Tools / Solar Mount Builder
SketchUp extension Beta, early access
Solar Mount Builder
Model a complete PV mounting table and export its steel bill of materials, without leaving SketchUp.
- Minutes, not hoursFrom parameters to a finished table
- One source of truthModel and takeoff from the same inputs
- Nothing new to buyRuns inside the SketchUp you already have
Built for fabricated steel, not proprietary racking
Mounting tools from the racking manufacturers list their own kit: rails, clamps, anchors. That is no use when your structures are fabricated from standard sections and priced by the kilo. Solar Mount Builder models the real members and reports them by section, length and mass, with a cut list your fabricator can work from.
What it builds
- Panels, purlins, rafters and legs as one tilted table
- Portrait and landscape mixed within a row
- Any member as a lattice truss
- Optional footings, base plates, braces and walkways
- Legs solved automatically from the tilt
What you get out
- Accurate 3D geometry, tagged and named
- Bill of materials by section, length and mass
- Cut list and concrete quantities
- CSV export for procurement
- Live kWp and spacing readouts as you work
Tell us what it should also do
Nothing in the tool is a fixed assumption. Every section, spacing rule, setback, material and naming convention is an input, so it can keep growing around the way your firm works: your own section library, your drawing and tag conventions, your BOM format, additional members your standard table uses, or a different output altogether. 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
- One fixed-tilt table per run, rooftop or ground-mounted, on a flat base. Any array size.
- SketchUp 2017 or later, Windows or macOS.
- A preliminary load-check engine is included but is being verified against STAAD Pro. Analysis and sign-off stay with a licensed engineer.
In development
- Verified structural checking, calibrated to STAAD Pro
- STAAD Pro export
- Multi-table site layouts
- Terrain following
- Channel and angle section library
- Fastener counts and stock-length nesting
See it run on your own structure
Send your standard table specification and we will demonstrate it on your configuration rather than ours.