In this tutorial, the following options to export terrain information from Ground Mount will be explained:
Export terrain to PVsyst
Export terrain to Yield
Export terrain 3D View (web browser)
Export terrain to Excel
Import GM terrain to Civil 3D
1. Export terrain to PVsyst
In order to export the terrain used in the GM design to PVsyst a Mesh needs to be generated for it first. Once that is done, the user can select "Export to PVsyst" in the Top ribbon and then select "Terrain and Frames" instead of only "Frames".
At this point, the user will be prompted to select the meshes to be exported:
The terrain will be exported as a CSV file and the frames and shading objects will be exported as a PVC file.
Once in PVsyst, the user would proceed to the "Near Shadings" scene and select to Import the PVC file:
Then an "Import result" window will show. In order to realign the layout scene (.pvc) and its respective terrain (.csv), the user must uncheck the Automatic Translation box and change it to x=0, y=0, z=0.
The last step is to Import the CSV file for the terrain (being aware that if the Automatic Translation box was previously left checked, the terrain and layout will show shifted).
If the user wants to make sure that PVsyst considers the imported terrain (any other shading objects like trees, stations, etc. are already "shadow casting" by default) as a "shadow casting" object during the simulation, it is necessary to enable that option by right-clicking on it in the Near Shading Scene:
Note: Enabling "Shadow casting" for terrain objects in PVsyst can considerably increase the simulation calculation time. More information on this shading topic can be found in this PVsyst article.
2. Export terrain to Yield
When exporting a layout based on terrain from GM to Yield (separate license required), there is no need to create a mesh or select a specific terrain. The export automatically includes all the design objects generated in GM including frames, shading objects, electrical design, terrain and geolocation. All these objects are automatically "shadow casting" (for the terrain this option is disabled by default in PVsyst), but additionally in Yield the terrain will be used for ground reflectance calculations.
2.1 Exporting one scenario
Exporting to Yield for a specific design can be done directly by clicking on the "Export to Yield" option and inputting the Yield user token:
Then the user is prompted to select the pre-existing Yield project to add the design to (1) or create a new one (2):
Once that is done, the user can access Yield and find the imported scene under "Layouts & Electrical" in the "Layouts" column ready to be selected in combination with other Layouts, Modules and Inverters in order to quickly and simultaneously simulate all combinations, easily compare them in a table format and dive deeper into the results any given simulation:
2.2 Exporting multiple scenarios
The recently revamped "Capacity Iteration" tool can be used to generate, compare, save and reiterate center for multiple designs. The user has the option to generate different scenarios based on different pitch (and tilt for fixed systems), analyze the options, pin the preferred scenarios and add new designs to the list by choosing different Frame and Park Settings parameters before reiterating:
Once a set of desired scenarios is listed, the user has the option to export them to Yield in groups of up to five designs simultaneously. In Yield the user can find the imported scenes under "Layouts & Electrical" in the "Layouts" column ready to be selected in combination with other Layouts, Modules and Inverters in order to quickly and simultaneously simulate all combinations, easily compare them in a table format and dive deeper into the results any given simulation:
3. Export terrain 3D View (web browser)
In order to make ground grading easier to interpret, an “Export to 3D view” button is available in the "Grounding grading" tab of the "Civil Analysis" window. When clicking on it, a web browser tab will be opened to show a detailed three-dimensional representation of the whole plant including frames, shading objects and terrain. The grading heat map will be overlaid upon the proposed topography.
Although this fully dynamic 3D view is run on the Yield engine, this limited version is available to all GM users. The user can zoom, change view angles and change the sun position to show how shading affects the PV layout. An animated preview of the sun path and shading for any day of the year can also be run.
4. Export terrain to Excel
There are multiple options to export terrain from GM to Excel.
4.1 Exporting terrain for pile locations
The "traditional" GM way to export terrain data for pile locations, is to "Show Piling Information" and then go to the "Bill of Materials" tab in the "Layout Information" tool and select "Export to XLSX". The Excel file will include a tab called "Piling information" with multiple information, including a "Z terrain enter" column with terrain elevation at the corresponding X, Y positions where the piles are located. The topography data shown will be for the "Existing" or "Proposed" terrain, depending on which topography was active when the export was done.
4.2 Exporting Spot Levels
In the "Ground Grading" tab of the "Civil Analysis" tool, the user has the option to show the "Heat Map" or "Spot Levels". If this second option is selected, the difference in height between "Existing" and "Proposed" terrains will show in the model space, with a distance between points that is defined by the user by moving the scroll bar. The user can go to the "Bill of Materials" tab in the "Layout Information" tool and select "Export to XLSX", and if the Spot Levels were turned ON, a new "Spot Levels" tab will show with Existing and Proposed terrain heights at X, Y positions based on the user-defined density.
4.3 Exporting cloud point data for the active topographic layer
The most complete topographic dataset that can be exported is the complete Existing or Proposed layer. These data points are hidden in the AutoCAD model space to avoid saturating it, but they are retrievable by clicking on "Export to CSV" in the "Ground Grading" tab of the "Civil Analysis" tool. A standalone CSV file is generated with high density ground data for the active topographic layer.
This CSV file can be easily imported to other Civil tools for analysis and fine-tuning of the GM Proposed terrain. As an example, we will show how to create a TIN surface in Civil 3D based on the exported list of data points.
5. Import GM terrain to Civil 3D
In the Civil 3D "Toolspace" go to the "Prospector" tab and right-click on "Surfaces" and select "Create Surface". From the "Type" list, select "TIN surface" and "OK" to add that new surface to the list in the "Prospector" tab. Under "Definition", right-click on "Point Files" and select "Add". In the newly opened window, click on the + and select to open the CSV file generated from GM. Confirm the point file format selected is correct (usually ENZ) by checking the preview and click OK. Lastly, use Zoom Extents for Civil 3D to show the TIN surface with contours generated from the cloud point data:
Note: More detailed information on Civil 3D importing can be found in this AutoDesk article.
Many settings for the imported surface can be modified in Civil 3D. For example, the contour line intervals are set by default to 2 and 10 meters, but they can be changed easily to closer/wider intervals by selecting a different Surface style or creating a new one.
Selecting high density for the contour lines in Civil3D would be critical, if the high accuracy of the GM exported CSV terrain needs to be maintained. For example, this is necessary if the GM generated CSV terrain is imported to Civil 3D to make modifications (smoothening transitions, grading roads, etc.), and subsequently needs to be reopened again in GM to verify for collision. If low density contours had been used in Civil 3D, then unwanted alterations to the graded terrain could occur.
Instead of using contour lines, an even better option is to extract the triangles from the Civil 3D surface, because 3D faces are more dense and also a valid topography that can be used in PVcase. The process to extract 3D faces from a Civil 3D surface is explained here.
Note: If after reworking the terrain in Civil 3D, it needs to be exported back to AutoCAD to use it as a new Existing terrain in GM, the command "ExportToAutoCAD" can be used. More about how to use this command can be found in this AutoDesk article.