Overview
Fire Access Pathways are required for most photovoltaic projects in the United States. Aurora’s Draw Fire Pathways feature allows you to easily draw fire pathways that meet the code requirements of your design’s jurisdiction.
Note: Setbacks vs Fire Pathways
Fire Pathways are meant to supplement rather than replace Setbacks. You can continue to use Setbacks, which will not change functionality at all. However, now Fire Pathways should be used to properly meet fire code requirements, whereas Setbacks can be used for installation needs (e.g. safety buffers or to accommodate an array skirt).
Here is an example of a roof as it previously might have been designed with setbacks, compared to how it might look with setbacks as a safety buffer (yellow) and fire pathways (purple) to meet code requirements.
Overall there is more usable roof space and the flexibility to maximize the system productivity.
How to Draw Fire Pathways
1. Access the Fire Pathways inspector by clicking on the Fire pathways button in the System section of the toolbar.
The Fire Pathways inspector will include the AHJ along with the Code year and the percentage of the building covered by panels. You can click on the AHJ name to access the AHJ Database.
A default value of 36 inches, the typical code requirement, will be set for the width, which you can modify as needed.
2. Click anywhere on the roof to start drawing the pathway; then move your mouse and click to place the other endpoint. If you hover near any corner or edge, the cursor will snap to it for ease of use. If you are snapped to an edge when placing the first endpoint and move your mouse along the edge before clicking to place the other endpoint, the pathway itself will snap to the roof edge.
3. When drawing a Fire Pathway along a ridge, hip, or valley of the roof, the pathway will split between the adjacent roof faces (half on each face). The inspector will display each width, which you can modify individually.
Widths are independent of each other and can be edited independently. Note that Width 1 is always the most northern one.
4. Fire Pathways can be moved to a different location by clicking and dragging, which will maintain their orientation and total width.
5. When two pathways intersect, they will meld for a clean look, but you can still edit them individually.
6. When panels are placed over a Fire Pathway, they will turn yellow to draw attention to the overlap.
This can be turned off in the View Settings Menu.
7. You can click the DXF button and download a DXF with the Fire Pathways included as a distinct layer.