Getting help
The guide inside the application, these pages, filing an in-app support ticket, and what to include so a report can be acted on.
Help comes from three places, in this order: the guide inside the application, these pages, and SolarLayout itself. Work down the list — the first two are immediate, and the third goes faster when you arrive with the right details.
The guide inside the application
The application carries its own guide. Open Help ▸ User Guide / Formulas… — it opens in its own window, with its sections on tabs, including Financial Calculations, covering the return metrics on the 💹 Financials tab, and a Sensitivity Analysis page.
A few figures in the in-app guide are out of date. The About box claims a 25-year financial model, where the actual default Project / Contract Life is 20 years, and lists three export formats where six ship. The Sensitivity Analysis page's Monte Carlo section describes P5/P50/P95 percentiles, where the shipped default is P10/P50/P90 — fully editable either way. Take defaults and ranges from Every parameter and its default, and formulas from Formula reference, instead.
A status chip in the top banner shows this device's access at a glance, with a Get Free Access or Contact Us button beside it when action is needed.
Help ▸ License… opens the window that shows this device's access status and its Device ID — covered on its own page, How access works.
This documentation
Four pages answer most questions without anyone else being involved.
| Page | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Troubleshooting | A symptom and the input or state behind it |
| Formula reference | The formula behind a metric, a cost or a penalty |
| Every parameter and its default | What a field does, its default, and its range |
| Glossary | A term or abbreviation used in the interface |
Access problems have their own page: Access problems lists every state the License window shows and what to do about it.
Filing a support ticket in the application
Click Support, in the top banner beside Save, Open and the Docs button — Docs opens this documentation site directly in your browser, at https://solarlayout.app/docs/bess.
On a device without active access, clicking it doesn't open a ticket. Instead it shows: "You'll need active access to file a support ticket. Start a free trial, or contact us directly.", with three buttons: Get Free Access, Contact Us and Cancel. See Activate this device to get an active device first, or use Contact Us — or the address below — to reach SolarLayout without one.
Contacting a person
Write to sales@solarlayout.app. That's the route for a new activation, restoring access that's ended or been revoked, and any problem these pages don't resolve.
What to include in a report
- What you were doing. The project type you chose, and which tab or step you'd reached.
- The exact message text, if there was one — a License window headline, or a Sensitivity Analysis warning. Copy the wording rather than describing it.
- Your Device ID, if the problem concerns access. Open Help ▸ License… and use the Copy button beside Your Device ID (identifies this computer to SolarLayout:) — never retype it.
- The project file, if you can save one. Save Project (.slb)… writes the whole session — your inputs, the loaded generation data, the last run's results, and the Plant Layout/SLD drawing — to a single file, so it reproduces what you were looking at. See Data exports.
- The exported report, if the problem concerns a figure. Export the same result as a PDF or Word report rather than describing numbers from memory — nobody can compare columns from a screenshot.
- The version you're running, shown at all times in the bottom status bar (for example v1.1.0). See Release notes.