Frigus 3D
Thermal analysis of the ground under a pile-supported building: from the pile plan to the temperature field — in one window and in the CAD layout engineers know.
Open the live prototype frost-termo.foxdim.ru
Frigus 3D is a tool for thermal calculations in frozen ground: a building, piles, thermosyphons, geological layers and the temperature field. The demo project is a residential house on 48 piles Ø0.64 m in a 85 × 70 m calculation domain.
Why we took it on
Engineers are used to foreign packages: heavy, English-only, with hundreds of buttons. The task was a tool of our own where the model is assembled by familiar CAD logic: a ribbon on top, an element tree and properties on the right, axes, snapping and ortho at the bottom. Novelty appears only where it helps: the temperature field reads like a map, not like a table.
What blocked — and what changed
What blocked
- Existing packages are heavy and overloaded with commands needed once a year.
- Between steps — 2D, 3D, mesh, result — it's easy to lose track of where you are and what is done.
- A model consists of dozens of mixed elements: boreholes, isolines, pipelines, sections, markers.
- The temperature field must be read fast: where the ground thaws and where it stays frozen.
What changed
- A familiar CAD layout: a ribbon with the groups “View”, “Camera”, “Display”, an element list and properties on the right.
- Four modes in the header — “2D Editor”, “3D Editor”, “Calculation mesh”, “Postprocessor”; unavailable steps are muted, and the panel shows progress “2D: completed · 100%”.
- An element list with type filters, search and sorting; the chosen element is highlighted both in the list and on the scene.
- A temperature scale from +6 to −5 °C right on the scene: red is warm, blue is frozen ground.
How I worked
- 01
Familiar CAD logic
I took the layout engineers already use and changed only what speeds up the calculation work.
- 02
One calculation path
Four modes in the header repeat the order of work: build the model, view it in 3D, get the mesh, read the result.
- 03
The element list as the main navigator
Element type by icon and filter; search and sorting by name. A click in the list selects the object on the plan and in 3D.
- 04
Two themes
Dark — for long work with the model and high-contrast temperature fields, light — for the plan and print views.
Screens that move the work
3D model and temperature field
A building on piles above a ground section painted with the temperature field. On the left the scale “Temperature, °C” from +6 to −5. On top: views (isometric, front, left, top), camera (zoom in, zoom out, show all, orbit) and display layers — ground, °C field, building, piles, axes — each switched with a button. At the bottom a status bar: azimuth, tilt, scale and the active tool.
- Display layers switch independently
- The temperature scale always sits next to the scene
2D editor: the pile field plan
A building plan of 36.0 × 12.0 m in a calculation domain of 85 × 70 m: axes 1–12 and А–Г, 48 piles Ø0.64 m, entrances. The ribbon: engineering objects — pipelines; thermosyphons — vertical, inclined, free-form; geological structure — editor and boreholes; sections — manual and automatic. On the right the editing mode “Materials and BCs on SOU”, filters and a list of 13 elements.
- Tools grouped by task, not alphabetically
- Mouse hints live in the status bar
The light theme
The same plan in the light theme: contrasting axes, dimension lines and the captions “Entrance 1” and “Entrance 2”. For a plan and report screenshots the light background is handier; the theme switches from a button in the header.
Opening a project
The “Open project” dialog shows the projects folder and five recent files with dates: a residential building, a gas-pipeline valve node, a well pad, a road, a tank. File names describe the content — the engineer needn't open each one.
Working close up
Zoom 272%: axes, piles, entrance and dimension lines stay readable. Snapping and ortho are on in the status bar, with cursor coordinates next to them.
The outcome in numbers
- The engineer sees the model, the temperature field and the current calculation step without switching between programs.
- A familiar CAD layout lowers the entry barrier: there is nothing to relearn.
- The interactive prototype shows 2D, 3D and project opening and is ready to be tested with engineers.