Design comments, company files, and permit plansets

Design teams can now keep feedback directly where the work happens. Place comments on objects, surfaces, SLDs, and plan-set sheets, mention teammates, track replies, and resolve discussions without separating design context from the conversation.

Company files are also easier to find and reuse. A centralized document library brings searchable, permission-aware files into one place, while a connected cloud drive picker and existing-file picker reduce duplicate uploads. Designers can also generate selected plan sets, SLDs, reports, takeoffs, and BOMs whenever they save.

Permit work now has a guided planset workflow with prefilled project data and readiness checks. In the design scene, a new Space-key measurement tool provides quick three-dimensional measurements, including vertical rise, horizontal run, and elevation angle.

Powerlily

• Centralized company document library Browse and search company files from one permission-aware library. Document managers can create nested folders, rename or move them, and remove empty folders.
• Connected cloud drive picker Connect a cloud drive, browse its files, and select them for Powerlily workflows without downloading and uploading them first.
• Reuse existing company files Upload areas can open a searchable picker for files already stored in Powerlily, reducing duplicate copies across quotes and collaboration workflows.
• Automatic design document exports Choose plan sets, SLDs, roof takeoffs, shading reports, and racking BOMs to generate and attach whenever a 3D scene is saved. Powerlily remembers each designer's selection.
• Design outputs in quote Documents Authorized users can generate or refresh every available 3D design output from the quote. The list identifies failed or outdated files, preserves signed copies, and provides standard previews and document controls.
• Bulk quote actions Select individual quotes or every quote on the current page, then update project status, move them to a workflow stage, or delete them together. Applicable status dates and activity notes are created automatically.
• DC optimizer catalog and quote support Companies can create a dedicated optimizer catalog, search and add products, maintain specifications and documents, and extract product data from specification sheets. Quotes can include optimizer quantities, optimized module counts, pricing, and totals tied to the selected inverters.
• Inverter and optimizer compatibility Catalog managers can define which optimizers work with each string inverter, giving designers structured equipment pairings instead of relying on memory.
• Optimizer details in proposals Generated proposal content can show the optimizers associated with each inverter, including brand and supporting product documents.
• Technical readiness for equipment Catalog managers can see whether panels, inverters, batteries, and optimizers have the specifications needed for design, stringing, SLD, and battery workflows. New design selections are limited to technically ready inverters and batteries, while existing scenes can still resolve previously selected records.
• Expanded optimizer editor Maintain optimizer identity, pricing, visibility, descriptions, module counts, and electrical limits with inline save feedback. Guidance also clarifies when a device-level shutdown or standby voltage should be left blank.
• Safer catalog organization Reorder catalog listings independently, delete selected products in bulk, and see meaningful blockers when equipment is still used by quotes, defaults, designs, or compatibility settings.
• Ordered catalog media Control which product files customers can see, manage privacy and display state in the editor, and drag visible media into the desired carousel order.
• Restored catalog cards and rows Product searches again retain the chosen card or compact-row view. Panels, inverters, batteries, optimizers, and equipment now use more consistent layouts for specifications, pricing, imagery, and visibility.
• More reliable specification extraction If an assisted equipment import initially misses required values, Powerlily performs another evidence-based pass. Unsupported imports stop instead of creating incomplete catalog records.
• Faster specification-sheet staging Pericles now provides a prominent starting action for uploading a product PDF or image and extracting its variants into a private review batch.
• Improved proposal and invoice editors Visual editors now provide shared content blocks, a component inspector, responsive desktop, tablet, and mobile views, and a preview that hides editing controls.
• Reusable company images Upload company-owned images once and reuse them across proposal and invoice designs. Accepted image files are validated and limited to 10 MB.
• Reusable design symbols Save branded or frequently used sections as company symbols, then reuse them in proposal and invoice designs instead of rebuilding them.
• Protected template edits If a proposal or invoice design changes in another tab, Powerlily warns before an older version can overwrite the newer work.
• Safer rendered documents Saved designs, styles, reusable symbols, and substituted customer data receive additional protection from unsafe markup and executable links, including older saved designs when they are rendered.
• Accurate demand-charge savings Proposals now include demand charges in the without-solar baseline and count avoided demand charges in long-term savings, ROI, and payback. Proposal pages, charts, designed templates, PDFs, and utility-switch comparisons use the same all-in projected bill.
• Demand charges in utility details Quotes with demand billing now show monthly demand charges alongside energy, fees, and totals, using projected consumption and peak demand.
• Reliable consumption-data replacement Replacing or removing an hourly consumption upload, or returning to monthly entries, now clears stale interval data even when values are set to zero. Reopening the upload dialog also starts with a clean file, pasted-data, and error state.
• Quote shortcuts on the overview Quote managers can open design options and drone capture directly from the overview. Drone status shows whether processing is underway, its progress when available, or whether the capture is ready.
• Safer proposal theme previews Previewing a draft theme no longer creates acceptance revisions or changes the quote's saved styling or signature state.
• More stable proposal layouts Optional hero content, long design-option controls, demand-charge panels, and utility-switch details now fit more reliably across desktop and smaller screens.
• Guided custom-domain activation Eligible companies receive exact DNS and ownership instructions, readiness checks, and an explicit activation step for branded domains. The existing address stays available during setup, and pending or active domains can be safely cancelled or removed.
• Safer custom-domain sign-in Sessions and passwordless links stay within the correct company workspace. Links for another company or an untrusted host are rejected, while safe return paths can bring users back to the intended settings page.
• Modernized Knowledge Base discovery Team members and portal clients can search published article titles and bodies, filter by category, browse paginated cards, and find a featured recent article more easily.
• Knowledge Base interaction controls Company administrators can control comments, replies, reader details, article feedback, notifications, and whether Knowledge Base emails are sent. Settings save automatically with a clear result.
• Improved Knowledge Base discussions Articles now provide cleaner threaded comments and replies, live counts, likes, direct notification links, and moderation controls. Closed discussions consistently prevent new comments, replies, and likes.
• Custom Kanban backgrounds Workflow administrators can choose dots, grid, diagonal, or plain backgrounds for each pipeline. Stage headers consistently inherit stage or workflow colors.
• Compact quote activity comments Quote comment and reply threads use less space, with clearer edit, delete, like, attachment, and reaction controls.
• Consistent uploads and previews Uploads across quotes, clients, leads, messages, mobile workflows, and equipment records now receive more consistent validation, preview generation, and failure messages.
• Correct sample optimizer requirements Newly created sample catalogs correctly mark the sample string inverter as requiring an optimizer, while the sample hybrid inverter remains optional.
• Safer catalog pagination Old bookmarks that request a catalog page beyond the remaining products now open the last available page instead of showing an error.
• Reliable email notifications Application emails now wait for related changes to finish saving before they are queued, reducing missing or broken notifications. Messages for records removed before delivery are safely discarded.
• Correct system-monitor media Hero images and videos now fill and crop to their available display area consistently.

3D design tool

• Collaborative comments throughout the design Place pinned threads on 3D objects and surfaces, SLD symbols or canvas locations, and plan-set sheets. Reply, edit, delete, resolve, reopen, mention teammates, add general notes, filter discussions, review unread activity, and jump back to each comment's location.
• Quick three-dimensional measurements Hold Space and drag to measure true distance, vertical rise, horizontal run, and elevation angle with snapping and live labels. Steep measurements appear as ladders, and measurements can remain for reference or retract after a temporary check.
• Unified permit planset workflow Build permit packages through one guided process covering project details, structural and electrical inputs, jurisdiction checks, sheets, revisions, and supporting documents. Available project, code, equipment, and attachment data is prefilled, with missing requirements highlighted before export.
• Expanded structural plans Permit packages can include dedicated mounting plans and elevation and attachment details. Rail runs, attachment markers, spacing, end offsets, row direction, and rotation stay aligned with BOM calculations.
• Attach documents whenever you save Select plan sets, SLDs, roof takeoffs, solar analysis reports, and racking BOMs for automatic quote attachment. Unavailable documents are disabled with guidance about what must be corrected first.
• Reliable design-document exports Attached files now follow the same rendering path as direct PDF downloads. Empty results are reported as failures, valid SLDs no longer become blank attachments, and newly generated documents receive accurate freshness status.
• Complete SLD sheets in plan sets Generated plan-set sheets now capture the entire electrical diagram, including service-entrance and metering equipment outside the editor's current view.
• Relevant document freshness Each generated document is marked stale only when source data it actually uses has changed. Moving a panel does not unnecessarily invalidate a roof takeoff, for example.
• Explicit roof, ground-mount, and tracker structures Classify facets by mounting structure and choose appropriate frame styles. Structure choices drive physical appearance and production behavior instead of relying on a generic canopy setting.
• Ready-to-use ground mounts and trackers Dedicated two-click tools create free-standing ground mounts and sun trackers with starting height, slope, frame, and orientation settings. Ground mounts face the equator, while tracker axes begin north to south.
• Single-axis and dual-axis tracker simulation Tracker tables, panels, and rails visibly follow the sun during day loops and presentations. Set the tracking axis, maximum angle, and backtracking, with row spacing and ground-coverage ratio derived from the layout.
• Bifacial rear-side gain modeling Enable rear-side irradiance on eligible open-frame structures, with controls available directly on the facet. Catalog bifaciality values are applied when present, while potentially bifacial modules remain eligible when the value is unknown.
• Physically modeled rails and standoffs Roof modules and placement previews now sit on visible rails and mounting feet with an air gap instead of appearing embedded in the roof. Stringing markers and rear-side production modeling follow the raised module position.
• Centralized inverter setup Choose microinverter or string-inverter systems from one equipment area, search models, set quantities, and move into a wiring-only workspace with numbered inverter controls.
• Per-panel DC optimizer design Assign compatible catalog optimizers across an inverter, a string, or selected panels. Visual rings and coverage summaries distinguish optimized modules, and assignments remain with the saved scene.
• Feasibility-aware auto-stringing Automatic stringing now considers inverter, MPPT, string, temperature, and optimizer constraints. Inverters that require optimizers prompt for an explicit compatible choice when several are available.
• Accurate mixed-module capacity DC capacity and DC-to-AC calculations now use each connected panel's actual wattage. Microinverters are also counted by their catalog model, including designs with multiple microinverter products.
• Live SLD permit-readiness preview As electrical settings change, see expected breaker information, PV output current, voltage and limits, phase loading, voltage drop, advisories, and violations before generating the diagram.
• Actionable SLD findings Electrical findings distinguish violations from advisories and link directly to the relevant setting, wiring editor, or battery editor. Blocking issues explain why PDF export is unavailable before an export is attempted.
• Clear SLD regeneration status A status banner shows whether the diagram is current or stale and provides a direct regeneration workflow. Regeneration preserves hand-drawn items and warns before relevant manual edits are replaced.
• Expanded electrical configuration SLD settings now cover more service voltages, interconnection types, bus rules, occupancy types, disconnect arrangements, transformers, DC disconnects, and raceway choices. Additional sizing and compliance checks improve conductors, protection devices, panelboards, disconnects, raceway fill, and minimum string sizing.
• Accurate three-phase loading The electrical model distinguishes phase count from voltage, distributes single-phase sources across three-phase services, and sizes breakers, disconnects, conductors, and feeders from the resulting phase currents.
• Safer manual SLD editing Invalid connections, such as DC wired directly to AC or conductors attached to drawing text, are blocked. Hovering a wire reveals conductor, protection, raceway, and voltage-drop details.
• Clearer SLD drawings Connections route from actual equipment positions, conductors avoid labels, panelboards receive a dedicated wiring corridor, and long schedule calculations remain visible. A shorter grouped right-click menu makes editing actions easier to scan.
• Smoother large SLD navigation Large diagrams pan and zoom more smoothly by limiting off-screen drawing work and postponing heavier updates until movement settles. High-resolution trackpad and wheel gestures now respond continuously.
• Selectable SLD PDF sizes Export SLDs in a selected landscape permit-sheet size, with tabloid as the default. Failed exports provide a clearer explanation.
• Persistent per-facet slope pinning Switch a roof facet between uniform and individual pitch. Pinned facets retain their pitch during connected-slope changes and automatic lidar fitting, display a visible status chip, and can rejoin uniform mode directly from that chip.
• Reliable roof geometry editing Automatic facet creation handles harmless duplicate points, tiny edges, redundant straight-line vertices, and geometry far from the scene origin more safely. Connected smart-roof edits also preserve stable neighboring planes and structural junctions.
• Roof edits preserve authored content Valid panels and obstructions are re-seated and revalidated after slope changes, edge moves, facet deletion, alignment, and lidar fitting instead of being cleared indiscriminately. Panel IDs, string assignments, manual positions, bearings, and other authored details remain when they still fit.
• Manual layouts survive module changes Valid placed panels and spacing choices remain when a module model changes, with new dimensions applied without unnecessarily replacing the arrangement. Placement previews immediately update to the new module size.
• Denser fixed-orientation fills Portrait-only and landscape-only fills now use the same density search as Best Fit while respecting the chosen orientation, reducing lost panels on irregular or exact-edge facets.
• Searchable obstruction picker Search obstruction types and distinguish similar vents through clearer names and shape badges. Low-profile square and curved-top vents now have separate geometry and appropriate editing controls.
• More accurate obstruction collisions Panel placement checks the real physical footprint of roof vents rather than an inflated buffer. Collision bounds also refresh after an obstruction moves or changes.
• Automatic lidar alignment New quotes can run one silent AI alignment after lidar becomes available, improving the initial match between roof geometry and imagery. Attempted and verified alignment status, offsets, and match scores persist with the scene.
• Faster, safer lidar matching Alignment evaluates fewer candidates through a staged search and exits cleanly if lidar is unavailable or fails to load instead of leaving the workflow waiting.
• Easier System Results navigation Production, arrays, battery, and balance-of-system information now sits behind a clearly labeled Results control. Finalize shortcuts can open specific result areas directly.
• Clearer array summaries Scan-friendly cards prioritize production, orientation, equipment, system capacity, and production intensity. Inverter assignments and unstrung panels appear on separate lines for clarity.
• Resizable design panes Drag the edge of stringing, branch-circuit, facet-inspector, and tree panes to make them wider. The selected width is remembered.
• Battery editing from SLD settings Open the Battery Storage designer directly over SLD configuration, then return with updated storage details reflected in the summary, fields, warning badge, and preview. Removed inverters and quote batteries no longer leave stale battery associations.
• Broader undo and redo coverage Undo history now covers more roof, panel, production, object, tree, trench, SLD, and planset operations. Annotations are again selectable, editable, deletable, and included in undo history.
• Accurate unsaved-change warnings Opening and leaving an unchanged design no longer produces a warning because of background calculations or loading activity. Fully undone and no-op changes also remain clean.
• Faster multi-facet editing Click visible panels, obstructions, or facets to transfer placement work or switch between panel and obstruction modes. Hidden geometry no longer captures placement clicks, and complex scenes handle repeated previews and hit testing more efficiently.
• Consistent facet action controls A shared in-surface action puck provides surface, panel, obstruction, and delete actions in both 3D and orthographic views. It also shows pitch and inverted-slope status more clearly.
• Improved surface editing menus Surface, edge, and vertex menus use a consistent card layout with clearer values, state chips, grouped actions, and quieter keyboard hints. Pitch and eave-height readouts now update the correct selected facet.
• Stable cursors and guidance Measurement, comments, drawing, calibration, placement, drag, and other precision tools retain the correct cursor as workspaces change. Pointer guidance appears in the right location and clears when modes close.
• Persistent shortcut help Keyboard help can stay open while the Design Assistant changes context, and the shortcuts pane can be dragged away from the part of the scene being edited.
• Improved shape controls Preset roof shapes are available from a consistent, accessible Design Assistant menu that avoids clipping and clearly shows the active drawing choice.
• Synchronized planset inputs Planset generation checks that analysis and document inputs match the current design, refreshes analysis when needed, and detects changes during export. Jurisdiction settings now persist when the scene is reopened.
• Reliable editor reopening Closing and reopening plan-set or SLD editors no longer leaves old keyboard controls or context actions attached to an obsolete page or diagram.
• More consistent irradiance processing Panel irradiance work is processed in smaller batches, while sky rendering performs less repeated work. This improves behavior across supported device performance levels.
• Better graphics quality detection Modern graphics hardware in supported browser families is less likely to be incorrectly assigned degraded visual settings, while genuine software rendering and hardware limits still receive safer settings.
• Improved design stability Removing trees, rebuilding facets, or leaving while graphics preparation is still underway no longer risks a page failure. Camera movement also settles promptly at every zoom level.
• Immediate comment deletion Deleted design comments disappear from the canvas immediately, with replies removed together. If deletion fails, the thread is restored with an error message.
• Clearer single-message threads Comment popovers no longer repeat the original author and timestamp, preventing one-message discussions from appearing to contain duplicates.