Release notes 2.59

📢 What's new

Improvements

Cable sizing full release

IEC 60364 and NEC 2020 norms are now implemented in Ground Mount. This builds on our voltage drop calculation implementation introduced last year. Now, you can also check the current derating due to installation method, grouping factors, and soil resistivity, as well as checking short circuit current limits.

The calculations can be enabled in the Cabling menu and are run during cable generation. You can see the results directly in the Calculation tab, and export the detailed calculation to the BOM Excel file.

Cable sizing values in Electrical Overview

Cable details such as length, cross-section, and voltage drop % are now visible again in the Electrical overview.
 

Electrical design - stringing updates

We are simplifying UI for stringing by removing the areas vs frames selection. Well, not quite - but we are pushing the decision to model space by implementing smart selection. So now you can click "String" and then choose what you want to string in model space - frames, or areas. So no more accidental stringing for the whole area.

Manual stringing

Tired of trying to draw your complex string layouts in the custom stringing dialog? It was made for making modular stringing presets to be applied across large areas, and not for maze-like one-off string layouts. Now with manual stringing, you can simply draw those difficult strings straight into the model space, without fiddling around in the Custom stringing interface.

SLD now includes a harness

The SLD now includes the lengths of the different harness cable components.
 

Draw the effective area

We introduced the draw effective area feature back in version 2.56 as a hidden command. But as it requires remembering and manually typing out the name of the command, why not add this to the user interface for better visibility? So we moved it... to the Layout information window for easier usage. So no more hidden commands that are hard to remember!

KML

We understand that you sometimes may want to export your design to other tools to check, for example, Google Earth. To export more complete designs, we upgraded "Export to KML" functionality by adding more objects: all shading objects and roads. If you are required to have even more data on KML - reach out to us, and we might improve it even more.

Custom shading objects

With version 2.58, we introduced a new way of adding custom shading objects to your designs, and we are doubling down on it with this release. Custom shading objects can be converted from non-PVcase Block Reference objects. It still requires to have one of 3 types inside: Mesh, Polyface Mesh, or 3D Solid. But as they would be grouped in Block Reference, it allows you to go wild! Here is an example: a standard 3d donut on the stick, which can shade your design 🍩

Minor Updates

• 3D road restrictions will now be Polyline instead of 3D Polyline

• Torque Tube diameter minimum allowed value changed from 0.1 meters to 0.01 meters