Modeling roof obstructions on your 3D design is a critical step that can significantly impact solar panel placement and overall system performance. By accurately representing features like chimneys, vents, and skylights, you ensure that your design avoids fitment issues, shading issues and complies with safety setbacks.
In this article, we’ll cover:
Adding obstructions
To draw a new obstruction in Design Mode, navigate to Site > Obstructions, then select the type of obstruction. Draw the obstruction to align with the map imagery and adjust the height to match the LIDAR data. Repeat this process for each roof obstruction.
If you have Aurora AI enabled in your account, you can also use AI Obstructions to automatically detect all obstructions on your 3D roof model.
Note: Obstructions will already be detected if you’ve used AI Smartroof or AI Roof faces.
Editing obstructions
Click on any obstruction to view its measurements.
In the inspector on the right menu, you can enter in the measurement values for height, width, length, and diameter (for circular obstructions) or use the slider to adjust the measurements.
You can also click and drag on the nodes of the obstruction to edit the dimensions.
To rotate an obstruction, click and drag the curved arrow icon.
FAQs
Q: Are obstructions taken into account when calculating irradiance and production?
A: Yes, each obstruction will impact the shading analysis. Adding or editing obstructions will require you to re-run the irradiance calculation to ensure accurate estimates.
Q: Are you able to place solar panels on top of obstructions?
A: Placing modules manually or using AutoDesigner will avoid overlapping obstructions. You will see a validation error if this does occur.
Q: Can users edit roof obstructions in Sales Mode?
A: No, this is only possible in Design Mode.