If you searched for PVsyst and landed here, start with the part that is not in dispute. PVsyst is the standard. Since 1992 it has been the tool lenders and independent engineers expect before a project reaches financial close. Nothing on this page argues with that.
The question worth answering is narrower. PVsyst simulates how much energy a plant will produce. Something else has to decide what that plant looks like on real ground: where the rows sit, how much earth moves, how long the piles are, how the cable runs. That work happens before the simulation, and it decides whether the simulated plant is the plant you can actually build.
This is what each tool covers, and how the export between them works.
What PVsyst does well
PVsyst is an energy yield simulator, and it is the reference one. Its shading engine, loss chain model and meteo database have been validated across thousands of projects. It produces near-shading and horizon analysis, the loss diagram, the performance ratio, and the P50/P90 production probabilities that banks read.
It also carries an economic evaluation: NPV, IRR, LCOE, ROI and payback. Since late 2025 it simulates battery energy behaviour too, including self-consumption, peak shaving and power shifting. It is rated 4.5 out of 5 on G2.
If your project needs a lender-ready yield report, you need PVsyst. There is no substitute.
What PVsyst was never meant to do
PVsyst is a simulation tool, not a design tool. It does not optimise a layout against terrain. It does not compare grading approaches or estimate earthwork. It does not route cable or calculate voltage drop per string. It does not size piles against the ground. It does not produce construction drawings.
The friction shows up in the 3D scene builder. On utility-scale terrain, engineers hit a consistent set of problems, documented in PVsyst’s own support forums:
- Memory limits on large models. PVsyst frequently crashes on 3D models above 1 GB or beyond 500,000 vertices. Detailed terrain on a utility-scale site passes that threshold easily.
- Forced decimation. To stay under the limit, users simplify photogrammetry models and point clouds. The simplification strips exactly the terrain detail that made the survey worth flying.
- Orientation mismatches on import. Generic 3D formats such as DAE and 3DS carry no PV metadata, so PVsyst depends on manual PV-face assignment and orientation rules. Portrait tables appear where landscape was intended. In modern PVsyst versions those mismatches trigger hard errors that block bifacial simulation.
- Manual rework. Fixing incorrectly oriented tables by hand makes objects move all over the scene, which costs hours of recalibration.
None of that is a reason to abandon PVsyst. It is a reason to stop asking PVsyst to build the terrain scene.
What PVX.Cad does before PVsyst
PVX.Cad runs inside AutoCAD, on your own machine, at full terrain resolution. It takes the survey in the format you already have: KML and KMZ, LAS and LAZ point clouds, CSV, or contours. No decimation, no vertex ceiling.
From that surface it produces the decisions PVsyst never sees:
- Directional slope analysis and 7-class soil hardness, so rock is on the drawing before the bulldozer arrives.
- Three grading paths, each with cut and fill volumes. One site with 44% hard rock and slopes reaching 45% was graded three ways. The chosen approach cut earthwork from 118,225 m³ to 34,819 m³, 70% less, worth $727K.
- Pile lengths against the real surface, exported as a pile schedule CSV or a formula-live procurement workbook with Inputs, Pile Schedule, BoQ and Procurement sheets.
- Collision analysis, which checks every rack against the ground it stands on, then regrades the rows that fail as one continuous, buildable surface along the affected rows with the least cut and fill.
- Automatic cable routing with per-string voltage drop, across Line, U and Leapfrog topologies. On a 130 MWp plant the topology choice was worth $430K and 14% shorter runs.
- The rest of the deliverable set: PV single-line diagram, four-sheet BoQ, BESS layout, site roads, erosion control, and a Design Health Check before the drawing ships.
Modules and inverters enter through the same PAN and OND files PVsyst uses, and string sizing is checked against PVsyst’s own rules before anything is exported. See grading and earthworks for the civil side, and PVsyst vs PVX for the tool-by-tool split.
The export: terrain-corrected PVCollada 2.0
The handoff is a PVCollada 2.0 file, a .pvc2 export that PVsyst imports natively. It carries the full electrical hierarchy (transformers, combiners, inverters, cabling), placed 3D device bodies, the project boundary, the terrain mesh, and shading objects. East-West racks export as dual fixed-tilt faces. Module and inverter specs travel with the geometry: bifaciality factor, temperature coefficients, cell topology, inverter efficiency. The file is always written in meters, whatever the drawing uses.
Two details do the real work.
Equipment is draped onto the terrain. Every table sits at the elevation the ground gives it, so the shading scene PVsyst simulates is the scene the site will present. PVsyst recognises tracker tables as tracking objects automatically. There is no PV-face assignment, no orientation reconciliation, no scene rebuilding.
The terrain itself exports separately, in two variants. PVX.Cad writes the 3D surface as a PVsyst-compatible CSV, pre-grading and post-grading. Pre-grading is the ground as surveyed. Post-grading is the ground your earthwork plan will leave behind. That second file is the one that matters, because it is the surface the plant will actually stand on. Simulating the pre-grading surface for a site you are about to cut 34,819 m³ out of gives you a number for a plant nobody will build.
Importing differs by format. PVC 2.0 imports as-is, no rotation. The classic PVCollada 1.x .dae export needs X, Y and Z set to zero and a 180 degree rotation around the origin. Either way, choose not to delete the current scene, then confirm. Full detail is on the PVsyst integration page.
A workflow that runs the same way in every market
None of this is regional. The export behaves identically whether the design team sits in Spain, Brazil, Turkey or India: same .pvc2 file, same draped geometry, same pre- and post-grading terrain CSV, same PAN and OND data flowing through. Local practice changes the vocabulary on the drawing and the authority reading the report. It does not change the handoff.
What each tool hands to whom
| Task | Tool | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Terrain import and slope, soil analysis | PVX.Cad | Classified surface inside AutoCAD |
| Grading decision | PVX.Cad | Three approaches with cut and fill volumes |
| Piles | PVX.Cad | Pile schedule CSV, procurement workbook |
| Layout and collision check | PVX.Cad | Buildable rack positions, findings report |
| Cable routing | PVX.Cad | Routes per topology, per-string voltage drop |
| Procurement | PVX.Cad | PV SLD, four-sheet BoQ, cable schedules |
| Scene handoff | PVX.Cad | PVCollada 2.0 .pvc2, terrain CSV pre and post grading |
| Energy yield simulation | PVsyst | Loss diagram, performance ratio, specific yield |
| Bankability report | PVsyst | P50/P90 production probabilities for lenders |
| Stakeholder review | PVX.View | Browser 3D, no install |
Frequently asked questions
Does PVX.Cad replace PVsyst?
No. PVsyst remains the bankability standard lenders require for energy yield simulation. PVX.Cad does the terrain, grading, pile, cable and documentation work that comes before the simulation, then exports the finished design as PVCollada so PVsyst can simulate it.
What does a PVCollada 2.0 export contain?
A .pvc2 file carrying the full electrical hierarchy (transformers, combiners, inverters, cabling), placed 3D device bodies, the project boundary, the terrain mesh, and shading objects. East-West racks export as dual fixed-tilt faces. Module and inverter specs travel with it: bifaciality factor, temperature coefficients, cell topology, inverter efficiency. The file is always written in meters.
Can PVX.Cad send the graded surface to PVsyst, not just the original ground?
Yes. PVX.Cad exports the 3D surface as a PVsyst-compatible CSV in pre-grading and post-grading variants, so you can hand PVsyst the ground as it exists today or the ground your grading plan will leave behind.
How do I import the file into PVsyst?
PVC 2.0 imports as-is, with no rotation. The classic PVCollada 1.x .dae export needs X, Y and Z set to zero and a 180 degree rotation around the origin to align the scene on the terrain. In both cases, choose not to delete the current scene, then confirm the import.
Run the export on your own site
- Start a free trial of PVX.Cad, design on your own terrain, and open the result in your own PVsyst.
- Book a demo and bring a DWG and a survey. The grading pass and the PVCollada 2.0 export run live on your site.
