My friend has a few at her store, and yes, the clear SofTray thing does have a tendency to rip. And when we put them together, I thought it was really hard to assemble them.
I don't like the inability to see clearly through the screen, either. If I needed something for sunning, I would make something like RobertCoombs suggested above (or rather, I would have my boyfriend make it, since if I tried, the building materials would be tossed out the window in frustration, lol.)