Release notes 2.50

📢 What's new

New features

Cable sizing & voltage drop calculations

You no longer need to use external tools: Now you can set the maximum tolerance for voltage drop and we will calculate the cross-sectional area needed for your cabling. You may find the sizes and voltage drop estimations in the SLDs and in the BoM.

How does it work?
You’ve finished your cabling, but what about your voltage drop? How do you pick the cable size to match your optimization goals? We got you covered! Just follow the steps below:

1. Open the Electrical design window and go to the Cabling tab. 
2. Select the correct PVarea before you continue.
3. Now you can open the new Voltage drop settings. These settings apply individually to every cabling type. Make sure you set the configuration for DC cabling and AC cabling.

The settings offer various options, so you can:

• choose between IEC and NEC standards
• set a minimum CSA, we will not go below your choice
• set the nominal AC voltage of your inverters (AC V)
• select the material (aluminum or copper)
• set the voltage drop you want to reach
• set the nominal voltage (Vmpp) and current (Impp) of your modules.

From this point on, everything is automated. You only need to generate your SLD to see the CSA values for every cable. Or export the BoM to see the CSA values for every cable and its estimated voltage drop.

Copy-paste of strings and electrical devices

Did you optimize your strings, inverters and transformer placement? Now you can copy the electrical design under a transformer and replicate it by pasting it around your layout.

How does it work?
Go to your drawing and find the transformer whose electrical design you would like to replicate.
From there:

1. Right-click on the transformer.
2. Find the PVcase section.
3. Click on Copy transformer and dedicated devices. You can also do this from the device overview in the Electrical design window.

Now you only need to do Ctrl + V (or paste) and find the right location to place the electrical design. There are some restrictions at the moment:

• Strings connecting different frames might not work.
• Frames that are not 100% strung will not work.
• The positioning of the frames can vary slightly. The pasted string has to touch the frame to be adapted to it.

Do you need more precision? After clicking on Copy transformer and dedicated devices, press Ctrl + shift + C (or Copy with a Base Point). Select the Base Point. Now Paste (Ctrl + V) to continue replicating your electrical design.

Mechanical overhangs support for fixed-tilt & east-west

With this update, mounting systems can be modeled with increased realism when horizontal rails exceed in length the edge of the modules — aka overhangs — helping to generate a more accurate layout and reduce installation risk.

How does it work?

From Frame & park settings, open Custom piling to specify the frame details:

Here you can edit the overhangs dimensions, similarly to how it was already possible for single-axis trackers.
At layout generation, frames will be drawn with an extension to account for space taken up by the overhangs.

Minor updates

We changed the order of main actions in the ribbon: