Using the Layout Designer — the plant's System Topology view
The Layout tab is where you describe a plant’s System Topology — the wiring of inverter, battery, switchboards, and loads as a diagram you can look at, share, and store as data. It’s the single source of truth for how the plant fits together.
Not to be confused with Panel Layout
Section titled “Not to be confused with Panel Layout”Two features share the word “Layout”: panel-layout plans how many roof modules fit; this page’s Layout tab wires up inverter, battery, switchboards, loads, and grid connections. Different tool, different job.
What System Topology captures
Section titled “What System Topology captures”Every plant has a set of curated node types the tool recognises: PV Array, Inverter, Battery, DC Switchboard, AC Switchboard, EPS Board, Grid Connection, Generator, EV Charger, Hot Water Buffer, Heat Pump, and Smart Load Port. Anything else — a fire switchboard, a server rack — still drops onto the canvas fine, just as a generic labelled node.
Edges between nodes represent four physical bus types, colour-coded: DC orange (panels → inverter, battery ↔ inverter), AC blue (inverter → switchboard → loads, grid feeds), Data grey (monitoring/protocol connections), Control purple (relay/dry-contact lines to trigger loads).
Nodes show a “no device” pill until linked to a real monitored device from the Devices tab — one linking step, then the node reflects live data (production, state of charge, load draw) and gives alert rules a specific device to watch.
Three ways to draw the same diagram
Section titled “Three ways to draw the same diagram”Three toolbar buttons — Spatial / Wizard / Busbar — switch between interchangeable views, all writing to the same underlying data, so nothing is lost moving between them:
- Spatial (default) — a free block-builder canvas: drag nodes, draw edges. Best for matching a real physical diagram.
- Wizard — a guided “tell me about your install” flow: structured questions (inverter, battery, loads) build the topology for you. Best for a first-time standard setup.
- Busbar — a layered rows-of-buses view (DC / EPS / AC / Smart Loads / Grid) for spotting overloads at a glance.
Editing toggle
Section titled “Editing toggle”The Editing toggle controls whether the canvas accepts changes. Turn it off to lock the diagram to view-only — sharing a screen with a customer, reviewing a finished plant, or just not wanting to accidentally drag something. Turn it back on to resume changes.
Auto-layout, Fit view, and zoom
Section titled “Auto-layout, Fit view, and zoom”Auto-layout re-arranges every node with a graph-layout algorithm — useful right after a messy drag or an STX import with no position hints. It’s unconditional: every node’s position gets overwritten, including ones you’ve carefully placed by hand, with no undo. Use it right after import, not on a diagram you’ve already fine-tuned. Fit view zooms to show every node in one frame; the zoom control handles manual detail inspection.
STX and Scan schematic
Section titled “STX and Scan schematic”STX (export + import) is techs.solar’s own machine-readable Solar Topology eXchange format for saving, backing up, or sharing a plant’s wiring — full walkthrough at importing-and-exporting-stx. Scan schematic uploads a photo or PDF of a wiring diagram and parses it into a topology draft you refine afterward — full walkthrough at scan-schematic-from-image.
Where to go from here
Section titled “Where to go from here”- What monitoring is for: what-is-monitoring
- Getting a Deye Cloud inverter connected first: setting-up-a-monitoring-inverter
- STX export/import mechanics: importing-and-exporting-stx
- Scanning a paper schematic: scan-schematic-from-image
- The unrelated pre-sales tool: panel-layout