Global scene building tools

The global scene gathers all the objects according to their relative position, in a referential based on the cardinal points. In Construction mode, the shading obstacles are represented in black and the sensitive area of the PV fields in blue.

Creation

Create objects with the "Create" menu, PVsyst handles many types of objects including :

-	PV fields: several kinds: tables and arrays of tables, arrays of domes, arrays of trackers, rectangular, polygonal, sun-shields.

-	Elementary objects: a variety of 2D an 3D predefined shapes,

-	Building / Composed object: an assembly of elementary shapes. Buildings can be saved as models for reuse in other shading scenes. They cant include PV fields, which should be added independently in the global scene.

-	Ground objects

History

Executing actions like creating, selecting or editing objects will save changes in a history which you can undo or redo.

Undo Undo - [CTRL + Z]

Redo Redo - [CTRL + Y]

Selection

Select Default object selection

Click on any object to select it, in Technical view you must click on the edges to be able to select an object.

RectangleSelection Rectangle selection

Click and drag to draw a selection rectangle.
You can specify if you want to select all objects touching the rectangle or only the ones inside it.

LassoSelection Lasso selection

Click and drag to draw a selection zone.
You can specify if you want to select all objects touching the zone or only the ones inside it.

Hold [SHIFT] to add objects to the current selection.

Hold [CTRL] to remove an object from the current selection.

Press [CTRL + A] to select all objects of the scene.

Point of view

PanCamera Pan

Click and drag to move the point of view along its plane.
When another tool is selected, hold [SHIFT] and [Mouse middle button] to pan.

RotateCamera Rotate view

Click and drag to rotate the point of view around its current target.
When another tool is selected, hold [Mouse middle button] to rotate.

PerspectiveView Perspective view - [F2]

Click to revert the point of view to the basic perspective position.
If down, the current view is a perspective one.

TopView Top view - [F3]

FrontView Front view - [F4]

SideView Side view - [F5]

SunView Sun view - [F6]

Set the point of view at the current sun position.

ZoomIn Zoom in - [F7]

ZoomOut Zoom out - [F8]

ZoomRect Zoom rectangle

Click and drag to draw a rectangle and set it as the new viewport.

ZoomToFit Zoom to fit - [CTRL + F]

This zooms the view in order to see all selected objects in the current viewport.

Render options

Render Technical / Realistic view

Technical view : Objects are drawn in wireframe, they can only be selected when clicking on their edges
Colors are defined by the type of object and its selection status
Lighting and real-time shadows are disabled

Realistic view : Objects are drawn in a more realistic way, and can be selected by a click on any visible part
Colors can be customized for each object
Lighting is enabled, real-time shadows can be enabled

OrthogonalViewMode PerspectiveViewMode Perspective / Orthogonal projection

Orthogonal projection is the default one, it is advised to use it when building the scene.

Perspective projection can be used to get a more realistic view of the scene, when generating the shadows video or in the report

ShowModules Module strings

Show module strings defined in Module Layout.

Other render options

From the menu "View / Render options", you can enable/disable the following :
- Anti-aliasing : Enable it to smooth the objects edges rendering.
This may not be available depending on your hardware setup, and it may also reduce performance.

- Real-time shadows : Enable it to render shadows at real-time.
Shadows on PV fields are always rendered when moving the sun, but this allows to see all shadows always.
Enabling it may reduce performance.

- Camera animation : When moving to another view, the transition can be animated or not.
Enabling it may slightly reduce performance.

- Backfaces : You can show or hide objects backfaces, i.e faces that are not facing the point of view
Hiding backfaces will increase performance.