To model a building in Aurora, click Design in the left side toolbar. Click Smartroof in the Site menu and select Pitched or Flat roof.
Click on a corner of the building to place the first node and continue placing nodes on every corner of the roof. Follow the dotted orange lines to ensure every node is placed at a 90 degree angle.
If you make a mistake, click on the node and hit delete on your keyboard, or you can hit ctrl + Z (⌘ + Z on Mac) to undo the action. To continue drawing, return to the last existing node and double-click it.
To complete the perimeter connect the last node to the first node.
Once you are done drawing the roof edges, double-click outside of the roof on the screen. Aurora will intelligently structure and apply azimuths or any rooftop setbacks you have preset to your model.
If Aurora didn't detect the roof structure accurately this could be the result of a missing node or one or more corners not being at a 90 degree angle. To make corrections double click on the roof to enter Edit Roof mode. Here you can manually drag corners of the building or remove one of the nodes by left clicking on a node and pressing the delete key. Double-click on a node to extend a new edge from it.
Modeling in 3D
You can easily toggle into 3D by left-clicking the cube icon in the top left of your screen and moving your mouse up (or holding right-click on your mouse). Move the cube left and right to rotate the view. 3D is essential to obtaining accurate roof slopes for system design, and accurate site characteristics for remote shading analysis. It's also a huge hit with customers who want to see what their house will look like with solar.
While modeling the roofs of most buildings is quick and easy, once in a while you may come across a complex roof. If you are struggling to model this correctly in Aurora, drop us a line at support@aurorasolar.com and we'd be happy to help. You can also learn more about our 3D modeling service here