What imaging providers does Solo use?
Solo uses multiple image sources to ensure accurate and up to date information for your designs. This includes using imagery from Vexcel Imagery, Nearmaps, Google Solar, and Google Maps.
Imagery from Nearmaps and Vexcel fall under our Premium imagery options and may incur an additional charge. The cost will vary depending on your payment plan.
Choosing the Best Imagery For Your Design
Imaging from different providers may have different imagery quality, resolution, and recency. To help you choose the best imagery source for you design, each option is tagged with which automations are available, the imagery types, and recency data.
Read more below to get a better idea of why each of these components are impacting. your design:
DSM Data
The automations in Solo Studio utilize our DSM point-cloud data. This is a granular set of data points that provide an accurate three dimensional representation of the area surrounding the home.
Selecting imagery that provides DSM data can help ensure the accuracy of your design, including rooflines, obstructions, and shade environment.
Vertical & Ortho Imagery
These refer to having a clear, top-down view of the home and the surrounding area. This is used in different automations like rooflines, obstructions, measurements, and panel placement. It also means that the imagery you're selecting is aligned correctly with the location data and maps that are used to generate accurate automations and estimations.
High-Resolution
The clearer the imagery, the more accurate roof layout automations and design steps can be. Choosing an image with high-resolution can make it easier to see each roofline and obstruction when outlining the roof and placing panels.
Recent Capture
Choosing an image more recently capture can ensure that you're seeing an accurate image of the site conditions. More recent captures can reflect recent tree trimming/removal, structures and rooflines recently added, and more, giving you a more accurate and up-to-date design for your customer.
Full Automation/Partial Automation
Whether or not an image has full or partial automation capabilities is dependent on the imagery provider and the other components available. It is recommended to select an imagery with full automation capabilities to have a quicker design time and more accurate automations.
You can view which automations are available with that imagery by hovering over the information icon on the right:
If you'd like to use your own site imagery, you can upload that using the upload feature at the bottom of the imagery selection window:
This will involve scaling your image to be used correctly on the design. See this article to learn more about uploading and scaling custom build images!