with a Get Free Access or Contact Us button beside it when action is needed. |
| Status bar, at the bottom | The application version you are running (for example v1.1.0). |
The input panel
The groups run top to bottom in the order you would normally work through them. Two of them depend on the design mode you chose at launch.
| Group | Covers |
|---|---|
| Input KMZ File | The boundary file, a Browse… button, and an ⓘ button that opens the preparation guide — Boundary files |
| Module Specifications | Module dimensions, wattage, bifaciality, and loading a PVsyst .PAN file — Module |
| MMS-Table Configuration | Orientation, modules per row, rows per table and gaps. Fixed tilt only — Table configuration |
| Spacing & Tilt | Tilt angle and row pitch, derived from latitude unless you override them. Fixed tilt only — Spacing and tilt |
| Tracker Configuration | Tracker geometry, east–west pitch, rotation limit and height. Replaces the two groups above in tracker mode — Tracker |
| Site Parameters | Perimeter road width, lightning arresters, the control-room capacity block, and the transmission line corridor — Site parameters |
| Structures & Shadow | Footprints and heights of control rooms, substations and objects, the shadow window, and street lights — Structures and shadow |
| Topography | Slope limits and where the elevation data comes from — Topography |
| String Inverter / SMB – String Monitoring Box | Strings per inverter or per monitoring box, cable calculation, and loading a PVsyst .OND file — Inverter |
| Energy Yield | Weather source, the performance ratio breakdown, degradation and exceedance probabilities — How yield is calculated |
The toolbar
💾 Save(Project) and ⛶ Expand Plot work at any time. 🛰 Satellite and 📍 Piles: OFF stay disabled until a layout exists. ▢ Wireframe draws tables as outlines only. ✏ Sketch Mode, 📋 BOM and ⚡ SLD switch the panel over to hand editing, the bill of materials, and the single-line diagram. A Docs button opens this documentation site in your browser, and a Support button opens the contact page — both reachable without leaving the plot.
The view switches
Plant Layout, Legend and Summary start on. The three cable switches, Contour / Terrain and Lightning Arresters start off, so a first layout is drawn without them even when the underlying figures have been computed.
How the work flows
| Stage | What you do | More |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Load a boundary | Point Browse… at your file. The boundaries, obstacles, water bodies and line features are read from it. | Boundary files |
| 2. Set inputs, or accept the defaults | Change what your design fixes — module, table size, road width, capacity block — and leave the rest. | Every parameter and its default |
| 3. Generate the layout | Click Generate Layout. Tables, control rooms, inverters and arresters are placed, and the summary fills in. | Your first layout |
| 4. Refine | Change an input and generate again, or edit the layout by hand — move, add and delete units, draw obstructions, drag a control room. | Editing by hand |
| 5. Calculate energy | Optional. Fetches irradiance for the site and reports year-one and lifetime generation against a performance ratio you control. | How yield is calculated |
| 6. Build the diagram and the materials list | Auto-build a single-line diagram from the plant's own counts, and rebuild the bill of materials from the layout. | Single-line diagram |
| 7. Export or save | A multi-page A3 PDF report, a Google Earth file, a layered CAD drawing, an Excel materials list — or save the session to reopen later. | Exports |
Steps 3 to 6 are not one-way. Generating again after a change is the normal way to work, and hand edits to cable trenches are preserved when you do.
Defaults mean a first run needs almost nothing
The boundary file is the only input with no default. Everything else is pre-filled with a value a utility-scale design would recognise, so you can generate a complete layout on your first run and then decide what to change.
| Input | Default |
|---|---|
| Module | 2.38 m × 1.13 m, 610 Wp, monofacial |
| Table | Portrait, 28 modules per row, 2 rows per table |
| Perimeter road width | 6.0 m |
| Control-room capacity block | 18.0 MWp |
| Tilt angle and row pitch | Derived from the site latitude |
| Cable calculation | Off |
Tilt and row pitch deserve a note: with both override boxes left unticked, the application derives the tilt from the site latitude and the row pitch from the no-shading spacing at winter-solstice solar noon. After a run, both derived values are reported in the panel and pre-filled into the override boxes, so you can see what was chosen before deciding to fix it yourself. Auto-calculated values are marked with an asterisk in the summary table.
Cable calculation is off by default, and worth leaving off for a first run. It is the slow step on a large or complex layout, and the counts of inverters and monitoring boxes are computed either way — only the cable length columns are left blank.
Where to go next
Your first layout
Boundary file in, finished layout, energy estimate and PDF report out
Choosing a design mode
What the four startup cards mean and what each one changes
Preparing a Google Earth file
How boundaries, water bodies and transmission lines must be drawn and named
Every parameter and its default
The complete input reference
What SolarLayout Desktop does
A Windows application that turns a site boundary into a complete PV plant design — layout, energy yield, diagrams, and the drawings your team builds from.
Install on Windows
Install from the Microsoft Store, launch the application for the first time, and choose a design mode.