Design Studio · Roof tracing
Get the roof right, before a single panel.
Every number in a solar design starts with the roof outline. Solset AI gives you four ways to get it: let the AI suggest the faces, frame the building and let it find them, take Google's roof faces where Google has them, or draw them yourself. Then add what is on the roof, by hand or by typed size.
- Suggest roofs with AI2 faces found
- Face 1 · pitch 10° · facing 180°Accepted
- Face 2 · pitch 10° · facing 0°Accepted
- Water tank · 2.0 × 1.5 m · 1.8 m highEnter size
- Walkway · 0.8 m wideKeep-out
- Panels outside a roof faceNone
Illustration of the Roof step. Names match the buttons in the studio; the figures are an example.
- Professional
- Plan it starts on
- 10 solar designs/mo
- Included on Professional
- 30 m · 60 m · 120 m
- Frame the building sizes, measured on the ground
From an address to a clean roof
The order most designers work in. Each step can be done by hand instead.
- AddressSuggestions
- Use my locationGPS
- Is this the right site?Confirm
Put the pin on the right building
Search an address with suggestions as you type, paste coordinates, or use your phone's location on site. A new design asks you to confirm the site, so nobody traces the last customer's roof by mistake.
- Address search biased to your workspace's country
- "Find roofs here" moves the pin to where you are looking, after asking
Everything on the Roof step
- Site photo to scaleUpload a drone shot or a drawing, set the scale by a known length, move and turn it on the map, lock it.
- One point and a bearingPin one point of the photo to the map and type which way its top faces. A drone photo's GPS is offered, never assumed.
- Photo as the base mapWhere the satellite picture is old, hide it and design on your own photo; the design page shows your photo too.
- DXF roof importClosed polylines and circles by layer become faces, obstacles, keep-outs or panels, scaled from the file's units.
- Panels only on a roofEvery panel must sit wholly inside one face: placing, dragging and duplicating are refused off the roof.
- Rows per faceSet which way the rows face on each roof face, or rotate selected panels; refused if they would leave the roof.
- Keep-outs and walkwaysFire paths, skylights and cleaning walkways are drawn as no-go ground and kept out of the layout.
- Undo for every editAccepting faces, moving a roof with what sits on it, or a size change is one undo step.
Good to know
- Google's roof faces come as rectangles sized to Google's area, and only where Google Solar covers the building. Check the outline before you lay panels.
- Roof heights are not taken from Google. Measure them or type the height you have measured on site.
- The AI estimates pitch from a photo from above. Confirm it against the site survey.
Related features
- AI in the Design StudioRoof suggestions, outline refinement, design review, bill scanning and a design guide with one-click fixes.
- Structure designTable designer, wind loads by country, frame solver and member check, STAAD export, drawings and foundations.
- Electrical designStrings and equipment on the plan, automatic inverter placement, cable routes and trays, protection, SLD.
Roof tracing: questions
Put your next job on one record.
Create a free workspace, add one real enquiry and take it as far as a quotation. If that is not faster than how you work today, you have lost nothing.