Learn
Tutorials
The complete guide to Automata Solar, from an empty map to a finished PV design with a report and CAD file. Every control on the design page is documented here; use the sidebar to jump to a section.
01
Getting started
Automata Solar turns a drawn site and a handful of system inputs into an optimized PV design (module placement, energy production, and financial performance) with a PDF report and a CAD file at the end.
You describe the site and the rules; the platform does the layout work. From your inputs it finds the usable parts of each surface (subtracting obstructions, clearances, and shaded spots), fills them with modules according to the layouts you allow, picks the combination that best serves your design goal, and analyzes the result. A full design pass looks like this:
- 1.Create a project on the dashboard and set its location.
- 2.Draw the site geometry on the map: array areas where modules may go, obstructions and keep-out zones where they may not.
- 3.Configure the four input tabs: Design (goal and allowed layouts), System (module, inverter, battery, size limits), Losses (degradation, system losses, soiling), and Financials (costs, tariffs, and load).
- 4.Select “Generate design” and review the results on the map and in the results panel.
- 5.Download the PDF report or the CAD file, or refine and re-run.
02
Projects & revisions
The dashboard is where projects live: your profile and credit usage at the top, the projects table below.
The profile card shows your plan, the compute credits used this billing cycle, and an “Account settings” button that opens the billing portal (subscription, invoices, payment methods). The projects table lists every project with its creation date, system size, production, and status (Draft, Queued, Processing, Complete, or Failed) and updates automatically while a run is in progress. Use the search field to filter by name or location, and the row actions to open, rename, or delete.
Creating a project
- 1.Select “Create project” at the top of the projects table.
- 2.Name the project. The name appears in the list and on the report.
- 3.Set the site location: type at least three characters to search for an address, or click the map to drop the site point directly. Either works; the map click is handy for unaddressed sites.
- 4.Select “Create project”. The design page opens centered on the site.
Revisions
A project is a stack of revisions. Every design run stores its inputs, geometry, and results as a new revision automatically, and “Save” can add one too, so a completed design is never silently overwritten, and you can compare runs side by side from the dashboard. The table shows the latest revision as the main row; a chevron expands the older ones, each openable on the design page. Names are per revision: renaming one revision leaves the others untouched.
03
The design page
Everything happens on one screen: the inputs panel on the left, the map everywhere else.
The inputs panel holds the project header (“Back” to the dashboard, “Settings” for display preferences, “Save”, the revision counter, and the credits used this cycle), followed by the four input tabs and the “Generate design” button. Click the project name to rename the revision inline. Around the map:
- Site geometry (top left): a legend of array areas, obstructions, and PV modules with feature counts. Click a row to hide or show that layer.
- 2D / 3D (top center): switches between a top-down view for precise tracing and a tilted 3D view where heights extrude and shadows render. The crosshair button, “Reset view to site”, reframes the camera on the site.
- Drawing tools & snapping (top right): the two drawing tools and three snapping toggles, covered in the next sections.
- Sun position (bottom center): month and time-of-day controls for previewing shadows, covered in Shading & 3D preview.
Draw array area
Trace a surface that can carry modules, one shape per roof plane or mounting area.
Add obstruction
Outline anything that blocks modules or casts a shadow; height 0 marks a keep-out.
Reset view to site
Reframes the camera on the site at any time.
Drawing is limited to a 2.5 × 2.5 km square centered on the site, the thin white outline on the map. If you need geometry beyond it, create a project centered closer to it.
Display settings
“Settings” sets the currency label used for costs and financial results (a display label only: amounts are not converted between currencies) and the units, metric or imperial, used for lengths and areas. The unit choice also selects the report paper size: A4 for metric, Letter for imperial.
04
Array areas
An array area is a surface that can carry modules: a flat rooftop, one plane of a pitched roof, or a patch of ground. Draw one per surface; modules are only ever placed inside them.
- 1.Select “Draw array area”, then click to place corners along the surface outline. Every edge shows its live length, and the enclosed area appears at the center.
- 2.Close the shape by clicking the first corner again (or press Enter to finish, Escape to discard). The 2D view is usually easiest for precise tracing.
- 3.Select the finished shape to edit its properties (height, setback, azimuth, and tilt) in the card at the top right.
- 4.To adjust the outline later: click a shape to select and drag it, click it again to drag individual corners, or drag a midpoint dot to add a corner. To remove a shape, select it and use “Delete” in the properties card.
Height
default 10 m
Surface height above ground at the polygon's center. It drives the 3D view and the shadow the building itself casts on its surroundings.
Setback
default 0.25 m
Keep-out margin measured inward from the area's edge: fire-code setbacks, parapet clearance, walkways along the perimeter. No modules are placed in this band; it renders on the map as a translucent strip so you can see exactly what is excluded.
Azimuth / Tilt
default 0° / 0°
Define the surface plane. Leave both at 0° for flat roofs and ground mounts: flat areas are racked using the Design tab’s layout angles. Set them to the roof plane for pitched roofs; see Pitched roofs.
Snapping
Three toggles keep hand-drawn geometry tidy. All are on by default; hold Alt while drawing to bypass them momentarily.
Snap to vertices
New corners lock onto existing corners of other shapes, for shared corners between adjacent areas.
Snap to edges
New corners lock onto the nearest point of other shapes' edges, for butting an area against another outline.
Snap to angles (45°)
The next edge snaps to 45° increments relative to the previous edge. An amber guide line shows when it engages. Ideal for rectangular roofs.
05
Obstructions & keep-outs
Obstructions are everything that competes with modules for space or light: chimneys, vents, HVAC units, skylights, parapets, and taller structures nearby that throw shadows onto the array.
Draw them with “Add obstruction”, exactly like array areas. Obstructions are flat-topped: their footprint plus setback is excluded from module placement, and their height determines the shadow they cast in the shading analysis and the 3D view. An obstruction doesn’t have to sit inside an array area. Model a taller neighboring building or a tree line as an obstruction so its shadow is accounted for.
Height
default 10 m
Height above ground, used for shading and the 3D view. Set 0 to mark a flat keep-out area (see below).
Setback
default 0.25 m
Keep-out margin measured outward around the shape: service clearance around equipment. No modules are placed in this band.
Keep-out zones
An obstruction with height 0 is a pure keep-out zone: modules avoid its footprint, but it casts no shadow. Use it for skylights, roof windows, walkways, drainage paths, or any region you simply want left empty without affecting the shading analysis.
Repeated equipment: copy & paste
- 1.Select a drawn obstruction and press ⌘C (Ctrl+C on Windows) or use “Copy” in its properties card.
- 2.Press ⌘V. A ghost of the shape follows the cursor. Click to stamp a copy, and keep clicking to place as many as needed.
- 3.Right-click to place the last copy, or press Esc to finish. Copies carry the original’s height and setback. This works for array areas too.
06
Pitched roofs
A pitched roof plane is an array area whose azimuth and tilt are set to the plane itself. Modules then mount flush on the surface instead of being racked at chosen angles.
- 1.Trace the roof plane’s outline as an array area, one shape per plane. The top-down 2D view makes following the eave and ridge lines easy.
- 2.Select the shape. Each edge label now also shows the edge’s azimuth (its outward compass direction), like 14.9 m · 120°.
- 3.Read the angle on the downhill(eave) edge, the direction the surface faces, and type it into the shape’s Azimuth field (0° = north, 90° = east, 180° = south, 270° = west).
- 4.Set Tilt to the roof pitch, up to 35°. The card then shows both the plan area and the true surface area.
- 5.Check the 3D view: the plane now slopes down toward its azimuth, tilting around the shape’s height at its center.
07
Shading & 3D preview
Shading is handled for you: the design avoids shaded spots instead of placing modules in them. The 3D view lets you preview exactly what the analysis sees.
The Sun position panel drives the preview: pick a month (shadows are shown for the 21st of that month) and drag the time slider from 7 AM to 5 PM site-local time. Shadows render only in the 3D view. Use it to sanity-check heights before running: sweep December and June at morning and afternoon hours and watch where shadows fall.
When you generate a design, shading is handled in two ways:
- Shaded spots are excluded. Shadows from every drawn feature (obstructions and the buildings themselves) are evaluated across the whole year during core daylight hours. Any spot shaded at any of those times gets no modules.
- Rows are spaced to avoid shading each other. For tilted racking on flat areas, the row gap is computed from the longest shadow a row casts during core daylight hours, and the design uses your minimum row spacing or the computed gap, whichever is larger. Flush-mounted modules on pitched roofs can’t shade each other, so they use your minimum spacing exactly.
08
Design tab
The Design tab tells the optimization what to aim for and which layouts it may consider.
Design goal
The goal decides how candidate designs are compared. Costs, tariffs, and load come from the Financials tab; r is the discount rate and y runs over the project lifetime.
Maximize energy production
default
Most annual kWh from the site, regardless of cost. Prices and load don’t influence the choice.
Minimize net present cost
sizes storage automatically
Lowest lifetime cost of owning the system and buying the remaining electricity, discounted to today. The only goal where oversizing hurts, and the only one that also sizes a battery for you. Storage can be added under any goal (see the System tab); the others install exactly the minimum count you ask for.
Minimize levelized cost of energy
Cheapest generation per kWh over the lifetime: lifetime system cost divided by lifetime production, both discounted.
Minimize electricity bill
Lowest discounted lifetime electricity bill: imports cost, exports earn. Hardware is free to this goal, so it tends to fill the site; pair it with a maximum system size.
NPC = capital cost + Σy [ bill(y) + O&M + replacements(y) ] / (1 + r)^yLCOE = [ capital cost + Σy discounted O&M & replacements ] / Σy discounted energy(y)bill(y) = imports(y) × import rate − exports(y) × export rateArray layouts
These lists define the layouts the optimization may choose from. Each array area gets exactly one layout (one combination of azimuth, tilt, orientation, stacking, and racking type), but different areas can end up with different layouts. Modules up and east-west racking apply to flat areas only.
Module orientations
default landscape
Landscape (long edge horizontal), portrait, or both. Both lets the optimization pick per area.
Modules up
default 1
How many module rows are stacked on one rack: 1–4. Taller racks fit more modules per row but cast longer shadows, needing more space between rows.
Racking type
default both
Fixed tilt: all rows face one azimuth at a chosen tilt (classic layout, best per-module yield). East-west: paired rows lean in opposite directions back to back (higher module density and flatter daily production, at lower per-module yield). Allowing both lets the optimization decide.
Allowed angles
The angles fixed-tilt racking may be built at. Both lists apply to flat areas only: a pitched area keeps the azimuth and tilt of its surface, whatever is listed here.
Allowed azimuths (°)
default 0, 90, 180, 270
Compass directions fixed-tilt rows may face (0° = north, 180° = south). Up to 8 values, 0–360. Type a value and press Enter to add it.
Allowed tilts (°)
default 20
Tilt angles the racking may use, 0–90, up to 8 values. More angles explore more candidates.
Spacing
The gaps left between the mounted hardware. Unlike the lists above, these apply to flat and pitched areas alike.
Minimum row spacing
default 0.5 m
A floor on the gap between rack rows. The design widens it automatically when needed to keep rows from shading each other, so the built spacing is often larger. Check the actual value per subsystem in the results.
Module spacing
default 0.05 m
Gap between adjacent modules along a row and between stacked modules on a rack: mounting hardware clearance.
09
System tab
The equipment: one module model, one inverter model, optionally a battery, and the limits the design has to stay within.
Module
Capacity
default 400 W
Nameplate DC power of one module at standard test conditions. Together with the module count this sets the system's DC size.
Type
default standard
The module technology class: sets the simulation's temperature response and optics, not the capacity. See below.
Width × Length
default 1.13 × 1.72 m
The physical footprint used to lay modules out on the surface. Take both from the datasheet. They determine how many modules fit.
Bifacial
default off
Adds rear-side collection to the simulation using a standard rear-side factor. Enable it only for genuinely bifacial modules.
Type tells the simulation what kind of module you are installing. It changes two hidden characteristics: how much power is lost as cells heat up, and how well the front glass captures low-angle light.
- Standard: typical crystalline silicon (polycrystalline or basic mono, roughly the 15%-efficiency class): plain glass, temperature coefficient about −0.47 %/°C. The conservative choice when the exact product isn’t known.
- Premium: high-efficiency monocrystalline (PERC, TOPCon, HJT and similar, roughly 19%+): anti-reflective glass and about −0.35 %/°C. Matches most quality modules sold today; noticeably better in hot climates and in morning and evening light.
- Thin film: glass-laminated thin-film modules such as CdTe, mostly utility-scale: lower efficiency class but the gentlest temperature response (about −0.20 %/°C). Check the datasheet: some modern thin-film products run steeper than that assumption.
Inverter
Capacity
default 7,600 W
Rated AC power of one inverter. The design chooses how many to install.
Efficiency
default 96 %
Nominal conversion efficiency (90–99.5%). Conversion losses and clipping, when DC output exceeds the AC rating, are simulated hour by hour.
Inverter lifetime
default 15 yr
Years before a full replacement. Replacements that fall inside the project lifetime are priced into the financial results (a 15-year inverter in a 25-year project is repurchased once, at year 15).
Battery
Toggle “Include battery” to describe one battery unit; the number of units installed is set under System limits below. How many you get depends on the design goal: Minimize net present cost is the only goal that can weigh storage cost against bill savings, so it chooses the count itself within your bounds. Every other goal installs exactly the minimum you ask for.
Capacity
default 10 kWh
Usable energy capacity of one battery unit.
Power
default 5 kW
Maximum charge/discharge power of one unit. Leave empty for a 1C rate: power numerically equal to capacity.
Round-trip efficiency
default 90 %
Energy out per energy in over a full cycle; the loss is split between charging and discharging.
Battery lifetime
default 10 yr
Years before a full replacement, priced like inverter replacements.
Batteries operate on self-consumption: they charge only from solar surplus, discharge only to cover unmet site demand, and never trade with the grid directly.
System limits
The bounds every candidate design has to satisfy. Leave a size field empty (or 0) for no limit. The battery bounds appear once a battery is included.
Minimum system size
default no limit
A floor on the total DC size in kW.
Maximum system size
default no limit
A ceiling on the total DC size in kW.
Minimum batteries
default 0
Minimum number of battery units the design must include.
Maximum batteries
default 100
Maximum number of battery units the design may include.
10
Losses tab
The loss assumptions for the production simulation: annual degradation, the system loss budget, and monthly soiling.
Degradation
Module degradation
default 0.5 %/yr
Annual output decline: year-y production is scaled by (1 − rate)^(y−1). It shapes yearly energy, bills, and every lifetime financial metric. Modules are never replaced, so it compounds over the whole project.
Battery degradation
default 2 %/yr
Annual capacity fade of the storage, shown once a battery is included in the System tab. Usable capacity shrinks with each year of age and is restored when the battery is replaced.
Losses & soiling
System losses
default 14 %
A catch-all percentage for effects the simulation doesn't compute individually. See below for what belongs in it.
Monthly soiling losses
default 0 %
Production lost to dirt on the glass, per calendar month, applied on top of system losses. Use site-specific values (dusty dry seasons, pollen months) and keep soiling out of the system-losses number to avoid double counting.
The industry-standard 14% loss budget is composed of typical values for soiling (2%), far-horizon shading (3%), snow (0%), module mismatch (2%), wiring (2%), connections (0.5%), initial light-induced degradation (1.5%), nameplate tolerance (1%), and availability (3%), compounding multiplicatively.
11
Financials tab
Costs, financial assumptions, emissions, and the hourly series (tariffs and load) that turn a design into cash flows.
Component costs
Module cost
default 0.40 $/W
Installed cost per watt of module capacity: modules, mounting, and their share of installation labor.
Inverter cost
default 0.15 $/W
Cost per watt of inverter AC capacity, also used to price replacements.
Battery cost
default 500 $/kWh
Cost per kWh of storage; shown once a battery is included in the System tab. Also prices replacements.
Soft costs
default 10,000 $
One-time fixed costs independent of system size: design, permitting, interconnection, overhead.
O&M cost
default 20 $/kW-yr
Annual operations and maintenance per kW of DC capacity, every year of the project.
Assumptions & environmental
Discount rate
default 5 %
Nominal annual rate used to discount future costs, bills, and energy in NPC and LCOE.
Project lifetime
default 25 yr
Analysis period, 1–50 years. All lifetime metrics (NPC, LCOE, payback, cash flow) run over this horizon.
Grid emissions factor
default 0.4 kg CO₂/kWh
Carbon intensity of the grid electricity the system displaces; drives the CO₂-avoided figures in the results and report.
Load & utility rates
Three series describe the site’s year, hour by hour (8,760 values each, in the site’s local time): Electricity import rate (price paid per kWh from the grid), Electricity export rate (price received per kWh fed in), and Consumption (site demand in kW, averaged per hour: a flat 1 kW is 8,760 kWh/yr). Each row shows its average-day sparkline and summary; click one to open the editor, then apply one of three modes:
Flat value
One number applied to every hour of the year, the quickest way to model a fixed tariff or a constant base load.
Daily profile
Shape a 24-hour curve by dragging across the bar chart (or typing into the numeric grid). Presets (day/night and evening-peak tariffs, residential and commercial load shapes) give a starting shape that rescales to your current level. Optionally give weekends their own profile, and add per-month multipliers for seasonal variation (1 = unchanged).
Upload CSV
Bring real interval data. Download the template to get the expected layout: one row per hour of the year, with a datetime column (01-01 00:00 through 12-31 23:00, no year) and a value column in the series' unit ($/kWh or kW). Uploads must match that layout — 8,760 rows in hourly order — or they're rejected with the offending line; negatives are clamped to 0. The preview heatmap and stats confirm the data before you apply it.
To use a custom load profile: open Consumption, pick “Upload CSV”, select “Download template” to get a CSV with the datetime column pre-filled, fill the value column from your meter portal or energy monitoring system at hourly resolution, upload it back, check the year preview, and select “Apply”. “Export CSV” downloads the current series in the same layout. The hourly series are what the bill, self-consumption, and battery results are computed from, so measured data beats assumptions whenever you have it.
12
Generate & results
One run does everything: it finds the usable parts of each surface, lays out and compares the allowed designs, and fully analyzes the best one, stored as a new revision.
Running
- 1.Select “Generate design” and confirm. The run is queued as a new revision. The page moves onto it immediately.
- 2.While it processes, the page shows “Generating design…”. You can safely leave: the run continues in the background and saves its results when it finishes; reopening the revision resumes watching it.
- 3.When it completes, the placed modules appear on the map and the results panel opens. If no viable design exists, the revision is marked failed with an explanation, and not charged.
With a completed design on screen the drawn geometry locks (the results describe exactly the geometry that produced them) and every shape permanently shows its measurements. To edit the site again, select “Clear design to modify the geometry”: the placed modules and results are removed, your drawn geometry stays. Inputs stay editable the whole time, so tweaking a value and re-running (as a fresh revision) needs no clearing.
The results panel
Summary
The headline numbers: DC and AC size, DC/AC ratio, year-1 production, specific yield, capacity factor, capital cost, LCOE, and simple payback, plus monthly production, the bill of materials, and project details.
Site
Location, elevation, time zone, the weather dataset used for the simulation, and the site's monthly solar resource (global horizontal irradiation).
Production
Energy balance (self-consumption, solar fraction, energy offset), CO₂ avoided with real-world equivalents, monthly production vs. consumption and grid exchange, a month-by-hour production heatmap, and production over the project life including degradation.
BOM
Every component with model and quantity, total module area, battery storage, and one row per subsystem: racking type, azimuth/tilt, module count, the actual row spacing used, and ground coverage ratio.
Losses
The loss assumptions echoed back (system losses, soiling, degradation, lifetimes), plus year-1 performance ratio and the month-by-hour shading heatmap.
Financials
Capital cost with its breakdown, O&M, net present cost, LCOE, IRR, simple payback, the annual bill with and without solar, and the cumulative cash-flow chart. Year 0 is the capital outlay and the zero crossing marks payback.
At the bottom of the panel, “Download report (PDF)” produces the full report (paper size follows your unit setting) and “Download CAD (.dae)” exports the 3D model of the site and modules for CAD tools.
Saving
Runs save themselves; “Save” is for storing input or geometry changes without running. It asks which way: “Save as new revision” keeps every existing revision unchanged, “Overwrite revision n” replaces the one you’re on: inputs, geometry, and results. The dialog’s name field lets you label the revision in the same step, e.g. “My project, east-west”.
13
Troubleshooting
What the platform is telling you when something doesn't go through.
“No viable PV system design could be found…”
No design satisfied your constraints. The usual causes: the usable area is too small, a minimum system size that doesn’t fit, or geometry where setbacks, keep-outs, and shading leave no room. Relax the limits or revisit the drawn site. The run wasn’t charged.
“Weather data is not available for this location.”
The site's coordinates have no weather coverage (open ocean, extreme latitudes). Move the site point onto land. A transient “Could not fetch weather data” message instead means retry in a moment.
A failed run keeps announcing itself
Failure is stored on the revision, so its notice reappears whenever that revision is opened. Delete the revision from the dashboard, or run again. Each run is a fresh revision.
“Revision limit reached (50)”
Your account's 50 revision slots are full. Runs and saves both consume them, failed runs included. Delete old revisions from the dashboard.
Generate or Save is disabled
One operation runs at a time: an active run disables Save (and vice versa), exports disable both, and runs are spaced at least 10 seconds apart. A missing array area also disables Generate. The footer hint says what's needed.
Drawing tools are gone
A completed design locks the geometry. Select “Clear design to modify the geometry” to unlock: your shapes stay, the placed modules and results go.
Can't draw where I want
Drawing is confined to the 2.5 km square around the site point (the white outline). Cursor sticking to lines or corners is snapping. Hold Alt to bypass it.
Stuck on a step? Contact us