The five steps

A design in SolarLayout Rooftop goes through five steps: Roof, Array, Strings, Performance and Handover. Roof, Array and Strings share the Studio: the roof in 3D on the stage, and the step's work column beside it. Performance and Handover are pages of their own. All five share one design, one top bar, the notes to review and the result.

Home, Find and Present stand outside the steps. Home is where designs start and are kept; Find, the map, is the first part of the Roof step for a new roof; Present is a tour of the design on the whole screen.

The steps and their marks

Press a step to go to it, in any order. Sun is not a step: the Sun button on the stage turns on the Sun view on Roof, Array or Strings. See The Sun view.

Each step carries a mark:

A note leads to the step where it is put right: a note on the module or on the layout to Array, a note on the weather to Performance, and a chosen option outside its DC/AC target to Strings. The DC/AC ratio is the modules' DC capacity over the inverters' AC capacity.

On a computer, rest the pointer on a step, or move the keyboard's focus to it, to see its line from the table.

On Find, before the roof is built, Roof is the step in hand and the four after it are grey and cannot be pressed: a screen reader hears "after the roof is built". They open with the design that Build this roof makes. See Find the roof.

The primary and "Next:"

Each step has one primary button, named for the step that follows. In the Studio it stands at the foot of the work column. Under it, until you have opened the next step once for this design, a line says what that step is:

• "Next: Array, the modules on the roof, how they are mounted and spaced."
• "Next: Strings, how the modules are wired to the inverter."
• "Next: Performance, the energy the design makes in a year, and where it is lost."

On Strings, when no string length fits at the system voltage and a higher one fits, the primary becomes Use 1000 V (or the voltage that fits), with "Check first that the site's code allows it." under it. See When no string length fits.

The top bar

The saved mark stands before the design's name: see Saving. Press the name to open the project menu: a menu on desktop, a sheet from the bottom on a phone or a tablet.

Present is not in the top bar. It is on Performance and Handover, on a tablet or a computer. See Present.

Find has a top bar of its own: the mark, New design, the five steps with Roof in hand, and Docs on desktop. It has no result and no saved mark: the design does not exist until the roof is built.

The project menu

See Your designs and the project file.

The result

The result, at the right of the top bar, is the energy of year 1 of the chosen option: "586.4 MWh a year" on desktop, the figure and "MWh" on a phone or a tablet. It follows each change.

Press the result to open The result, a panel on desktop, a sheet from the bottom on a phone or a tablet. It lists seven figures of the chosen option:

The performance ratio (PR) is the energy delivered over what the modules would make at their rated output in the same sunlight. The yield is the energy of a year for each kWp of modules.

Under the figures: <n> to review, which opens the notes, when notes wait, and Open Performance.

When a run fails, the panel says what happened and what to do, with Try again and Details:

"Not updated" means a result from before stands, and the cause adds that the result shown is from before the change. When no option can be made, because no module fits on the roof or no string fits, the panel gives the reason, with Open Roof or Open Strings to put it right. See Troubleshooting.

Notes to review

A note is a value or a state the app wants you to look at:

• a note of the module file, of the layout or of the weather;
• the chosen option, when its DC/AC ratio is outside its target;
• a run or a layout that failed;
• a design the browser refused to keep.

Open the list from the result's panel, <n> to review. A refused save also opens it from Not saved in the project menu. On a phone the list is a sheet from the bottom; on a tablet or a computer, a panel from the right. With nothing waiting it says Nothing to review, with a tick. Close it with Escape, its ×, or a press beside it.

Each note has its title, its reason, where it belongs, and one action:

A value outside the usual range carries its field in the note. Its title names the value, such as "Voc coefficient outside the usual range" (Voc, the module's open-circuit voltage), and its reason "Usually <low> to <high> <unit> for this kind of module. Enter the datasheet's value." Type the datasheet's value in the field, or press Keep <value>. The list then starts with "Values outside the usual range. Each one says how to fix it."

A run or a layout that failed says so with its cause, whether the last result or the last positions still show, and Try again.

The note mark is an exclamation in amber, never a red cross.

The work column

On a computer the work column stands at the right of the stage, 384 px wide. It has three weights:

1. The step's head: what to do, as an instruction, and a line under it: Check the roof on Roof, Choose the module on Array, Check the strings on Strings. Until you open another step of a design, the Roof step's head also says The array is on the roof, then the energy of year 1 once it is computed.
2. The sections, each a row you press to open or close: its name with its ? for the help, its facts on one line, and at the right who set it. On Array, Module opens the first time; after that each section stays as you left it on this device.
3. The fields inside an open section.

The primary stands at the column's foot, with its "Next:" line.

Who set a value

A section says Yours when any of its fields is yours. Under a field you changed, the hint says "Yours · default <value>" with Reset, for example "Yours · default 0.90 m · Reset". Reset gives the app's value back, as one change that undo takes back too.

Fields

• A number you type is kept when you press Enter or leave the field. Escape gives it up; ↑ and ↓ step it. A value past the range is set to its end, and the field says "The highest is <max> <unit>." or "The lowest is <min> <unit>.".
• A slider changes what is shown as you drag it, and keeps the value when you let go.
• A stepper keeps the value at each press of its minus or its plus.

Hide panel

On a computer, in the Studio, the icon at the column's top right, Hide panel, gives the stage the whole width. ⌘ \ or Ctrl \ does the same, and brings the column back, from anywhere in the Studio except while you type in a field, use a slider, a menu or a list, or a dialog is open.

While the column is hidden, Show panel stands beside the view controls at the stage's top right, the step's primary floats at the stage's foot with its "Next:" line, and the result stays in the top bar.

The column stays hidden on this device until you show it. It comes back by itself when a design opens for the first time, when the step in hand needs you, and when you select something on the roof. Find's column cannot be hidden.

On a phone or a tablet

On a phone the work column is a sheet with three stops. It opens at half: the stage keeps 40 % of the screen's height. At its lowest stop it shows the grip, the step's instruction and the primary; at its highest a strip of the roof stays above it. Drag the grip, or press it to go one stop further. With a keyboard, ↑, ↓, Home, End, Enter and Space move it. The primary stays pinned at its foot at each stop.

On a touch screen, Find's instructions and the help say Press where a computer's say Click. In 3D one finger turns the view and two fingers pan and pinch; in Plan one finger pans.

With the Sun view on, a tablet's or a phone's work column holds the Sun view's content in place of the step's head and sections; the primary stays.

Find on a tablet has the map on top, 440 px high, and the column as a sheet under it. On a phone the map takes what the sheet leaves, as in the Studio.

Help in the app

The help is on Find and in the Studio: on Roof, Array and Strings, and in the Sun view. Home, Performance, Handover and Present have none.

The ? disc 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, to read the topic's summary and "Click for more". Press it to open the topic.

The help sheet opens from the right on a computer and a tablet, and from the bottom on a phone, with a grip. Its head says where it is, for example "Section · Array step" or "Tool · Find". Then:

• the topic's title and its summary;
• for a section that is one choice, its options, each with what it means, and the design's own choice marked: Your choice, or who set it, such as Set for India;
• the body. A section reads "What to set", "What it changes" and "When to change it"; a section that reads a result starts with "Reading it". A tool of Find gives numbered steps, for a mouse or for touch, with pictures and, for some, a short clip;
• Related: two or three topics, then "<section>, in the docs", which opens these pages in a new tab.

A topic's name inside another opens it in the sheet; Back returns. On touch, press a picture to open it larger and pinch to look closer. A clip loads only when you press its play button, then plays muted, in a loop; press it to pause. Close the sheet with Escape, its ×, or a press beside it.

The open topic is part of the page's address: copy the address to send a colleague the same topic. If the body does not load, the sheet says "This part of the help did not load. Check the connection and try again." with Try again.

The app's own words

Where you first meet one of the app's own words, one line says what it is:

The line stands under the title the first time you meet the word on this device: for Roof, Array, Strings and the Sun view on a computer, under the stage's title; for Performance and Handover under the page's title, on each size. It stays until you reload the page. After that, a step's line is its tooltip in the top bar.

Saving

Free, no account needed. Your designs are kept on this device. A design on one device is not on another: its project file carries it across.

A design is saved by itself, 600 ms after your last change, and at once when you leave the page. The mark before the design's name says where it stands. On a computer, rest the pointer on it for its words; the project menu shows them under the name:

The demo and a design not yet changed are kept from their first change. A change that another tab of the app blocks fails with "the app is open in another tab, which blocks the change": close the other tab.

Undo and redo

In the Studio, on Performance and on Handover, ⌘ Z or Ctrl Z undoes your last change; ⌘ ⇧ Z, Ctrl ⇧ Z or Ctrl Y redoes it. A rename is a change too. The app keeps 50 changes, and opening another design starts afresh. A key pressed in a field belongs to the field. Find has its own Undo for the outline.

Toasts

A short message, a toast, stands at the bottom centre of the screen, one at a time. A toast of something done has a tick and leaves after 5 s; a note stays until you close it. When a change takes away the stringing you chose, the toast says "Your stringing no longer fits. Option <letter> is used." with Undo, which takes the change back, and Choose another, which opens Strings.

While a file of Handover is on its way, the browser asks before you leave the page.

See On this device for the designs on this device and the project file.