Improved terrain surface generator
pvDesign - backend v5.5.16, frontend v1.5.1
In February we released a key change to the layout calculation model of pvDesign, which is the introduction of a new terrain surface generator. The new generator will be used for the Google Earth elevation only, and it will produce smoother, more accurate surfaces, resulting in much better results when using topography filters.
New Features
These new features were released in February:
- Improved terrain surface generator: pvDesign uses a terrain interpolation method to generate the surface in which the structures are installed. We have implemented a new algorithm based in Radial Basis Functions. The new implementation produces smoother terrain, especially when working on a sparse dataset. The improved terrain is noticeable when analyzing which structures are removed by topography filters, and in the Layout 3D document. However, it is unstable when using a dataset generated from contour lines, so for the time being it will only be used for Google Earth elevation data.
- Multi factor authentication: You can now setup an MFA device to secure your account. To do so, you will need to go to your Preferences page, enable MFA under the security category, and scan the QR code using your preferred authenticator application on your mobile phone (for example, Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator).
Bug fixes and improvements
We released the following bug fixes and improvements in February:
- Fixed some issues which were causing simulation errors due to the positioning of access points.
- Fixed an issue which was causing the spacing of the power stations to be wrong.
- The topography messages in the layout tab are now generated using the same units as the rest of the interface.
- Fixed a bug which caused user roles to unexpectedly change when editing a user.
- Fixed an issue which caused a simulation error when there were very narrow spaces in the available areas.
- Fixed an error which caused a simulation failure for some available area definitions when using DC bus.
- Fixed some issues which were causing simulation failures when drawing the layout.