Skip to main content

How to set up a solar site for construction monitoring

Updated over a week ago

Make sure you have the following information at hand:

  • KML file containing the site boundaries

  • The capacity (peak power) of the site in MWp

  • A design file (DWG or DXF) containing the components you want to track, including the used coordinate system (EPSG code)

  • A schedule that defines when different works / activities are planned

  • (optional) A site layout that indicates the boundaries of zones/regions

We'll cover these requirements in more detail below, but this already gives you a handy checklist.

1️⃣ Create your site

Once in the platform, you can go to Sites and click on Create Site, where you will have to enter some necessary information(*) in order to move through the site's creation process:

  1. The Site's Name

  2. Select the Site Type as "Solar"

  3. Select the Site Stage as "Construction"

  4. Upload the KML or draw the site boundaries manually

  5. Lastly, you will need to fill in the peak power of the site in MWp.

2️⃣ Import components from your design file

Components digitalize hardware components. They're automatically used for target setting and deviation detection if you create them, while enabling you to keep a well-organized digital track record of everything you do on site.

To be able to compare the drone flights with the components, we need to know the exact location of each component. These locations are extracted from the design file.

For ease of use please design your DXF according to Sitemark's standards. You can find more information related here: How to make your dxf file Sitemark compatible

In any case, since all design files are different, your support manager will make sure the file is converted into the right format and imported into the platform. Just make sure the file contains at least piles, tables and panels in the right spots.

3️⃣ Set-up your project schedule / targets

Components allow us to track progress (e.g. 50% of piles in region A has been placed), but they don't tell us when you expect them to be placed. That's where the schedule comes in.

There are two ways to set up the schedule:

  1. If you already have a schedule (in Microsoft Project, Primavera or Excel), just send it to your support manager and he'll make sure it's imported correctly.

    1. Once uploaded, you will be able to visualize it similarly as in the image below. Then you can link each activity to the relevant component to enable automatic progress updates and displaying planned progress in the reports.

  2. If you don't have a schedule file to share, you can create your schedule directly in the Sitemark platform as well.

    1. Once done, you can create an activity for each component you would like to track, linked to a component type and defining a desired start and end date according to your schedule.

4️⃣ Set up regions for your site (optional)

The setup above ensures proper site-wide reporting. If you want to get more fine-grained reporting, you can define geographical regions on your site. Make sure to define region-level activities as well, as the schedule defines the targets for reporting.

Learn more about creating regions.

🚀 Create operations and start tracking

That's it. Your site setup is complete. You can now create operations to schedule the drone inspections and see results come in.

Did this answer your question?