It’s spooky season, and here at SolarGrade it’s no different. We’re leaning heavily on the treat part of ‘trick or treat’ and giving our users a bucket full of new features.  

We’ve included everything from ‘king size’ report customizations to ‘fun size’ data exports. Buckle up for some scary good features this month!  

(Costumes not required to read this blog but encouraged and supported nonetheless.) 

For those of you who aren’t familiar with our app: SolarGrade is a cloud-based fieldwork management platform for renewable energy assets. Sign up for a free 30-day trial to learn more.

SolarGrade New Features 

Report Customizations 

We have a wide variety of users doing a wide variety of work. We want all SolarGrade deliverables to cater to that diversity. To set up your space’s report customizations, head to the Reports tab and select the “Report Customizations” gear in the top right. Once you have that set up, you can add it to your projects. Click here for more information. 

Add a Cover Page 

All PDF reports now have the option of including a cover page with some overview details. We want the reports to look as professional as you do. 

Add an Issue Summary 

Our map view does a good job of summarizing a site, but sometimes a table is necessary. The issue summary section merges the Task Table into your report so that you can see an at-a-glance view of the issues found on site. 

Add External Links 

All external links associated with the project will now be included in the project information section of a report. 

Change the Thumbnail Display Size  

For all our PDF report fans out there, this one is for you. You can change the thumbnail size for all photos within a report. Upgrade from 4×1 grid to a 2×2 grid and show off your high-resolution photos. 

Filter Issues by— 

Sometimes, you don’t need to include all the information in a single report. Now you can choose which elements you want to include by filtering issues by… 

• Action Taken 
  • Choose which Action Taken you want to include in a report. Options are Found & Task Created, Found & Corrected, Found & Noted, and Verified. 
• Severity Level 
  • Choose which severity level you want to include in a report. Options are critical, major, minor, or negligible.  
• Issues Marked as Not Found 
  • Choose to omit issues marked as not found to streamline your report. 
• Inspection Section 
  • Choose which sections from an inspection that you want to include in a report. 

Export Informational Items to CSV 

As data enthusiasts, we recognize that it is not all about the issues. You can now download all informational items within an inspection to a CSV file. There is a tab for each type of informational item to keep things organized. 

Alphabetize All Issue Items 

Finding an issue is as easy as ABC. All issues are now alphabetized within each category. This is also the case when you duplicate an issue. This makes for tidier inspections and tidier reports. 

Ability to Duplicate Data in Table Informational Items 

Copying tables? No problem. Each duplication will carry over the same text so you don’t have to build out the table each time. All about working more efficiently! 

Georeferencing Improvements 

Add Latitude and Longitude 

Dial in your georeferencing by getting as precise as possible. If you have the latitude and longitude of 2 locations on your site, you can enter those figures for the green and red pins. No more guessing which rock on the dirt road aligns with the edge of your as-builts. 

Zoom Control 

Georeferencing requires an element of precision. Our new zoom control allows you to dial in to get the most accurate rendering possible. 

Inspection Log Filters 

We’ve beefed up our inspection log filters to handle anything you throw at it. Now you can search by keyword or exact text and you can choose which inspector by the dropdown menu. 

Pull Geolocation from Photo 

This new feature improves uploading from your camera roll. If your device has location settings activated for your camera, now, when you upload a photo from your camera roll, SolarGrade will ask if you want to use the photo’s location information as the issue location. You will see a pop-up window like the one below. Please note: this only works if your device’s privacy settings are set to “All Photos” instead of only displaying selected photos. 

Export Project Tracking to CSV 

Our new Progress Tracking feature can now be exported to CSV so you can have a spreadsheet record of all of the progress on-site should you need to print it out or forward it along. 

Exclude Inspector Name in Issue Title 

We’re helping you declutter your large inspections. Any duplicated issue will no longer include the inspector’s name in parentheses. This will allow you to work faster with less clean up later. 

Shared Projects 

Projects are now able to be shared between spaces. This means that multiple companies and subcontractors can work on the same project. Reach out to the SolarGrade team to learn more about how to set up this feature. Note: it is only available for enterprise users.