Cross-section & front view

Cross section, Section, Front view, Terrain, Frame, Cuts, Elevation

Jonas Zemaitaitis avatar
Written by Jonas Zemaitaitis
Updated over a week ago

This tutorial contains GIF images.
If they fail to load please visit the help center via a web browser.
You can zoom this page with Ctrl+.

Cross-section

After clicking on the Cross-section feature, you will have 2 options:

Terrain cross-section is used to make an instant cross-section view of a selected area's terrain:

  1. Select 1st point cross-section - this will be your starting point.

  2. Select 2nd point of cross-section - this will be the end-point.

  3. Select cross-section placement point - this is where the cross-section will be placed in the drawing.

🛈 Terrain-only cross-sections can be used in any direction.

This fields the following cross-section:

Frames & terrain cross-section is used to make an instant cross-section view of a selected area's terrain and the table placement on that terrain:

  1. Select the PV area - this is needed to capture the area's slope as the cross-section can only be drawn vertically (fixed-tilt) and horizontally (trackers).

  2. Select 1st point cross-section - this will be your starting point.

  3. Select 2nd point of cross-section - this will be the end-point.

  4. Select cross-section placement point - this is where the cross-section will be placed.

Cross-section of a single-axis tracker system:

Cross-section of a fixed-tilt system with an azimuth:

🛈 Frames & terrain cross-sections can only be perpendicular to the frame.


Cross-sections also include a border, section naming, and elevation lines:

It's important to note that cross-sections get automatically updated after a change in the layout. Such as a modification in the table height, or in the color code system used for civil analysis. When regenerating frames with a different table preset the section will be updated for the new frames, as well.

You will also be able to track your section's starting and ending points with a visual line for easier reference. The line is also portrayed at an angle to match with the frame azimuth (for Fixed-tilt & East-West systems only).

Front view

The Front view option allows to view a frame from the front to check for the distance from the ground level to the frame:

  1. Select 1st point of the front view.

  2. Select 2nd point of the front view.

  3. Select front view placement point.

Single-axis tracker:

Fixed tilt:

As mentioned for cross-section a front view gets also updated after any meaningful changes in the layout.

🛈 A Front view can only be used in parallel to the frames: horizontally for fixed-tilt or vertically for trackers.

🛈 Note: if the cross-section cuts a frame that is steeply inclined it might only display a part of it as that is the point of the cut.

Did this answer your question?