Features / Layout & Racking
Terrain-aware layout and racking
PVX.AI places solar racks on real 3D terrain inside AutoCAD. It supports fixed-tilt, East-West dome, and single-axis tracker systems, including terrain-following trackers that bend with the ground. Row pitch can be fixed or calculated dynamically from sun position, slope limits are respected per direction, and whole concept designs can be generated in one pass.
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Every rack system, one catalog
PVX.AI keeps every rack type in one catalog, so fixed, East-West, and tracker systems all run through the same workflow. Open it from Layout, then Rack Design, to reach the Racks window, where Fixed Racks and Tracker Racks appear as cards under collapsible sections. Each card carries badges such as Custom, East-West, or Terrain Following, plus a preview showing modules, power, and pile count. Ctrl+Click selects multiple racks at once, and Clone, Edit, and Delete work per rack.
Fixed racks set module orientation (portrait or landscape), tilt angle (default 25 degrees), and the columns and rows that fill the table. Pile layout runs in Automatic mode by default, computing pile count, spacing, height bottom (ground clearance, default 0.50 m), and underground pile depth (default 1.500 m). Switch to Manual for full structural control: set the distance between each pile pair individually, or apply one value to all with Set All, plus front and back pile overhang (the back pile auto-balances) and left and right lateral overhang (right auto-balances).
East-West dome racks are two tilted faces meeting at a central ridge, with a Ridge Gap value setting the gap between the face bottom edges at the valley. PVX.AI recognizes an East-West rack as a dual-face system the moment you place it, and exports each one to PVsyst as two separate fixed-tilt faces.
Single Row trackers give each table its own motor and torque tube. Multi Row trackers let one motor drive two or more linked tables. Both set a maximum rotation angle (default 60 degrees), motor spacing, and ground clearance at the neutral position (default 0.5 m). Every rack draws its module from the same catalog: import a PVsyst PAN file or enter power and dimensions manually.
What are terrain-following trackers?
Terrain-following trackers let a tracker row bend at joints instead of sitting on one flat plane, so the frame follows rolling or steep ground rather than fighting it. Choose Terrain Following in the Create Tracker chooser, and Tracker Settings opens a dedicated Terrain Following section. Joint Gap Count sets how many joints break up the chain (seeded to 4), and Joint Gap Size sets the length of each gap (default 1.0 m). Segment Distribution shows the module count per segment, for example 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8; edit it manually or reset to auto.
Mechanical limits are entered as % slope, with the degree equivalent shown live next to each field. Segment Break Angle is the only required value (default about 6.10%, or 3.49 degrees) and sets the bend allowed at each joint. Motor Hinge Angle, Wing Total Slope, and Segment Slope are optional, each with its own default. You can also model the torque tube itself, setting its diameter and the top and bottom gaps, and set a Reference Height for the lowest frame on flat terrain (a reference point, not a minimum clearance).
Before you place anything, a Sample terrain simulation overlay slides a synthetic terrain profile under the tracker in the front view and shows live whether every segment stays within your constraints, or how many violate them, so you can tune the settings first. Racks set to terrain-following carry a Terrain Following badge in the rack list. Once placed, TFT frames settle to the real terrain profile, and their section views, BoQ pile lengths, and PVsyst export all reflect the per-segment geometry rather than a single flat plane. In a controlled comparison on the same site, changing only the tracker architecture reduced cut from 458,592 m3 to 180,254 m3, about 60%. Read the terrain-following tracker case study.
Placement that respects the terrain
PVX.AI places racks on your PV Area boundaries with terrain and slope limits built into the run, not checked afterward. Build Layout, on the Layout panel, takes one or more table types (hold Ctrl to add a secondary type for infill), an alignment direction (Left-to-Right, Right-to-Left, or Center), and an azimuth offset with a compass picker to rotate the placement grid. Select Boundaries accepts multiple PV Areas in a single pass, anchoring each one separately. Turn on Use 3D Terrain Mesh to place tables on the real surface. PVX.AI auto-detects the hemisphere from site latitude, so placement and sun-position math are correct anywhere in the world without a manual setting.
Slope limits are set per direction. Enter maximum N-S and E-W surface slope percentages, and PVX.AI skips placement wherever the terrain exceeds them, leaving that ground empty instead of forcing a table onto a slope it cannot hold. Pitch Distance and Horizontal Table Spacing set the row-to-row and side-to-side gaps. An optional Boundary Road auto-generates a service road around the site perimeter, with a configurable Width (default 5 m). BESS areas are excluded automatically: no table is ever placed inside a battery zone.
Dynamic Pitch replaces fixed row spacing with spacing calculated from the sun. Set a reference Date, a Start Hour and End Hour for the analysis window, and Min Pitch / Max Pitch bounds. PVX.AI varies row spacing within those bounds to minimize inter-row shading for the chosen sun angles, and each table displays its own shadow projection once the layout runs.
Find the best configuration with Capacity Iteration
Capacity Iteration answers the question every layout decision starts with: what spacing and tilt gets you the capacity you need on the land you have. Open it from the Layout panel, select your boundary or boundaries and rack type or types under Selection Context, then choose a spacing mode: Row Spacing (the default edge-to-edge row gap), GCR, or Shading Angle. Set a Spacing Range as From, To, and Step (for example 5, 10, 1), and optionally sweep a Tilt Angle range in degrees alongside it. An optional Capacity Target, such as 5,000 kWp, gives PVX.AI a number to aim for rather than just a range to explore.
Click Iterate and PVX.AI builds a Results table listing every combination it tested: Row Spacing, Tilt, GCR, DC Power, Racks, and Modules. The row closest to your capacity target is highlighted automatically, so you are not scanning the whole table by hand to find it. Select any row and click Generate Selected Layout to build that exact configuration, with a 3D option to place it directly on the terrain surface rather than as a flat 2D layout.
Capacity Iteration works across every rack system PVX.AI supports: fixed, East-West, and tracker layouts all run through the same tool. That makes it useful for early feasibility work, comparing land use against capacity before committing to a design, and for late-stage tuning, squeezing more kWp out of a boundary that is already mostly designed.
Complete concept designs in one pass
Design Wizard builds a complete concept design in a single pass instead of placing tables, roads, cables, and equipment as separate steps. It runs on the PVPlanner v2 engine and supports multiple rack specs in one run, so a mixed layout does not need multiple passes. Open it from the Layout panel, click Select Rack, and choose one or more rack types (modules need complete electrical data, since voltage drop and cable sizing depend on it).
Rack Stringing shows a grid with one row per selected rack, with Rack, Strings, and Pattern columns. PVX.AI auto-derives an optimal string count and stringing pattern for each rack; trackers lock to a single string with no U-String, and you can adjust the rest by hand. Select Boundary adds one or more PV Areas, listed below the button, with Remove Boundary to clear them.
Configuration parameters set the electrical and civil backbone of the design: Transformer Power (default 6,000 kVA), Inverter Power and Inverter Input Count (defaults 320 kW and 12), Horizontal and Vertical Distance between panels, and Road Width (default 5 m). An optional DC Combiner toggle adds DC Combiner Inputs and DCB Power fields when your electrical architecture uses one. A 2D/3D Terrain toggle switches the whole build onto the 3D surface.
Click Build and PVX.AI generates a complete preliminary layout: tables, service roads, cable routes, and equipment positions all placed together, giving you a full concept design to review and refine rather than a single piece of it.
Work with existing designs
Most projects do not start from a blank drawing, so PVX.AI includes tools to bring existing work in and keep it current as the design changes. Import PVcase Design scans the current drawing for PVcase data and converts it in place: boundaries, terrain, fixed, tracker, and East-West rack frames, strings, combiners, inverters, transformers, cables, and exclusion zones all become native PVX.AI objects. The import is non-destructive: your original PVcase entities stay untouched, and their source layers are hidden and frozen so you can thaw them later to compare.
2D layouts, whether designed in PVX.AI or imported as blocks and polylines from other CAD tools, convert to 3D through Import Layout. Set the max N-S and E-W slope limits and PVX.AI projects each table onto the terrain with the right tilt and elevation, skipping tables that exceed the limit. On steep ground, adjacent tables can intersect after projection; PVX.AI detects these collisions and highlights the affected tables in pink and red so you can correct the design or regrade. A detailed site study shows why this matters: on a 13-degree slope, nominal 2.65 m pile spacing projects to 2.58 m horizontally and compounds into a 35 cm discrepancy across a six-pile row. Read the 2D-plan versus 3D-terrain study.
Once tables are placed, Move and Adapt repositions a table or group and recalculates tilt and elevation from the new terrain spot, for fixed, tracker, and East-West racks alike. Copy and Adapt does the same for copies made with standard AutoCAD Copy/Paste. Adapt Objects goes further: one click re-fits every rack in a PV Area to the current terrain, the natural step after grading, with a single Ctrl+Z reverting the operation. Swap Rack replaces placed racks with a different type without redoing the layout.
Shading Analysis in AutoCAD reads the Date and Time you set, shows a live sun-position readout, and lists shaded rows ranked worst first with an exportable CSV. Rack Slope Analysis colors placed racks on a green-to-yellow-to-red gradient by N-S or E-W slope, survives layout rebuilds, and feeds the Info Screen and BoQ export.
"PVX.AI cut our engineering time in half while improving layout precision. On hilly terrain, the automated pile length and slope checks eliminated manual iteration entirely."
Hakan Ozen
Structural & AEC Engineer · ISOTEC
Frequently asked questions
Does PVX.AI support trackers on steep or rolling terrain?
Yes. Terrain-following trackers articulate at joints to follow the ground profile. You set the allowed segment break angle and other mechanical constraints as % slope, and a live simulation shows constraint violations before placement.
Can PVX.AI calculate row spacing to avoid shading?
Yes. Dynamic Pitch varies row spacing from the sun position for your chosen design date and time window, within minimum and maximum pitch bounds, so rows stay shade-free without wasting land.
Can I import an existing PVcase design?
Yes. PVX.AI scans the drawing for PVcase data and converts boundaries, terrain, racks, strings, inverters, transformers, cables, and exclusion zones into native PVX.AI objects. The original entities are left untouched.
What happens after I regrade or move tables?
Adapt Objects re-fits every rack in a PV Area to the current terrain in one click, recomputing elevation and tilt. Move and Adapt does the same for individual tables. One Ctrl+Z reverts the whole operation.
How do I compare capacity scenarios?
Capacity Iteration sweeps row spacing, GCR, or shading angle against tilt and an optional capacity target, and returns a table of every configuration with DC power, rack count, and module count. Pick a row and generate that layout directly.
See it on your site data
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