Tools / STRG, DC Stringing for Solar Tables
AutoCAD extension Version 11.0, early access
STRG, DC Stringing for Solar Tables
Select your table layout and it draws the DC stringing: snake paths, terminals, home runs, string numbers and cable lengths, inside the AutoCAD your team already runs.
- One selection, whole plantMulti-inverter run, one undo
- Every string measuredPer-string DC cable schedule
- Nothing new to buyRuns inside the AutoCAD you already have
Select the whole plant once; it works out the inverters itself
It counts the strings in your layout and derives how many inverters that needs, or takes the mixed plan you actually buy, such as 12, 12, 12, 12 and 7 strings on 100, 100, 100, 100 and 85 kW. It groups tables into contiguous row bands so no string is split across two inverters, places each inverter on genuinely clear ground with every candidate position tested against every table footprint, colour-codes each group behind the linework, and strings the lot. One undo removes the entire run. The electrical checking behind the layout is built in but still in verification, so today the tool drafts and your engineer judges.
What it draws
- Snake path across each table’s modules, with + and − terminals marked
- Home runs to the inverter, auto-routed or following trench polylines you drew yourself
- Mid-string jumper where two half tables pair into a single string
- String label on every table, with MPPT tag: INV-A1, M2, STR7
- An inverter marker per group, carrying capacity and string count
- Colour overlay behind each inverter’s tables, each element on its own PV_ layer
What you get back
- Cable-length summary: positive, negative and total per string, plus a grand total
- Lengths in mm or m, with panel drop and inverter rise added if you want them
- On a plant run, one DC cable schedule per inverter, plus a grand total
- A full report at the command line, and one undo for the whole run
Tell us what it should also do
Nothing in the tool is a fixed assumption. String numbering order, cable arrangement in the trench, terminal symbol, turn style, cable gap, summary units, drop and rise heights, panel geometry, layout azimuth, inverter naming, the inverter sizing plan, the DC/AC limit, group colours and where each inverter lands are all inputs, so it can keep growing around the way your firm works. Whatever would make this right for your firm, bring it to us, however specific to how your team works. If you can describe it, it is usually something we can build in.
One honest note. How much of it is worth automating is not something either of us should guess. We study your workflow first, your drawings, templates and standards, and then tell you plainly what can be fully automated, what is better left with your engineer, how long it takes and what it costs. Fixed scope, fixed price, agreed before anything is built.
Current scope
- Windows only.
- Drawing units are millimetres; summaries convert to metres on request.
- One azimuth per run. Mixed-azimuth selections are rejected, so run once per zone.
- Tables must read as closed polylines or blocks; loose line segments need joining first.
- Half-pairing, MPPT tags and the voltage checks need the layout record present; without it every table counts as one string.
- Output is drawing text and blocks; no CSV or Excel export yet.
- Electrical estimation is not yet a design output. String and plant checks are in verification, and all electrical judgement stays with your engineer.
In development
- Electrical verification: string Voc, Vmp and inverter-cap checks, built and being validated
- MPPT balance and DC/AC ratio flagging, in the same verification pass
- A trench-preview utility, so the trench network can be drawn and edited before any cable is routed
- CSV and Excel export of the cable schedule
See it run on your own project
Send one of your layouts and your stringing standard, and we will string your project rather than ours.