AppliCad launch at InterSolar a huge success

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA: AppliCad's first foray into the solar market has proved to be a huge success with the launch of their new Solar Wizard software at the InterSolar US show in San Francisco.

SolarWizard is a 3D modelling program that calculates solar radiation and shadows on a 3D model of the client's structure and helps determine the optimum location of solar assets such as PV arrays and solar thermal equipment. It should not have been a surprise having developed most of the modelling tools for the roofing industry during the past 20 years or so, the solar application was an easy and quite logical extension.

Ray Smith, MD of AppliCad, says: "The show in SF was a fishing trip for my company. We knew we had a great solution but being new to the solar market we were a little unsure how close we were to meeting the needs of integrators and distributors in this industry. We are very excited by the prospects for our new software."

Given the ready availability of aerial image libraries to the construction sector, accessible via the web and from specialist vendors, the re-designed image digitising tools in the new AppliCad enable every consultant, integrator or installer to prepare accurate client proposals from the desk without the need for an expensive site visit.

This results in huge savings in time and gas and improves turn-around time from initial enquiry to professional proposal. It also saves money spent on third party service providers doing this for the contractor, who can now do it without any additional cost or delay.

The entire client structure can be modelled in 3D along with the immediate surrounds, and the interference effects of shadows from these items explored in detail. The new calculators create very precise results displayed in very easy to understand maps of shadow and solar radiation on the 3D structure for any location in the country.

The high performance report generator then connects all the calculated data and images to report in MS Word. The Word templates provides enormous flexibility to the operators who can create the most detailed reports with as much artistic flair and imagination as they can muster.

Integration with other stakeholders is an essential component for running a professional roofing or cladding business. The new AppliCad now exports data in various text file formats including XML.