Shortcuts and commands
Every keyboard shortcut, the typed command line in Sketch Mode, the ribbon, the tools row of each view, the Export menu, the SLD and BOM tools, and the full menu map.
SolarLayout Desktop is driven from buttons, and this page is the map of them: the keyboard shortcuts, the CAD-style aliases Sketch Mode accepts, and every control in the ribbon, the view header, the Export menu and the four menus. The editing shortcuts need a generated layout to act on; the menus work at any time. The window itself is described on The main window.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Keys | What it does | Where it works |
|---|---|---|
| F5 | Generate Layout — Regenerate Layout while the layout is out of date | The main window |
| Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+5 | Switches to the Layout, Summary, Energy, BOM or SLD view, in that order | The main window |
| Ctrl+N | File ▸ Move to String / Central Window… — opens the New design window and launches another window for the chosen combination | The main window |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | File ▸ New Project — a fresh window at defaults in the same design | The main window |
| Ctrl+S | File ▸ Save Project… | The main window |
| Ctrl+O | File ▸ Open Project… | The main window |
| Ctrl+Q | File ▸ Exit | The main window |
| F1 | Help ▸ How to Use This Tool — the in-app guide | The main window |
| Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y | Undo and redo sketch edits | Sketch Mode |
| Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V | Copies the selection and pastes it 5 m east and 5 m north of the original | Sketch Mode |
| Ctrl+Arrow | Nudges the selection 1 m in the arrow's direction | Sketch Mode, with ↖ Move active |
| Shift+Click | Adds the object under the pointer to the selection | Sketch Mode |
| Esc | Cancels the tool in hand; clears a measurement | Sketch Mode |
| Mouse wheel | Zooms at the cursor | Every view but SLD |
| → or ↓ / ← or ↑ | Selects the next / the previous ICR block, which is outlined thickly | The Layout view, with ICR blocks on in the Layers ▾ popover and the plot focused — switching the row on gives the plot the keyboard |
| Enter | Opens the selected ICR block's summary window | As above |
The zoom you set with the wheel persists across redraws until you click Home, generate a new layout or load a new boundary file. The nudge moves the whole selection 1 m per press, so eight presses is 8 m — a practical way to shift a run of tables by a known distance without measuring.
With a block selected from the keyboard the status bar reads "ICR-3 selected — press Enter to open its summary". Each Enter opens another window, so several blocks can be compared side by side. See ICR blocks.
The typed command line
Sketch Mode carries a COMMAND line at the bottom of its palette, with the
placeholder "cmd: L PL REC C ARC EL SPL H DIM RO SC MI O AR ↵". Type an
alias and press Enter and the matching tool is armed, exactly as if you had
clicked its palette button. It exists so a drafter who already knows L for a
line and REC for a rectangle does not have to learn a new palette. See
Sketch Mode.
| Group | Alias | Tool |
|---|---|---|
| Draw | L | ╱ Line |
| Draw | PL | ⌒ Polyline |
| Draw | REC | □ Rect |
| Draw | C | ○ Circle |
| Draw | ARC | ◜ Arc |
| Draw | EL | ⬭ Ellipse |
| Draw | SPL | ∿ Spline |
| Draw | H | ▨ Fill/Zone |
| Draw | DIM | 📐 Dimension |
| Draw | T | 🅣 Text |
| Modify | RO | ⟳ Rotate |
| Modify | SC | ⤢ Scale |
| Modify | MI | ⇋ Mirror |
| Modify | O | ⇥ Offset |
| Modify | AR | ▤ Array |
| Edit | U | ↶ Undo |
| Edit | RE | ↷ Redo |
| Tools | M | 📏 Measure |
| Tools | S | ↖ Move |
| Group | G | ⧉ Group |
| Group | UG | ⿲ Ungroup |
Every alias also accepts its long form — LINE, POLY, RECT (or R),
CIR, A, ELL, SP, HATCH or FILL, D, TEXT, MEA, SEL,
ROTATE, SCALE, MIRROR, OFFSET, ARRAY, UNDO, REDO, GROUP,
UNGROUP — and case does not matter. A tool alias confirms itself in the
status bar; an unknown word is reported there as an unknown command.
The tools without an alias — placing a table, a half table, an arrester, a road, a transmission line, or any of the three trench types — are palette buttons only.
Watch the single letters. C arms the circle, T the text tool, H the fill,
O the offset. REC is three letters, and the road tool has no alias at all.
Once a tool is armed, click a start point and type into the numeric entry of
the contextual bar: 25.4<30 is 25.4 m at a bearing of 30°, 10,5 is 10 m
east and 5 m north, and a bare 25.4 runs along the cursor direction or sets a
radius.
The ribbon
The navy bar across the top of every window.
| Item | What it does |
|---|---|
| SolarLayout | The brand |
| Design chip — "Fixed tilt · String inverter ▾", "Tracker · Central inverter ▾" and so on | Opens the New design window and launches another window for a different combination; this window stays open. See Choosing a design mode |
| Status mirror | Repeats most status-bar messages in gold — not the "Layout ready …" line or the out-of-date line |
| Access chip — ● Active — until <date>, ● Access expired, ● Access revoked or ● Access status unavailable | Shows this device's access at a glance; the expired and revoked states carry a Contact Us button. With no access at all the chip is hidden and a gold Get Free Access button shows instead. See How access works |
| Docs | Opens this documentation in your browser |
| Support | Opens the Support / Feedback window. See Getting help |
The app version is always shown at the right of the status bar, next to the live cursor position — in UTM metres for a Google Earth file or a drawing located by its own coordinates, in the drawing's own coordinates for a CAD or image boundary placed by latitude and longitude or continued as layout only.
The view tools row
The tools sit right of the view tabs, and the set changes with the view. See Views.
| View | Tools, left to right |
|---|---|
| Every view | Save project · Export ▾ |
| Layout and SLD | Satellite · Wireframe · Piles: OFF (reads Piles: ON when on) · Layers ▾ · Sketch · Home · Pan · Zoom · ⛶ |
| Summary and Energy | Copy · Open in window |
| BOM | The two always-present tools only |
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| Save project | Writes the session to a .slp file — the same as Ctrl+S |
| Export ▾ | Opens the Export menu below |
| Satellite | Draws aerial imagery behind the layout, aligned to the file's coordinates. Needs an internet connection, a layout and a known site location |
| Wireframe | Draws tables and tracker units as outlines only |
| Piles: OFF | Turns the pile overlay on; the first use opens the Pile layout window. Needs a layout |
| Layers ▾ | Opens the popover of nine ON/OFF rows: Plant layout, Legend, Lightning arresters, ICR blocks, the three cable rows, Contour / terrain, Plant totals |
| Sketch | Switches Sketch Mode on; leaving the Layout view switches it off |
| Home · Pan · Zoom | Fits the whole plant, drags the view, or drag-zooms a box. While Pan or Zoom is on, a drag is ignored by the sketch tool and a control room cannot be dragged |
| ⛶ | Opens the plot in SolarLayout — Expanded View, a large resizable window with a full toolbar and a ⟵ Return to Main Window button |
| Copy | Puts the summary sheet on the clipboard as tab-separated text. Disabled while the layout is out of date |
| Open in window | Opens SolarLayout — Summary with its Summary and Monthly energy (Year 1) tabs |
When the window is too narrow for every tool, Satellite, Wireframe and Piles move to the top of the Layers popover as ON/OFF rows and the button reads Layers ▾ +3. Nothing is hidden without another home.
The Export menu
Export ▾ sits beside Save project. The exports need a layout and active access, and all are disabled while a run is in progress. While the layout is out of date an amber row heads the menu — Inputs changed since the last run. Regenerate first. — and every item under it is disabled. See Out-of-date results.
| Item | Produces |
|---|---|
| Export KMZ | The Google Earth file. On a site continued as layout only it reads Export KMZ — location unknown and is disabled. See KMZ export |
| Export DXF | The layered CAD drawing. See CAD drawing |
| Export ICR-Block DXF | One drawing set: the whole plant with a table of blocks, then one sheet per ICR block with its summary table. Once inverters are placed |
| Export ICR-Block PDF | One A3 PDF: the whole plant with every block and a table, then one sheet per block with its key plan and details. Once inverters are placed |
| Export Cable Schedule (Excel) | A workbook with one sheet per ICR block — DC strings, AC feeders or DC trunks, and the collection runs to the transformers and the main control room. Calculate cables is not required; without it lengths are estimated from straight lines. See The cable schedule |
| Export Detailed Project Report | The Word document. See Project report |
| Export PDF (with Piles) | The PDF report with the pile drawing and coordinates. Shown only while Piles is on and a pile pattern exists |
| Export Image (PNG) | The plot as it is on screen, as an image file |
Outside the menu: Export TMY data CSV on the Yield tab, the two BOM exports and the two SLD exports below, Export to Excel… in the pile window, PDF… in an ICR block window, Export PDF… in the Robot count from DXF window, and the PDF, DXF and CSV exports of the Earthing Design window.
The Sketch Mode contextual bar
The orange strip above the plot while Sketch Mode is on, left to right. See Annotations for the drawing tools themselves.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| 🧲 Snap | Snapping to corners, edge midpoints and centres; on by default |
| ⊾ Ortho | The orthogonal constraint |
| ▦ Grid and its spacing | The reference grid, spaced 10.0 m (0.5–1000 m) |
| 🎨 Colour | The stroke colour for new annotations, orange-red until you change it; strokes are 1.5 pt |
| Layer combo, ＋, 👁 | The active annotation layer (0 to start), a new layer, and show or hide the active layer |
Numeric entry — len<bearing or dx,dy → Enter | A typed length and bearing, or offsets, for the tool in hand |
| E: — N: — | The live cursor position |
| ↶ Undo / ↷ Redo | Step back and forward through sketch edits — the same as Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y |
SLD tools
The SLD view takes over the left column with the SLD TOOLS panel and has no command line. See Single-line diagram.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Generate: Automatic / Manual | Builds the diagram from the layout, the electrical grouping and the inverter file, or starts a blank sheet. Nothing is generated until you choose, and a stored diagram is rebuilt only when you choose Automatic again |
| ↖ Move/Select · 🗑 Delete · ╱ Wire · 📝 Text | Select and drag, remove, draw a wire, place a label |
| The symbol grid | Places a symbol on the next click. See Symbols |
| 🖼 Import Image Symbol / 🗑 Delete Image Symbol | Traces an image into a vector symbol through the Symbol Editor, or removes one |
| Rotate: angle spin, ⟳ Apply, ⟲ 90° | Turns the selection to the typed angle (0–360°, step 15, default 90), or on by 90° |
| 🔗 Group · ✂ Ungroup · ⧉ Copy | Groups, breaks apart, or duplicates the selection |
| ✋ Pan · 🔍 Zoom · ⤢ Fit | Navigates the sheet; turn Pan or Zoom off to edit |
| 🗑 Clear SLD | Empties the sheet |
| Full SLD (per-ICR / per-feeder) | Automatic only: off draws one annotated feeder with multiplicities, on draws one row per ACCB (or per central inverter) grouped by transformer |
| 📄 Import PDF / DXF · ✖ Remove BG | Places the first page of a drawing as a background image to draw over, or removes it |
| ⬇ Export SLD to DWG · ⬇ Export SLD to PDF | The diagram on its own. See SLD export |
| Hide Layout & Energy Summary | Hides the plant chip row |
Exit SLD in the blue banner hands the left column back.
BOM tools
The BOM view takes over the left column with the BOM TOOLS panel. See Bill of materials.
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| ➕ Add Row · 🗑 Delete Selected Row | Edits the table; double-click any cell to edit it in place |
| ⚙ Rebuild from Layout | Recomputes every line from the layout, discarding edits |
| BOM Template: and 📥 Load Template | Chooses Plant (auto-computed) or the one built-in template that matches the current design, and opens it in its own window. See Templates |
| ⬇ Export BOM to Excel · ⬇ Export BOM to PDF | The bill of materials on its own |
| Hide Layout & Energy Summary | Hides the plant chip row |
Exit BOM in the green banner hands the left column back.
Menu map
Four menus, eleven items. An item ending in an ellipsis opens a window. Every item is always enabled.
| Menu | Item | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| File | New Project — Ctrl+Shift+N | Opens a fresh window at defaults in the same design |
| File | Move to String / Central Window… — Ctrl+N | Opens the New design window and launches a new, independent window for the chosen mounting and inverter combination; the current window stays open |
| File | Save Project… — Ctrl+S | Writes the whole session — every input, the layout, sketch edits, diagram, bill of materials, terrain and energy — to a .slp file |
| File | Open Project… — Ctrl+O | Reads a saved .slp file back |
| File | Open Sample Site | Loads the bundled sample: one boundary with a pond, a transmission line and an obstruction |
| File | Exit — Ctrl+Q | Closes the application |
| Edit-Pile | Define Pile Layout… | Opens the Pile layout window, where the full-table pattern and, on a plant with half units, the half-table pattern are defined |
| Tools | Robot count from DXF… | Opens the Robot count from DXF window, which sizes a cleaning fleet from any plant layout DXF. Works without a layout and adds nothing to the project |
| Tools | Earthing Design… | Opens the Earthing Design window for the generated layout. Before a layout it shows Generate first — "Generate a layout first, then open Earthing Design." |
| Help | How to Use This Tool — F1 | Opens the in-app guide |
| Help | License / Subscription… | Opens the window that shows this device's access and requests it |
The two Tools items are also buttons in the Studies card on the Tools tab, and neither has a shortcut. Saving and opening are covered on Projects; the pile window on Piles; the two tools on Robot count from DXF and Earthing design; the licence window on Activate this device.