Ground Mount Workflow

Design ground-mounted solar arrays with portrait-oriented panels. This workflow is optimized for utility-scale and commercial ground-mount installations.

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Overview

Ground mount systems typically use portrait orientation (panels taller than wide) arranged in long rows on racking systems.

Before you start

Run BRANCHOPTIONS to open the settings UI and configure your project. Make sure to set the installation type to Ground (Portrait) to ensure proper panel detection and string routing for ground mount arrays.

Key Differences from Rooftop

Panel Orientation

Portrait (vertical) instead of landscape. Affects how Branch detects rows and calculates string paths.

Combiner Boxes

Ground mount systems often use combiner boxes before the inverter. Branch supports combiner box placement.

Step 1: Prepare Your Drawing

Start with your panel layout drawn in AutoCAD. For ground mount systems:

Panels should be in portrait orientation (height > width)
If your racks of panels are blocks, enable "Extract Panels from Rack Blocks" in the settings
Adjust the Max Panel Gap setting to control how tight the panel group border will be around your arrays

Step 2: Create Panel Groups

For ground mount systems, panel groups typically correspond to tracker rows or racking sections.

Command: PANELGROUPCREATE

Branch analyzes the layout and creates groups based on panel proximity. For ground mount:

Panels along a single tracker row typically form one group
Gaps larger than the alignment tolerance create separate groups
Each group displays a header label showing panels to add/subtract for even strings

Hiding panel group outlines

If your drawing becomes too crowded or hard to read with panel group outlines visible, you can hide them using the "Hide outlines" checkbox in the settings (BRANCHOPTIONS).

Step 3: Adjust Panels for Even Strings

Each panel group header displays a recommendation (e.g., "+2" or "-1") indicating how many panels to add or remove to get perfectly even string lengths based on your configured string size.

Command: ADDPANELS

To balance your strings:

Review the header recommendations on each panel group
Run ADDPANELS
Choose Auto to fill all incomplete groups in the drawing at once, or select a specific target group manually
If manual, select panels from adjacent groups to transfer
The transferred panels will visually join the target group

Jumper cables

When you run SOLVE after adding panels, you'll be prompted to indicate the two panels where the jumper cable will connect the transferred panels to their new group.

For large ground mount arrays, balancing panels across groups is especially important to ensure consistent string lengths and optimal inverter utilization.

Step 4: Solve Strings

The solver generates string connections for your panel groups.

Command: SOLVE

For ground mount arrays, Branch uses a faster algorithm to generate the simpler, more regular strings typical of ground-mount layouts much more quickly than rooftop systems.

Step 5: Place Combiners & Inverters

Ground mount systems often use combiner boxes to consolidate strings before the inverter.

Using combiner boxes

To use combiner boxes, run BRANCHOPTIONS and enable the "Use Combiner Boxes" option. Configure the CB size (4 to 32 positions) and the strings per CB separately to match your equipment. When placing a combiner box, you will manually select the strings you want connected to it.

Command: ADDINVERTER

This command offers three modes:

Automatic — Assigns the nearest unassigned strings based on the DC connections setting
Manual — You select which strings to assign to the inverter or combiner box
Add Later — Places the block without assigning any strings. Use ASSIGNSTRINGS afterward to batch-assign across all inverters at once

Multi-type inverter support

You can assign different inverter models (Type A, Type B, etc.) within the same drawing. Each type gets its own color family, capacity tracking, and DC/AC ratio. Inverter blocks display type-prefixed labels (A1, A2, B1, B2) so you can visually distinguish equipment across the array.

When to use Add Later

For large ground mount arrays with many combiner boxes, placing them all first and then running ASSIGNSTRINGS lets the optimizer distribute strings across all devices simultaneously.

Step 5b: Assign Strings (if using Add Later)

If you placed inverters or combiner boxes with Add Later mode, assign strings to them now.

Command: ASSIGNSTRINGS

Choose a mode:

Auto — Optimizes assignments across all inverters and combiner boxes based on proximity. Minimizes total wiring distance
Manual — Select a combiner box or inverter, then pick which strings connect to it. Repeat for each device

After assignment, string tags and colors update to show their inverter association.

Auto mode recommended

For large ground mount arrays, Auto distributes strings more evenly than manual selection and minimizes cable runs across the entire drawing.

Step 6: Balance inverters

After placing inverters, check that strings are evenly distributed across MPPT inputs. For ground mount systems, MPPT balance is especially important on large arrays where string lengths vary by tracker row.

Command: INVBALANCE

The Inverter Manager shows balance status for every inverter in your drawing. Inverters with mismatched string panel counts are flagged and sorted to the top.

Green rows — All MPPTs balanced, no action needed
Yellow/Red rows — Panel count mismatch on one or more MPPTs. Review the suggested swaps or click Auto-Balance All

Best results after ADDALLINVERTERS

The automatic inverter placement command assigns strings by proximity, not by panel count. Running INVBALANCE afterward ensures strings with matching panel counts end up on the same MPPT.

Step 7: Create homeruns

Route cables from string endpoints to combiner boxes or inverters.

Command: HOMERUNS

This command generates schematic homerun routing from string endpoints to your combiner boxes or inverters.

Step 7b: Adjust Homeruns (Optional)

Fine-tune homerun routing to match your actual site conditions.

Command: HOMERUNADJUST

Four editing operations:

Move Segment — Slide a trunk segment perpendicular to its direction
Angle Vertex — Drag a vertex freely to create angled routing
Insert Vertex — Add a waypoint along a segment for more control
Delete Vertex — Remove a waypoint to simplify routing

Ground mount routing

For ground mount, this helps route cables along tracker rows or around equipment pads. Adjusted lengths are reflected in CABLEEXPORT automatically.

Step 8: Review & Export

Review your design and export data as needed.

CABLEEXPORT

Export string and homerun data to a spreadsheet. In the export UI, you can click on individual strings or homeruns to jump to their location in the drawing.