How To Design Proposals with AI

Follow the steps below to design with SubcontractorHub's AI-Assisted tool.

Step 1: Click on the “Customers” tab on the left-hand side.

Step 2: Locate the “Actions” section and click on “Proposals”.

Step 3: Click “View Detail” on the proposal card. To name a proposal, click “Add Title”. Proposal card titles can be edited as well.

Step 4: Fill out the Consumption profile.

Step 5: Click “Start Design”.

Step 6: Set the crosshair over the home and click “Run AI Design”.

Step 7: The AI design will be generated automatically. 

Step 8: When the AI design is complete, sales reps can adjust the solar offset with the slide bar.

The lighter-colored solar panels indicate lower solar production. The darker orange panels indicate higher solar production.

Step 9: Click on the “Change Panel” dropdown to select a different module for the design. 

Step 10: Click on individual solar panels to add or remove them. 

Step 11: After adding or removing solar panels, the “Recommend panels” button will become available. Clicking this button will provide the optimum solar layout for maximum efficiency. Once selected, the button will become unavailable again unless you make further changes to the design. 

Choosing Design Modes

There are three design modes available within the AI-Assisted tool.

Default mode: Production data is pulled from Sunroof, and the design image data is provided by Google HD, with the option to switch to Nearmap.

Nearmap + NREL (Assisted Design) mode: Production data is pulled from NREL, and the design image data is provided by Nearmap, with no option to switch to another data source. The AI tool will generate a solar layout. 

Nearmap + NREL (Manual Design) mode: Production data is pulled from NREL, and the design image data is provided by Nearmap, with no option to switch to another data source. Production data is filled automatically by the predictive AI, but the solar layout is not generated. Users must switch to edit mode to create a solar layout. 

Step 12: Click “Facet List” to see the details of each facet.

Step 13: Clicking on a facet’s details will highlight the facet in the design.

Step 14: Edit panel alignment by clicking on the edit icon in the left corner.

Step 15: The panels are shown in edit mode. The yellow lines surrounding the roof facets indicate the setback area where solar panels cannot be placed. To draw or delete facets, click the draw facet icon. 

Step 16: To customize the gutter line, obstruction and other setback values, click on the settings icon.

Step 17: Customize the setback values according to your needs, then click “Apply”.

Step 18: When the facets are complete, click the “Done” button highlighted in blue. The AI tool has been updated to ensure that facets are unable to move beyond the limits of the roof layout. This ensures that designs are as accurate as possible and do not incur facet placement errors.

Step 19: To create a facet for a flat roof type or ground mount, select “Draw Facet” and toggle “Flat” on before drawing the facet.

Step 20: After drawing a flat facet, click “Done” to fill the facet with panels.

Step 21: Obstructions on a roof are marked with a red circle. Obstructions can be deleted by clicking the “Delete Obstructions” icon.

Step 22: Click on obstruction marks to remove them. Then click “Done” to save or the “X” icon to cancel.

Step 23: Once the obstructions are removed, left-click on the facet and choose “Recalculate Layout” to add panels in place of the obstructions. 

Step 24: Use the orientation button to switch facet orientation between landscape and portrait. Select a facet to change its orientation. 

Step 25: Click the “Remove Shading” button shown in the image below to remove shading from a facet. 

Step 26: Click the trash icon to delete a facet.

Step 27: Click the calculator button to recalculate the solar layout of a facet. 

Step 28: Click “Add Panel” to add a single solar panel to the layout.

Step 29: Select the orientation of the panel and click “Yes”.

Step 30: Click to place a panel on the facet. Click “Done” to save the panel placement. 

Step 31: Use the highlighted buttons to move or delete an individual panel. The panel snapping feature ensures that when moving individual solar panels, the alignment of the panel is correct. If you try to place a panel outside the bounds of the roof, it will snap back into its original position.

Step 32: Select a panel set to move it to a different position. Use edit mode to rotate and properly align a misplaced panel set. Clicking the orange box allows you to rotate a panel set.

Step 33: Once the panel alignment is correct, click “Done” to save.

Step 34:  Zoom in and out on specific design areas with the “+” and “-” buttons or by aligning the mouse pointer and scrolling in or out. The Zoom feature has a minimum of 1X and a maximum limit of 2X magnification. When saving, your design maintains the same zoom level as you had set during editing.

Step 35: To exit edit mode, turn the toggle off.

Step 36: When the design is complete, click “Save” to continue with the next steps. 

You can view your AI solar design along with the solar details, where you can add an inverter, inverter number, escalation rate, mounting type, and PPW.

In Default mode, you can switch between Google Maps HD and Nearmap with the dropdown menu in the top left corner.

To design in 3D mode, click on the 3D icon located to the left of the full-screen button.