3D temperature mapping placement planner

How the calculation works

1. 01Positions are spaced evenly along each axis between the clearances you set, so a grid of three by two across two levels puts loggers where you would actually hang them rather than hard against the walls.
2. 02The drawing is an orthographic projection you can turn with a drag, the arrow keys or the view buttons, with each sampled height shown as its own plane so a layout that samples one level only looks like what it is. Orthographic rather than perspective, because two loggers the same distance apart should look the same distance apart wherever they sit in the room.
3. 03The furthest-point figure is the largest distance from anywhere in the room to its nearest logger, sampled on a fine lattice. It is reported as approximate because it is sampled rather than solved exactly.
4. 04Observations about the layout are derived from the geometry alone — whether a level is unsampled, whether spacing is lopsided, whether loggers sit against a wall — and are phrased as descriptions of what the grid covers, never as requirements.

Limitations

• This tool does not tell you how many loggers your room needs or where they must go. Those numbers come from documents such as WHO TRS 961 Annex 9 and the EU GDP guidelines, which are not public domain and are not part of this system's evidence base, so any count stated here would be an invented figure in a document you have to sign.
• A geometric grid is a starting point, not a survey. The positions that matter most are usually the ones geometry does not find: inside the door, in the discharge from the cooling unit, the top of the highest rack, the dead corner behind a stack.
• It models an empty rectangular box. Racking, stock and the airflow they create are what make real rooms interesting, and a layout planned on an empty box describes an empty box.
• Nothing here is a protocol. The position table it exports is one input to a mapping protocol that also needs acceptance criteria, duration, sampling interval, logger calibration status and a rationale for every position you chose by judgement rather than by grid.

Frequently asked questions

How many data loggers do I need for temperature mapping?

This tool will not answer that, and it is worth being suspicious of a free tool that does. The expectations come from documents such as WHO TRS 961 Annex 9 and the national implementations of the EU GDP guidelines, which are not public-domain texts and are not in this system's evidence base — a number produced here would be an invention with a plausible interface around it, ending up in a protocol somebody has to defend. Work from the standard that actually applies to you, your own risk assessment, and the size and complexity of the space. What this tool does is show you what any layout you are considering actually covers.

Where should temperature loggers be placed in a cold room?

The honest general answer is: wherever the extremes are, plus enough regular positions to show how the space behaves between them. Geometry finds the regular positions, which is what this tool draws. It cannot find the extremes, because they depend on the door, the cooling unit, the racking, the sun on an outside wall and how the room is actually loaded. A defensible layout is a grid plus deliberate positions at every place you already suspect, with the reason for each written down.

Can I rotate the 3D view?

Yes — drag the drawing to turn the room and tilt the camera, or use the arrow keys once it has focus, or jump straight to a corner, front, side or plan view with the buttons above it. There is also a slow automatic rotation if you would rather watch than steer. It is drawn with plain vector graphics rather than a 3D engine, so it costs nothing to load and works on a laptop with no graphics card to spare, which is usually what is to hand on a warehouse floor.

Why does vertical placement matter more than horizontal?

Warm air rises, so in most tall spaces the largest temperature differences are between floor and ceiling rather than end to end. A layout that samples one height can look thorough on a floor plan and still miss the effect that mattered. That is why this tool draws each sampled level as its own plane and says plainly when a layout has only one.

What should the position table contain?

Enough for somebody else to put the loggers back exactly where they were: a label, coordinates measured from a stated corner, the height above the floor, and the serial number of the logger that went there with its calibration status. Recording positions before the study rather than afterwards is what makes them evidence instead of recollection, and the position table is one of the few parts of a mapping study an auditor can check directly.

Do I need to map the room loaded as well as empty?

If that is how it runs, yes — stock changes the airflow, and empty and loaded rooms can behave quite differently. Many qualification programmes map empty first to characterise the space itself, then loaded to show it still holds with the racking full. Which you need is a risk decision for your protocol, and the same layout can be used for both so the two studies are comparable.

Can I use this layout in a qualification protocol?

The position table, yes — that is what it is for, and it exports as a CSV you can paste in. The layout itself is your decision and needs your rationale attached, because a grid on its own does not explain why those positions and not others. Nothing this tool prints constitutes a recommendation, an acceptance criterion or a compliance statement.