Solar PV projects generate a consistent set of drawings, but the exact package depends heavily on the type of installation. A rooftop array on a house needs different drawings from a commercial roof, which needs different drawings again from a ground-mounted solar farm. Understanding what each type requires helps developers, installers and EPC contractors specify and resource the drawing work correctly.
This guide sets out the CAD drawings a solar PV project typically needs across the three main installation types — rooftop residential, rooftop commercial, and ground-mount — and what each drawing is for.
The core drawings common to all solar projects
Whatever the installation type, most solar PV projects need a common core of drawings.
The panel layout drawing shows the arrangement of the PV modules — their positions, orientation, tilt, and spacing across the roof or site. This is the foundational drawing that determines the system size and yield.
The string layout drawing shows how the individual panels are grouped into strings and connected back to the inverters, produced from the electrical design.
The single-line diagram and electrical schematics show the electrical arrangement from the array through the inverters, protection, metering and the connection to the grid.
The as-built drawings record what was actually installed at completion — the final module positions, string arrangement, and electrical configuration.
Rooftop residential and multi-residential
Residential rooftop solar is the highest-volume, most repetitive type of solar work, and it becomes a genuine multi-site programme on a housing development where the same panel layouts are applied across many properties.
The drawing package typically includes the roof panel layout for each property type, the string layout and single-line diagram, and the mounting arrangement showing how the array fixes to the roof structure. On a multi-residential development, the value is in producing these consistently across every house type and plot, to the same standard, at the pace the development requires.
Rooftop commercial and industrial
Commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop solar involves larger roofs — warehouses, factories, distribution centres, retail units — and correspondingly larger systems. The drawings are similar in type to residential but larger in scale and often more complex electrically.
A C&I package usually includes the roof layout showing the full array across the roof, the string layout and electrical schematics for a larger multi-inverter system, roof penetration and mounting details, and cable routing across the roof and down to the plant location. The structural interface with the existing roof is a significant consideration, and the layout has to account for roof plant, access, and shading.
Ground-mount and solar farms
Ground-mounted solar is a different scale of work again. A solar farm is a field of arrays, often on tracking or fixed-tilt mounting systems, with its own site infrastructure — access tracks, inverter stations, substation, and grid connection.
The drawing package for a ground-mount project includes the site layout showing the array field, row spacing and orientation, the mounting or tracker arrangement, the DC and AC electrical layouts, cable routing and trenching across the site, the civils drawings for access tracks, inverter station bases and substation, and the as-built record for the whole site. Ground-mount is the closest solar comes to full infrastructure project work.
3D renders for solar projects
Across all three types, 3D renders are increasingly used for planning applications and stakeholder presentations. For ground-mount projects in particular, where visual impact on the landscape is a planning consideration, a photorealistic render showing the array in its setting can be an important part of the planning submission. For commercial rooftop projects, renders support investor and landlord presentations.
Producing solar drawings from your design
The drawing production for a solar project works from the client’s design. The PV system design — module selection, string sizing, inverter selection, structural and wind loading, and the grid connection design — is carried out by the solar designer and electrical engineer. The CAD work takes that design, together with the roof or site survey, and produces the layout drawings, electrical drawings and as-builts.
Outsource CAD produces CAD drawings and renders for solar PV projects across rooftop residential, commercial, and ground-mount installations — working from your design and site information, to your standards. Call +44 28 9009 8876 or email info@outsourcecad.com.
