---
title: What are Solar Access Viewsheds?
description: Determine shading and production for PV system design
---

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# What are Solar Access Viewsheds?

## Determine shading and production for PV system design

![](https://help.scanifly.com/hubfs/c8e231a-viewshed-JPG.jpeg)

Solar Access Viewsheds are used in Scanifly 3D in order to determine shading and production for designing a PV system. A solar access viewshed is a shade measurement in the 3D space that has an associated \[[solar access, tilt and orientation factor and total solar resource factor measurement](https://help.scanifly.com/what-are-solar-access-tof-and-tsrf?hsLang=en)\]. The blue and red portion of the viewshed shows the sun throughout the year and what horizon angle it has throughout every day of the year from west to east. The black and green depict the shading that occurs on that particular viewshed by the surrounding environment (i.e. trees, buildings, etc.).

![](https://help.scanifly.com/hs-fs/hubfs/image-png.png?width=197&name=image-png.png)

![](https://help.scanifly.com/hubfs/bafc3ce-horizon_profile-JPG.jpeg)

### Solar Access Viewsheds are required for generating solar production data

**Viewsheds and Production Estimate**

At least 1 viewshed is required for each segment that has modules in order to generate production information in Scanifly.

 

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