User Guide

SunTrace3D is a browser-based 3D solar analysis tool. No installation, plugins, or sign-up is required to get started. Simply open the viewer and explore.

Navigate the 3D scene using your mouse or trackpad. The viewer supports orbit, pan, and zoom controls for exploring the city model from any angle.

The location search bar in the header lets you find any address, city, or landmark worldwide. Type an address and the system converts it to coordinates instantly.

SunTrace3D calculates accurate sun positions based on your location's latitude, longitude, date, and time. Solar altitude and azimuth are computed precisely, and shadows are cast in real-time using physically-based rendering.

The sun path arc shows the complete trajectory of the sun across the sky for the selected date. A yellow/orange arc traces the sun's position from sunrise to sunset, with the current sun position highlighted.

Place virtual solar panels on any rooftop in the 3D model. SunTrace3D calculates irradiance based on panel tilt, azimuth, and shading from surrounding buildings.

SunTrace3D automatically analyzes shading from surrounding buildings for every solar panel you place. The system simulates approximately 154 sun positions throughout the year to calculate how much each panel is blocked by nearby geometry.

SunTrace3D estimates annual energy yield using the PVGIS (Photovoltaic Geographical Information System) database maintained by the European Commission. PVGIS provides satellite-based solar irradiance data for locations worldwide.

The Solar Wizard automatically detects roof surfaces and places an optimized solar panel layout with a single click. It analyzes shading across the year, avoids obstructed areas, and positions panels for maximum energy production — or to match your specific goal.

How to Use

Optimization Goals

Ground mount arrays let you design solar installations on open terrain rather than rooftops. Draw a boundary polygon on the ground, configure tilt, azimuth, and row spacing, then instantly preview the panel layout before committing.

How to Use

Visualize energy performance across your entire panel array with a color-coded heatmap. Each panel is shaded from red (low annual yield) through yellow (mid-range) to green (high yield), making it easy to spot underperforming panels at a glance.

SunTrace3D offers two quality levels for 3D models. The quality badge in the viewer toolbar shows the current mode.

The compass overlay in the viewer shows true north orientation relative to your current camera angle. This is essential for understanding shadow directions and optimal solar panel orientation.

Plan mode turns the viewer into a true top-down drawing. It uses an orthographic camera, so there is no perspective: building sides disappear, distances read the same everywhere on screen, and a site plan can be measured rather than just looked at.

Build mode lets you place procedural buildings into the 3D scene. These buildings cast and receive shadows just like real-world models, making it easy to study how a proposed development would affect sunlight on surrounding properties.

Building Types

Build mode includes a Scene Objects panel for adding trees, fences, pergolas, and obstacles (chimneys, poles, cylinders) to the 3D scene. These objects cast and receive shadows, letting you study how landscaping and rooftop features affect solar panel performance.

Object Categories

The Bulldozer tool lets you flatten terrain in the 3D scene by defining clearing zones. 3D models often include trees, bushes, and uneven ground — use the Bulldozer to remove these before placing solar panels or buildings for accurate shadow analysis.

Draw custom building footprints directly on the terrain by clicking to create a polygon outline. SunTrace3D automatically converts your polygon into one or more 3D buildings that you can place solar panels on, analyze for shadows, and include in energy calculations.

The Sunlight Heatmap displays a color-coded ground grid showing how many hours of direct sunlight each area receives. Use it to identify the sunniest and shadiest spots on your property — perfect for planning solar panel placement or garden beds.

The Garden Planner helps you design garden beds using a database of 50+ plants, each with documented sunlight requirements. Combined with the Sunlight Heatmap, it automatically checks whether your chosen plants will thrive in the available light conditions.

Plant Categories

The Climate Data panel appears in the Solar Analysis sidebar whenever you have solar panels placed. It shows location-specific climate metrics that directly affect solar panel performance — cloud cover losses, ambient temperature, and heat-related efficiency losses.

When you place solar panels, SunTrace3D automatically estimates the installation cost, annual electricity savings, and payback period based on regional pricing data.

The Solar Impact section visualizes the environmental benefits of your solar panel system. It appears in the sidebar whenever you have panels placed in the scene.

Generate a professional PDF site report summarizing your entire solar analysis. The report includes 3D views, system specifications, energy yield estimates, engineering details, financial analysis, and environmental impact — ready to share with clients or installers.

The Loss Waterfall Chart in the PDF site report provides a detailed visual breakdown of energy losses from gross solar potential to net delivered energy. Each loss category is shown as a colored bar segment, making it easy to identify the largest efficiency drains in your system.

Generate professional PDF quotes to send to prospective clients. Each quote includes system specifications, investment breakdown, projected savings, payback period, warranty terms, and applicable financial incentives — all populated automatically from your solar analysis.

Speed up your workflow with keyboard shortcuts. These work whenever the viewer is focused and no text input field is active.

Measure real-world distances directly in the 3D scene. The measurement tool calculates the straight-line distance between any two points you click.

Annotate your 3D scene with freehand drawings that follow the terrain and building surfaces. Use colored strokes to mark areas of interest, add text labels, and measure enclosed areas. Drawings are saved with your project.

Toggle Points of Interest (POI) to discover nearby amenities and landmarks overlaid on the 3D map. POI markers show restaurants, schools, shops, healthcare, and other categories.

SunTrace3D offers two types of 3D models. The model type toggle in the viewer toolbar lets you switch between them. Switching regenerates the model for your current location.

The 3D scene includes animated vehicles and pedestrians that move along real roads, bringing the environment to life. Low-poly cars, buses, and pedestrians travel along actual road networks, making it easier to judge scale and get a realistic sense of the surroundings.

SunTrace3D works without an account for basic shadow simulation and solar analysis. Create a free account to save your work, upgrade to Pro for HD models and unlimited tools, or choose Business for unlimited everything and commercial use.

Save your complete analysis setup — including location, solar panels, buildings, quality mode, and date/time — as a named project. Load it later to pick up exactly where you left off.

Import custom 3D models into your scene to accurately represent existing structures, machinery, or any object that affects shading on your solar panels.

The Model Library provides over 750 ready-to-use 3D models organized into seven categories — suburban buildings, vehicles, commercial buildings, characters, nature, building parts, and trains. Browse, search, and place models directly into your scene for realistic shadow analysis and urban planning.

Model Categories

Share your complete solar design with clients, colleagues or partners. The share button in the viewer toolbar offers two modes: a quick location link, and a full project review link your client can comment on and answer.

A workspace makes your company the owner of its work rather than one person's account. It holds the brand every client-facing document is rendered in, the seats your colleagues sign in with, and the designs you choose to share. Available on Professional and Enterprise.

Sharing designs with your team

Designs stay private by default, including the ones you saved before you had a workspace. Share one and everyone with a seat can open and edit it; only its owner can delete it or make it private again. In the project panel, a design belonging to a colleague is labelled with their name, so you can always tell your work from theirs.

A proposal is a page your client opens from an email — on a phone, usually — showing the system, the price and what it saves, in your brand rather than ours. It carries the same figures as the PDF quote, and the client can accept it there and then. Available on Professional and Enterprise.

Staying in control of what you sent

Every proposal expires after the validity period you set, and an expired one stops showing its price. You can revoke a link at any time before it is signed, after which it shows nothing at all. You can also set a passcode, which the client must enter before the proposal opens.

A client accepts a proposal by signing it on the page — drawing a signature with a finger or mouse, or typing their name. Both of you receive the signed PDF immediately, with a certificate page recording what was signed and by whom.

What gets recorded

A simple electronic signature carries no cryptographic identity, so its weight comes entirely from the record kept around it. That record is printed on the certificate page of the signed PDF and stored with the proposal.

Sharing a design for review used to end in a conversation. A client could pin comments on the model and then there was nothing to press — no way to say yes, and no way for you to find out that someone was waiting on you. Now a review ends in an answer, and an approved one hands the client straight to signing your proposal.

Versions, and why old comments stay

Sending an update bumps the review to the next version and reopens it. The earlier comments are not deleted — they are marked against the version they were written about, and shown as answered. Deleting them would erase the record of why the design changed; quietly re-labelling them would be worse, because a pin that said "move this panel" would look like it was pointing at the panel that replaced it.

SunTrace3D includes a built-in catalog of real CEC-certified solar modules and inverters from leading manufacturers such as LONGi, JA Solar, Canadian Solar, SMA, Fronius, and more. Select specific equipment to unlock accurate string planning, cable sizing, and energy analysis based on real electrical specifications.

String planning automatically groups your solar panels into electrical strings based on temperature-corrected voltage limits, shading similarity, and panel orientation. The algorithm respects inverter MPPT input constraints and generates warnings when voltage or current limits are violated.

The single-line diagram (SLD) is an auto-generated electrical schematic of your PV system. It shows the flow from module groups through strings and MPPT inputs to the inverter, AC disconnect, meter, and grid connection — the standard format required for permit applications.

Cable sizing calculates the recommended conductor cross-section for each DC string run, ensuring voltage drop stays within the allowable limit (typically 2%). It supports both copper and aluminum conductors and accounts for derating factors.

Self-consumption analysis models the interaction between your solar production and household electricity usage throughout the year. It calculates how much solar energy you consume on-site versus export to the grid, using realistic hourly load profiles based on household size.

Battery storage simulation models how a home battery system changes your self-consumption and grid dependence. It includes an auto-sizing recommendation that finds the optimal capacity based on your production and consumption patterns.

The Energy System Dashboard is a real-time 2D overlay that shows how electricity flows between your solar panels, inverter, battery, meter, and house. It appears automatically when you run a self-consumption analysis and updates live as you scrub the time slider. Click any component to fly the 3D camera to that object in the scene.

The Bill of Materials aggregates all components needed for your PV installation into a single table. It includes modules, inverter, mounting hardware, DC and AC cables, disconnects, and optional battery — providing a quick material checklist for procurement.

Export your shading analysis data in PVsyst-compatible formats for detailed simulation in external software. Three export options are available: a horizon profile (.hor), a per-panel shading summary (.csv), and a comprehensive ZIP archive containing all data files.

The Right-to-Light panel helps architects and urban planners assess whether a proposed development meets daylight access standards. Based on BRE 209 (Site Layout Planning for Daylight and Sunlight), it analyzes how much skylight and sunlight reaches neighboring windows.

The Urban Heat panel maps thermal exposure across urban areas. It analyzes how shade coverage, surface materials, and building geometry affect surface temperatures and pedestrian thermal comfort.

The Film & Photography panel provides tools for planning shoots around natural light. Calculate golden hour and blue hour times, preview camera angles through virtual lenses, and bookmark lighting setups for location scouting.

The Real Estate panel provides tools for showcasing property sunlight exposure. Analyze window views, calculate balcony sun hours, and generate solar scores that quantify a property's energy potential for buyers.

The Agriculture panel provides tools for planning crop placement and greenhouse positioning based on actual sunlight data. Map sun exposure across your land, check crop suitability, and model light levels inside greenhouses.

The Live Events vertical helps event planners, festival producers, and venue managers design outdoor event layouts with accurate sun and shade simulation. Position stages, seating, tents, and production equipment in 3D, then scrub through the timeline to see exactly where shadows fall during every hour of the event.

The CRM Platform lets solar professionals and businesses manage territories, detect rooftop prospects automatically, and run targeted outreach campaigns — all from within SunTrace3D. Draw a polygon on the map, and the system scans every building inside it, scores their solar potential, and presents them in a sortable prospect grid. Available on Business plans and above; a free playground lets anyone try it with limited results.

Section 67 follows one roof the whole way: from a pin on a territory map to a signed contract and a number on the dashboard.

Scanning a territory tells you which roofs are worth a visit. This is the part where one of them becomes a customer. Opening a scanned roof as a design creates a real project in your workspace, seeded with what the scan already measured, and carries the prospect with it — so the proposal you produce at the end belongs to that person, and the CRM knows it happened without anyone updating a card.

What moves a prospect, and where

Each vertical names these milestones in its own language, so shared code never has to know that an installer says quoted and an estate agent says offer. Movement is forward only: a proposal sent after one was already signed will not drag a won deal backwards, and a prospect somebody marked lost or do-not-contact is left where they put it.

Potential, and what came of it

Every figure the dashboard could show used to be an estimate of what a territory might be worth, which made it impressive and impossible to check. The Realised block is the other half: proposals sent, proposals signed, the conversion rate between them, and the value actually won — each in the currency the proposal was written in. Remaining potential now drops as deals close, so the two halves always agree.

Germany is the most regulation-dense residential solar market in Europe, and tools built for the US leave the paperwork to you. When a site is in Germany, a Tariffs & Compliance panel appears in the viewer: the feed-in tariff for this system on its commissioning date, the VAT the law puts on it, a grid-connection pre-check, and the registration sheet pre-filled from the design. Everything carries a date and a link to the source it came from.

How much to trust a number

Rates change by publication and law changes by amendment, and nobody here is watching either for you. So every figure states its own condition, and the panel refuses to show one it cannot stand behind.

VDE-AR-N 4105 governs how a generating plant connects to the low-voltage grid. Its limits are easy to miss while a design is still moving — and expensive to discover at the connection appointment. The pre-check compares the design on screen against them and names the clause for each result.

Mieterstrom is a German model with no US equivalent: a landlord generates on the roof of a multi-unit building and supplies the tenants inside it below the price they would pay a utility, collecting a supplement per kWh for doing so. It is the reason a block of flats that would never buy a rooftop system can be sold one — and it is a segment the US-shaped tools cannot serve at all.

Site Planning is a feasibility tool for land and development. Draw a parcel, set its constraints, choose what to build, and see immediately what the site yields: units, floor area, parking, cost and whether it meets the zoning you checked it against. Every change re-solves the scheme in real time.

The guided start asks the four questions a feasibility study begins with, in the order they are usually answered, and ends on a solved scheme. It writes an ordinary document: everything it sets can be changed afterwards in the panel.

The parcel is the boundary everything else is measured from. Setbacks carve the buildable envelope out of it, and they are applied edge by edge.

Regions divide the parcel into what gets built and what does not. Each region has a kind, and the solve treats each kind differently.

Region kinds

A typology is the rule set that turns a building area into buildings. Each family has its own logic rather than being one shape with different settings.

The six typologies

Each family reports its own figures in the region properties — buildings and stairs for a walk-up, deck levels for a wrap, megawatts for a data centre.

Industrial and data centre schemes place no dwellings, so unit counts, density and residential parking demand read zero rather than an invented figure.

Parking and circulation are solved as part of the scheme. Parking fills the ground the buildings leave; circulation works out how a car reaches it from the street.

The results tabs under the panel show what the scheme yields and how it measures up. They update with every change.

Results tabs

Once a scheme is solved, explore alternatives, bring in public site data, see it in 3D and take it into your own tools.

Flood data covers the USA only, and the FEMA service may refuse connections from outside the USA. OpenStreetMap coverage of utilities and wetlands varies by area. A layer marked unavailable means its service could not be reached; a count of 0 means it answered and found nothing.

Undo and redo any action, select multiple objects at once, and copy/paste them — all with familiar keyboard shortcuts. These tools work across solar panels, scene objects (trees, fences, pergolas, etc.), buildings, and measurements.

The Weather Forecast panel predicts what your system will actually produce over the next 7 days, using the real hourly weather forecast for your location instead of long-term averages. It reuses the same irradiance and shading model as the annual yield figures, then adds the short-horizon effects that only matter week to week: cloud cover, cell heating, dust build-up between rain events, snow cover and inverter clipping.

Download everything in the scene as a single 3D file and carry on in the tool you already use. The export contains the generated terrain and buildings, every solar panel you placed, ground-mount arrays with their posts, custom and detected buildings, placed objects such as trees and fences, and any model you imported — in the same positions and orientations you see in the viewer. Included in the Business plan and above.

The Weather Forecast panel tells you about the week ahead while you are in the app. The weekly forecast brings it to you instead. Once a week you get the same numbers for your own roof — by email, by browser notification, or both — so a bad week does not surprise you and a good one does not go unused.