O SolarEdge Designer is intuitive and user-friendly software for designing photovoltaic systems. Available free of charge by completing a quick registration.
The tool allows, in a few steps and with little effort, to develop three-dimensional models and perform the automatic positioning of photovoltaic modules, among other things.
In addition to the automatic detection of roof edges, a subject we covered in the article SolarEdge Designer: Modeling and positioning of modules, SolarEdge Designer now has an automatic detection feature for multiple similar obstacles. The feature reduces manual labor and time used to design commercial photovoltaic systems.
Obstacles are geometric shapes that correspond to water tanks, chimneys, skylights and other types of objects that can cause shadows or reduce the area available for installing photovoltaic modules on the desired surface.
The following figure illustrates an example of a situation in which the new automatic obstacle detection feature is very useful. A flat slab has several similar obstacles, which in the past had to be drawn one by one.
The automatic detection tool can be activated in the “Detect similar obstacles” option in the tool's top menu, as shown in the figure below.
Then choose the object that will be identified and automatically cloned by the tool:
The tool automatically identifies similar obstacles present in the image:
If desired, the user can adjust the sensitivity of the automatic detection tool, an option that is also available in the tool's top menu:
We can observe the automatically inserted obstacles in the 3D view:
You can learn more about automatic detection of similar obstacles in this video provided by SolarEdge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7q5orNqXX2s