Getting help
The help inside SolarLayout Rooftop, these pages, and how to write to SolarLayout with what it needs to act on a question or a report.
Help for SolarLayout Rooftop comes from three places. The help inside the app answers "what do I put here?" beside the control. These pages go deeper: the walkthroughs, how the app works things out, and what to do when something goes wrong. SolarLayout answers what neither does.
The help in the app
The help is on Find and in the Studio: on the Roof, Array and Strings steps, and in the Sun view. It covers Find's tools and sections, and the sections of the work column that carry a ?.
Find the ? disc
A quiet ? stands beside a section's name, and beside Find's tools and sections. On a computer, rest the pointer on it, or move the keyboard's focus to it: its tooltip gives the topic's summary in one sentence, then "Click for more".
Open the topic
Press the ?. The help sheet opens: from the right on a computer or a tablet, from the bottom on a phone. Its head says where you are, such as "Section · Roof step" or "Tool · Find".
Read it, then follow it further
Most section topics say what to set, what it changes and when to change it. A tool's topic gives numbered steps, most with pictures and some with a short clip. Under Related, open a related topic, or the row "<section>, in the docs" to open these pages in a new tab.
Close the sheet with Escape, its ×, or a press beside it. Back returns from a topic you reached by a link.
The open topic is part of the page's address. To show a colleague the same topic, copy the address from the browser's address bar and send it.
The app explains its own words where you meet them. On a computer, each step's name has a one-line tooltip, and the first time you meet a step or the Sun view, a line under its title says what it is. See Help in the app.
Where something fails, the app says what happened and what to do, with a button for the remedy, such as Try again. Some problems add Details: open it for the words to quote in a report.
These pages
| Page | Use it for |
|---|---|
| What SolarLayout Rooftop does | The five steps, and what you need to start |
| Getting started | Opening Rooftop, the demo, where designs are kept, what the browser needs |
| Your first rooftop design | A design from a building on the map to the files, step by step |
| The five steps | The screen: the steps and their marks, the top bar, the result, the notes, saving |
| Find the roof | Finding the building, outlining the roof, obstacles, the roof by hand, a drawing |
| Roof | The outline, the roof type, the edges and access, the obstacles |
| Array | The module, the mounting, the spacing, the shade-free hours, the design day |
| The Sun view | Shadows at any hour, the shade map, the shade over the year |
| Strings | The options, the inverter, the system voltage, modules per string, MPPT loading |
| Performance | The energy of year 1, by month, over 25 years, where it goes, the assumptions |
| Handover | Each file of the design, and Download all |
| Present | The tour of the design for a client |
| Your designs and the project file | Home, the designs on this device, opening a project file |
| Reference | Equipment files, the other files the app opens, the limits, the terms |
| Troubleshooting | A message the app showed, what it means and what to do |
| What's new | Each update that changes what you meet |
Docs opens these pages from the app: at the top right of Home, at the right of the top bar on a computer, and in the project menu, under the design's name, on a phone or a tablet.
To find a message the app showed, search these pages for its words, or open Troubleshooting, where the messages are listed by the part of the app that shows them.
Contacting SolarLayout
Write to SolarLayout at sales@solarlayout.app with a question, a report of something that went wrong, or a request.
Free, no account needed. Your designs are kept on this device. A design on one device is not on another: the project file carries it across. To show SolarLayout a design, send its project file.
A report is acted on fastest when it has:
- what you did, step by step, and what you expected;
- the message the app showed, word for word, and what Details says, if the message has it;
- the page's address, from the browser's address bar;
- the browser, and the device: a phone, a tablet or a computer;
- the design's project file.
Download the project file
Press the design's name in the top bar, then Download the project file. On Home, a card's ⋯ menu has the same item.
Attach it to your mail
The file ends in .rtd and is named after the design, such as
Pune-demo-roof.rtd. It holds the whole design, your own module, inverter and
weather files included, so SolarLayout can open it and see what you saw.
A project file holds the design's place: the roof's outline with its latitude and longitude. Send it only to those who may know where the roof is.
If the problem is with a file of Handover, say which file and attach it beside the project file. Your designs and the project file lists what the project file holds.