The mining industry has progressed significantly from ancient times by the artificial mining stage where people manually carried out mining activities with the help of simple digging and drafting tools to the current dynamites that we envision when we think about mining. Thanks to the development of IoT, Industry 4.0, 5G, AI technology, Smart Mining is now the new stage of mining industry.

What exactly is Smart Mining?

All equipment and machines that are physically present at the mining site are digitised and connected to a single digital system, allowing seamless data integration between all the individual equipment. Examples of such data include workflow progress, location, mining equipment condition, geological data about the locations and whereabouts in depth of ore.

Along with the above-mentioned technology, visualization is the last but not least aspect of the digital system — the smart ‘brain’ of the mining management. **Hightopo **is a leading solution provider of data visualization, user interface, graphics and image processing in the market, special focuses on 2D & 3D data visualization. Hightopo product HT for Web is a data visualization graphic component middleware based on HTML5 standard browser technology special made for the industrial monitoring field.

In this article, we will explore how HT for Web (HT for short) helps Smart Mining.

Workflow Progress

Open-pit Mine Visualization

The data on the mining range, mining depth, mining volume, and ore consumption of open-pit mines is the top priority of mine work progress monitoring. Visualizing those data in a timely and accurate manner is necessary for mine management. HT comes with rich data presence format, such as charts, tables, interactive data-driven icons to help managers get an insight into the mining site and greatly increase work efficiency.

Underground Tunnel Visualization

HT powerful 3d rendering capability ensures the smooth loading and interaction of the 3d model even on the web. First-person mode roaming bring an immersive experience on monitoring tunnel environment and area. HT visualization is also VR supported, therefore, this 3d model can be viewed on VR devices and provide a safety training for underground workers.

The walkthrough feature also supports rewind and fast forward, and change view. Helping operators to get views at different angles, get insight on equipment distribution.

Worker Location

In order to ensure the safety supervision of the coal mining process, the CAD drawings can be imported into the HT platform, connected to the background data and synchronized and dynamically updated according to the position coordinates of the operators. When the warning signal is triggered, the system can immediately notify the nearby staff to evacuate to a safe area and reduce the tragedy of the mining accident. Keep tracking mineworkers’ safety in real-time.

Mining Equipment Condition

As a graphic component library based on the HTML5 standard, HT can seamlessly integrate various multimedia functions and support the integration of various video resources to form a unified video stream. It can mark camera objects on 2D and 3D situation maps and associate their video signal sources. Scene interaction is used to retrieve the corresponding surveillance video to meet the monitoring needs of operation and maintenance personnel for real-time situational awareness of the scene, historical data retrospective comparison, and emergency response plans.

Ventilation System

3D visualization brings a vivid presentation of the device/equipment. Compare to traditional diagram data, HT visualization makes the content more readable and controllable. Sync data from sensors and display it on the data panels in real-time and historical trends. Binding the data to 3d models using HT APIs enable the various kind of animation. As the management platform, operators are able to based on current state of equipments to adjust the ventilation volume, fan status to optimize the efficiency of underground work.

Belt Conveyor System

HT visualization solution covers 2d and 3d, what makes HT stand out is its 2d and 3d integrated feature. As the image shown above, the 2d icon, chart, table, etc can be seamless work on 3d scene.

Drainage System

In the past, the control lines of manual inspection were disorderly, lack of interaction and cooperation, and on-site maintenance costs remained high. With the help of HT 3D visual drainage monitoring module, real-time dynamic data of high-level pools, downhole sumps and pumps are displayed intuitively. Synchronously collect multiple information such as temperature, current, pressure, and flow rate of drainage equipment, and create multi-parameter real-time online management and control.

Lighting System

Web-based HMI/SCADA solution for the easy creation and deployment of highly customizable and fully interactive topology diagrams, dashboards and charts.

This allows operators to improve situational awareness, the mobility of visualization anytime and anywhere, and important equipment control, which provides form a centralized view of operations.

Spatial & Geological Data (HT GIS)

HT also provides solutions for displaying the minefield in combination with GIS maps. Our new product — HT for Web GIS combine HT powerful visualization and graphic rendering technology, to GIS application such as Mapbox, Cesium. Seamless integrate drone aerial photography to HT’s original 3D model and scenes to solve the huge workload of traditional manually modelling.

High-precision real-time monitoring of information such as environmental situation, excavation and mining progress, equipment operation, working condition status, etc., gives data spatial attributes and visualizes complex factors. Form a set of insightful reference data to provide strong decision support for mining operation supervision.

Conclusion

Hightopo visualization solution enables mining site managers to keep track of mining asset conditions, supervise workflow efficiently and keep track of mineworkers’ safety in real-time. These managers and business owners are thus guaranteed to make better-informed decisions at any given time with all the data and information available as insights and information required will be integrated into a single dashboard supported on tablets and monitors. Due to the lightweight and B/S structure of HT, information can be accessed by mine managers and employees anywhere anytime.

Smart mining is not a distant future anymore. Mining industry business owners should follow suit to this change and reap its benefits by using digital transformation. It is the next step for business owners to consider and sharpen their competitive advantage.

From 1885, since the first modern turbine first turned on its wheels, the world has seen new light. Even today, over 50% of the world’s energy is generated by conventional thermal power plants. But now, we are at the threshold of change. Experiencing headwinds from customers, regulatory authorities, and competition from unexpected sources. The Paris Agreement has thrown light on polluting emissions that need to go down. And maintain costs need to be controlled. Workforce is ageing, taking away their years of experience, and there is a need to capture their tacit knowledge.

As the reins of power, move from old to new. It's time to go digital! It’s time for fossil-based thermal plants to embrace flexibility, reliability & higher efficiency ways of operation and maintenance. Hightopo brings the powerful web 3d visualization technology into the energy industry, helping thermal plants making smooth sailing of digital transformation journey.

Web Lightweight 3D Model

HT supports multiple formates of model rendering, adopts lightweight 3D modelling technology, photorealistic rendering, presents a high-precision simulation of the thermal power plant. Interactive 3D scenes can be zoomed, panned, and rotated, and each model can respond to interactive events.

HT also supports importing BIM model files in IFC format to generate scenes, Furthermore, oblique photography model files in 3D Tiles format is also supported.

Hightopo 3D visualization technology adopts B/S architecture. Users can access the 3D visualization system anytime and anywhere through PC, Tablet or smartphone from a modern browser. Built on the foundation of Digital Twin and powered by data-driven models, Hightopo delivers Flexibility, Reliability & higher efficiency.

Data Visualization & 3D Flythrough

The data panel on the left side indicates power plant information, includes plant information such as location, asset info, and the monthly cost, revenue, and profit analysis chart.

The right side panel shows real-time equipment operation data, production data, emission. Empower plant manager and operation staff to get accurate insight.

3d flythrough & walkthrough

Hightopo powerful 3d rendering enables the smooth 3d flythrough or walkthrough of the scenes. Empower users with an immersive experience to overview the thermal plant.

Positioning Tracking & Electronic fence

Ultra-wideband (UWB) is a short-range radio technology which is used for indoor/outdoor positioning. The object to be tracked (asset/person) is equipped with a small tag ( UWB Tag) that sends data (ID, ToF, timestamp) to the receiver. The receiver has a fixed position in the infrastructure and can use the running time of light to calculate the distance of the asset. Implement the UWB system to HT data visualization solution, real-time location of tracking worker can be shown on 3d scene, managers can monitor the location of workers and intuitively view data such as worker information, contact information, and action trajectory. Workers also can use the UWB Tag to send SOS signals when a dangerous situation is encountered, the information will be fed back to the alarm record of the security interface immediately, and the staff of the centralized control centre can respond as soon as they receive the call for help.

electronic fence

In a conventional fossil fuel power station, electronic fences generally appear in highly dangerous areas such as steam turbines, transformers, and booster stations; When an object venturing into these certain areas will trigger alerts to operation & management staff, who will then respond. Combine with Position Tracking technology, this feature will greatly ensure the safety of the staff.

Surveillance Video Integration & Video Fusion

Surveillance cameras located among the plant, the photorealistic 3d scene indicated these cameras with an eye-catching icon. The simple click interaction on the icon will then popup the real-time or historical surveillance footage. With a more advanced facial-recognition camera, the system is able to capture workers rule-breaking behaviour and log into system.

Compared with the traditional monitoring system, the interface of the 3D scene is more intuitive and simple, which is convenient for the monitoring staff to identify abnormal information and improve monitoring efficiency. Enable the capability of quickly locate cameras and better maintenance.

Power Generation Process

Fossil fuel power plants burn coal or oil to create heat which is in turn used to generate steam to drive turbines which generate electricity.

The burning of coal or oil heats giant boilers filled with water. This transforms liquid water into steam. The steam creates a lot of pressure in the boiler. The pressure rotates a steam turbine. This drives a generator to produce electricity. The rotation of the turbine drives a generator. It is the generator that produces electricity.

Generators are devices that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy. First, pressure from heated air makes a rotor turn. A rotor is a shaft found in the centre of the generator. The rotor connects to a coil of wire. The wire spins inside a fixed magnet around it called the stator. The magnetic field pushes electrons along the wire. This forms an electric current then goes to transmission lines.

Embrace the advanced Industry 4.0, IoT technology, with data source from equipment sensors and then fed back to HT data visualization tool, a smart power generation monitoring system can be formed. In-depth development and application of smart power generation control technology to enhance the comprehensive capabilities of power generation companies in smart management and control, smart operation, smart safety monitoring, smart analysis and remote diagnosis, and build a future-oriented innovative management and operation model for smart coal-fired power generation.

Conclusion

With the increasing share of renewables, power plants are forced to operate at part-load conditions. An ageing workforce, concerns over asset reliability and operational costs provide a prerogative to adopt Digital solutions in order to stay competitive. For conventional thermal power plants, this is an era in urgent need of digital transformation.

Hightopo — HT for web, brings cutting-edge data visualization to provide a comprehensive solution to optimize Operations & Maintenance in thermal power plants. Empower fossil fuel power plants for smooth sailing of digital transformation journey.

Hightopo seasoned with decades of experience in the energy industry, collaborated with various big-name companies, has become the first-tired of data visualization solution provider.

The traditional command center dashboard is usually to display data in the 2D chart, bar, and other visual monitoring based on Web SCADA front-end technology. However, with the help of digital twins, we can now achieve much more than that.

Hightopo is a digital twin company, specialized in 3d data visualization. In this example project, we modelling the real scene of a subway station, as detailed to each door, smoke detector, elevator, camera, etc. In this full simulation, it allows us to intuitively monitoring station situation in real-time!

In order to help users navigate the subway station more intuitively and friendly, 3 interactive modes are provided:

• First-person mode: this view is similar to the view of passengers, users can control moving forward and backward through the keyboard and mouse.
• Automatic roaming mode: in this mode, users do not need to have any operation, the scene automatically moves forward and backward to patrol the scene of the subway station.
• Mouse operation mode: the left mouse button rotates the scene, and the right button pans the scene.

Click the picture to preview scene

Cameras

When we click on the camera, real-time video footage will popup.

Elevators

data sent back from each elevator will trigger different animations.

Smoke Detector Alert

Digital twin received real-time data sent back from the physical smoke detector, it will async the status and show the alert effect on our digital twin model.

VR / Mobile / Tablet

Our digital twin solution is a lightweight web-based tech, which means our product can merge into our clients’ website or system with no limitation. And it’s cross-platform supported, mobile devices, tablets, even VR devices.

Hightopo — Everything you need to create a cutting-edge 2d&3d visualization

As the feature mentioned above, digital twin can achieve so much more than the traditional ways can do. With our technology and experience, we can help your organization do the digital transformation as smooth as possible.

Digital twin solution for smart park

What is a digital twin? It’s a virtual replica/representation (generally 3d-model) of physical devices, process, system, or service. It could be buildings, factories, and even cities.

Digital Twin Example:

• Compressors
• Turbines
• Data Center
• Heat exchangers
• Water usage
• Blowdown systems
• Gas lift systems

Before the introduction of this concept, manufacturing companies used to create virtual models using CAD tools followed by converting this virtual model into an actual physical object. Then, they just discard or archive the virtual object. With the digital twin concept, that virtual model is no longer discarded, rather, it is connected to the physical object so that we can collect real-time data sourced from those smart sensors through physical objects. Data about object status, working condition, or position being integrated with a physical item, etc. All this data is sent back to the digital twin and their interaction can help optimize the product’s performance.

industry simulation

For instance, sensors might detect when a car’s engine oil needs changing and the car’s digital twin will have an overlay image indicating the new information, which can appear on the owner’s device or the manufacturer’s system. Therefore, using this real-time data enables us to understand, learn, reason, and real-time optimization.

Digital Twin Benefits:

• Proactive optimization
• Monitor real-time data
• Increase production
• Avoid downtime
• Increase efficiencies
• Take informed action
• Reduce costs
• Optimize maintenance schedules/start-ups

Real-time data monitoring

So how Hightopo came in to help you with the digital transformation?

• We design the 3d model for your property
• Collect/analyze data and blinding into our model
• Integrate it into your own system

One of the most common uses for digital twins is the dashboards.

Hightopo provides anything from basic to advanced intelligent dashboards, the exceptional value of our solutions are in the engineering subject matter detail and embedded IT expertise. Our web-based solution allows the capability of merging into whatever our client’s preferred system is. As the feature to be light-weight, easy-to-use, cross-platform, fully-interactive, our digital twin solutions are most ideal for small-medium factories, industry organizations.

3d model — engine

What makes us special and what benefits you would gain?

• Make the invisible visible — demystifies information that was previously in a ‘black box’ now can be visualized in a most straightforward way.
• Powerful — gives the client the crucial information needed to make informed proactive operational decisions.
• Improves — increases production, saves on downtime, reduces inefficient operations. Enables optimization.

You may be hearing the term “digital twin” quite a bit recently, as a concept first introduced back to 2002, digital twins now already have much wider usage thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT) has started to become more and more normal. (In case you are not familiar with ‘digital twins’, here is our article regarding the intro of Digital Twin)

Today, let’s focus on a digital twin solution for the wind power industry — simulation of wind turbines.

For the wind industry, a digital twin’s value lies in using the data to understand the health condition of a wind turbine or a full fleet. The data provides valuable insight into when turbine maintenance is anticipated so operators can plan operations and maintenance well in advance.

Now let’s think about wind turbines. What kind of “behaviour” do they have and how to monitor it? Generally speaking, wind turbines’ behaviours are very hard to predict, due to the highly variable and quickly changing nature of the wind itself. The good news is that today we can improve it by using Digital Twins.

The Digital Twin receives data from the wind turbine’s sensors and simulates the behaviour in real time, offering insights into current health status, future failures and also detects underperformance. The wind farm operator will be notified in advance about any occurring problems.

As the dashboard view shown above, we analyse the data and put data in various formats for a better monitoring. On the top left, we put environment data such as weather, wind speed, component information, temperature to a barchart. And the barchart changes smoothly based on the real time data. Through the constant collection of this data, our digital twin model now turns data into actionable insights.

Click the picture to check full video

On the left bottom, the system showcases the turbines status based on real-time data sent back from sensors. Highlight the errors and also trigger the alert animation so that wind farm operators can visualize and analyze the assets. The result allows for advanced wind performance and predictive maintenance capabilities.

With the help of our solution, we can help increase revenue, reduce costs, and lower risk. Digital Twins of wind turbines allow us reducing maintenance costs by:

· Reducing the number of visits to the wind farm;

· Fixing broken parts instead of buying new ones;

· Providing a root cause analysis on component level (when, how, where and why it will fail).

By creating Digital Twins on wind farms, the performance of clean energy assets will enhance, making renewables more affordable and help the world in moving towards a Greener Economy.

If you are interested in more digital twin solutions, please visit Hightopo website for some inspirations.

What is a Containerized Data Center?

A containerized data center is a shipping container that is set up to accommodate IT equipment. The container may be configured to accommodate some combination of servers, storage devices, networking gear, uninterruptible power supplies, generators and cooling equipment.

There are many advantages to using containerized data centers for all or part of your data center needs: free up space, designed to be energy efficient, rapid deployment.

In the meantime, there are some possible deployment challenges that may occur. For instance, a thorough understanding of what you get, finding the right location, also the appropriate power, cooling, and IT infrastructure.

Hightopo 3D visualization solution

For this reason, Hightopo brought up a 3D visualization solution to completely simulate the overall picture of the data center, and further archive the goal of centralized deployment and management of many subsystems.

Data visualization

On the right-hand of the dashboard, you can check the overview of the containerized data center, such as capacity statistics, asset statistics, pipeline statistics, alarm statistics, etc. An overall view of the containerized data center structural layout, as well as equipment information such as cabinets, servers, air conditioners, generators, power distribution cabinets, and UPS, etc.

Individual Cabinet Visualization

Each cabinet is clickable and we can visualize/monitoring each cabinet’s information remotely. The real-time data and historical data allows operators to be more proactive as he can get a view of what’s coming and be more prepared on what to do about it.

Pipeline Visualization

Pipeline indicated power flow, this can effectively sort out the electrical pipeline and network lines, allowing operators to be more intuitively understand the big structure of the pipeline and quickly troubleshoot issues to reduce downtime.

Temperature & Humidity Visualization

It’s essential to maintain and control ideal environmental conditions, with precise humidity and temperature measurement to increase energy efficiency whilst reducing energy costs in Data Centers. Hightopo provides a fully 3D thermal map that indicates the temperature and humidity intuitively. Once the environment changed to a certain level, it will alert the operators and allows operations to quickly located the overheated machine.

Hightopo is a company specialized in 2d & 3d visualization, we developed a powerful web-based 2D and 3D rendering engine which provides rich display effects for data visualization.

Click the picture to check full video

A tunnel boring machine (TBM), also known as a “mole”, is a machine used to excavate tunnels with a circular cross-section through a variety of soil and rock strata.

How It Works

The first part of the TBM work is the tunneling phase. The TBM has a cutting wheel which is pressed against the tunnel face by hydraulic cylinders. Inside the cutting wheel, the disc cutters and scraping tool loosen the material.

If the earth is unstable and to stop the tunnel face collapsing or digging too fast, the TBM uses the soil that has already been dug out by the cutting wheel to support the tunnel face. This creates a stable environment for the tunneling to move forward.

The tunneling face is continuously monitored by pressure sensors. They check the turning power of the cutting wheel and the screw conveyor and they also keep track of the material that has been excavated.

The material is then taken away on conveyor belts.

Once the tunneling phase is done the cutting face and the screw conveyor are stopped and the ring building phase starts.

A complete tunnel ring consists of several linning segments made of pre-build reinforced concrete. They must match the exact size required and are taken into the tunnel on flatbed rail.

The concrete segments are fed by the concrete feeder and lifted into place using a vacuum. The hydraulic cylinders are temporarily retracted in order to provide enough space for the new segment. The segments are positioned with millimeter precision and held in place by cylinders before being finally bolted into position. The conical keystone is put in from the front to complete the lining ring.

During all this work, people and the machines are protected by the shield skin from the saturated ground, where water is under pressure.

All the readings are displayed and fed back to the machine operator.

Combined with real-time monitoring of HT's data visualization panel, various data indicators of the construction process are displayed in real-time. Intelligent analysis and collection of back-end data truly reflect the real-time dynamics of each module, allowing managers to understand the situation of each section and perform quick maintenance and management.

Why Hightopo Visualization?

Traditional construction often uses BIM models, but the BIM modeling often too large in terms of data size and the model itself is not beautiful enough.

Our visualization solution not only improves the work efficiency of the construction site but also monitors the progress of the project in real-time.

In this case study, we compared the traditional modeling and Hightopo’s light-weight visualization solution. Hightopo’s web-based 3D visualization has a more flexible and vivid effect. And this will enable customers to understand quickly how the product work and the product advantage so that to gain an actionable insight.

The light-weight web-based solution requires no plugins or downloads, it just works seamlessly on any modern browser & device.

How We Can Help You

Hightopo specializes in physical simulation, industrial simulation, data visualization. Providing clients the one-stop data visualization solution from consulting, design, development to post-sales support.

We are a dedicated team devoted to web-based 2d & 3d computer graphics technology, with more than 10 years of proven industry experience, we are committed to bringing our visualization solution to the world.

Check our website for more industry visualization inspiration and explore new possibilities with us!

*District heating (also known as heat networks or teleheating) is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location through a system of insulated pipes for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating.*

*Click the picture to check full video*

The most popular heating system is individual gas boiler. However this is not the most efficient method. District heating is the concept of one large central boiler instead of many individual boilers. And this is usually so-called energy center. There are many heat source for the energy center such as gas combined heat and power energy from waste or renewable energy sources like heat pumps biomass and anaerobic digestion.

Hightopo visualization solution simulates the whole city layout and utilizes the 3d model and 3d animation to indicate the pipeline. The hot water travels through an underground insulated pipe network to heat interface units located in each building.

How it works

The heat is often obtained from a cogeneration plant burning fossil fuels or biomass. District heating replaces individual boilers, it uses less energy, costs less, is environment-friendlier and makes cities more pleasant places.

Inside the cogeneration plant, there usually be a control room, in here heat production and distribution are monitored and controlled around the clock. With the real-time data, hightopo empower the plant operators to get an actionable insight.

The heat travels, as hot water or steam, through an underground pipe system. This is the primary circuit. then it reaches substations in apartment buildings, office blocks, public buildings and sometimes industrial districts or shopping centers. Substations are dotted around the network.

The heat pump suppliers energy for district heating and cooling by capturing waste heat from treated wastewater. The district heating water running in the distribution network reaches the customers at 70–115 degrees and returns to be heated once it has cooled down. The hot water reserve is used to balance out peak demand for example in the mornings. this eliminates the need to startup oil-powered heating substations for moments where it needs.

Each substation has a heat exchanger that transfers the heat from the primary circuit to the secondary circuits in buildings. Inside, they split into heating circuits and hot water circuits. The heat then warms up the building, through underfloor systems and radiators for instance, and other appliances.

The network is continuously being extended and serviced. The old sections of the network are repaired following a maintenance plan. We highlighted the area that one heat exchanger can cover. So that once one place is down we have an intuitive view of which exchanger should go for maintenance and service.

Why Hightopo Visualization Solution

Hightopo developed a powerful web-based 2D and 3D rendering engine which provides rich display effects for data visualization. With this, we provide our client a light-weight, cross-platform, responsive, fully-interactive digital twin solution. Empower our clients to turn real-time data into insights for better, faster decision-making. As the nature of web-based feature, there’s no need for plugins or downloads, it just works seamlessly on any modern browser & device.

smart heating system deep integrated network, information, and intelligent digital technology and heating facilities. Aiming for energy saving, consumption reduction, and cost effective, tailored made for heating companies.

It achieves monitoring of the entire heating system from the pipe network to the indiviual end-user; improves process & operation management efficieny; enable remote monitoring and unattended operation. Monitoring facilities status and exponentially increasing efficiencies over time, unlocking additional value from existing assets, dramatically lowering maintenance and operating costs using physics and analytics to eliminate unplanned downtime.

With the lowest cost and highest efficiency, Hightopo meets clients needs for greatest extent, promotes the efficiency and conservation of energy use, and achieves the goal of heating energy saving to the greatest extent.

As a common fuel, natural gas is closely related to our lives, and for the storage and transmission of this fuel, there are strict requirements for natural gas supply stations. Gas companies generally design supply stations as unattended stations, however, the safety management of supply stations is often particularly important in the process of operation and management. When an accident occurs, the early warning and response plans become an indispensable part.

Hightopo comes up with an extraordinary simulation solution for natural gas power plants, utilizing the innovative 2D/3D visualization modeling technology, digital twin 3D visualization system, to provide a set of solutions integrating display, monitoring, early warning, and pre-planning. Enabling the gas industry towards the direction of informatization, visualization, and environmental sustainability.

Modeling natural gas plants in a realistic style, the web-based feature makes our digital twin solution accessible in all modern devices, PC, Mobile, Touch Screen, etc.

The robot will travel along a special route and auto inspect each device, display detailed information or alert message.

Visualizing site layout, structure, operation status. When a facility or equipment breaks down, it will change to a red warning style, which visually reminds the operation staff to take corresponding measures.

Connect to the surveillance video source, it supports viewing real-time footage of the factory area and provides timely and effective information for operation and management.

It’s very dangerous for a natural gas power plant with a large storage capacity, therefore, it requires a comprehensive fire control system. Simulating on-site firefighting rescue plan with 3D scene & animation provides reliable and effective information for operation & management staff.

Lightweight modeling, yet BIM supported

Traditional modeling file — BIM, offers a digital representation of the real facility, including function systems (HVAC, electrical) and aesthetics (walls, roof, windows). Generally speaking, BIM files are very heavy in size, from a hundred MB to a few GB. This is almost impossible for the Web where all display content is loaded in real-time.

Hightopo's visualization uses lightweight modeling to build scene effects. The model effects are mainly presented with textures to ensure efficient loading and smooth operation on web pages. We also support import IFC format BIM files and optimize the file to reduce the size and create a 1:1 high detailed modeling visualization scene.

As data center complexity continues to increase, Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions must become essential tools in the IT stack. With the right tool, you can reduce costs, increase productivity, optimize your physical space, and improve system integration.

In this article, we introduce Hightopo 3D visualization tool to build a comprehensive 3D data center management system that brings together various IT and facilities systems, including generators and servers, to perform power usage effectiveness reporting, data center visualization, dashboard reporting, and, ultimately, control to improve the data center’s performance and efficiency.

From macro to micro

Utilizing 3D virtual simulation to show eath panorama. This can be easily archived by the HT (ht-for-web, hightopo 3d visualization SDK) build-in spherical mesh applying earth surface texture. And by accessing the latitude and longitude information of each data center location, the position of the coordinate point can be automatically generated, so that we can see each location in all parts of the world more intuitively.

Even though HT supports GIS by integrated the opensource Cesuim solution(check the FAQs session at the end of this article), it’s unnecessary to use WebGIS related functional modules in this certain scenario, as to using simple trigonometric functions to perform spherical coordinate algorithm calculations to achieve the desired effect. In contrast, this simple solution will be much lighter and faster, and it does not even require the intervention of modeling, which will greatly reduce the implementation cost and cycle.

Although it can’t dynamically load the map details through LOD(Level of Details), the scene interaction design can also display various visual effects more freely. For example, in this demo, we switching scenes from the earth to region, to building, to the data center, then to the cabinet by clicking highlight elements.

Dashboard Reporting/ PUE reporting

DCIM visualization solution integrated data center information such as numbers of cabinets, area of the data center, numbers of AC, PUE(Power Usage Effectiveness), CADE (Corporate Average Datacenter Efficiency), energy consumption rate etc, and display the data on the dashboard on real-time, average, and peak power use. This helps decision-makers to observe various objects to the greatest extent and get an actionable insight faster, better.

Also, as a monitoring system, early-warming and alert is a must. Set up the EDI direct connection between data center sensors and our visualization dashboard, all the alert information will be display on the dashboard in real-time. Setting the threshold, when the data value triggers the alert, decision-makers will get a notification immediately.

IT Assets Management & Visualization

Assets visualization module follows the level of interactive, display each asset status. Integrated lifecycle management functionality, maintain an accurate inventory of data center assets and real-time views across your entire data center, including equipment in racks like servers, storage, networking equipment, rack PDUs, patch panels and even applications. Get the latest and detailed information on assets, for instance, make, model, serial number, name, rack location, RU position, configuration, data ports, connectors, protocols, data rates, power connectors, voltage, watts, amps, purchase price, purchase date, installation date, warranty period, maintenance dates, asset status and more.

Furthermore, Fuzzy Search /Approximate String Matching is supported, quickly locating desire assets and get detailed info.

Capacity Management & Optimization

One of the most important things you need to keep tabs on in your data center is whether it’s reaching capacity. Essentially, visualizing manage network and device resources, power load, cooling capacity, and storage in various charts or tables to get a better insight.

It helps managers decide where to put additional servers and other IT equipment in terms of optimum operational efficiency from a power and cooling perspective. Also, it helps reduce downtime by analyzing the data center infrastructure and using simulations to highlight areas suffering from a lack of redundancy or capacity constraints.

Ultimately, combine with a surveillance system, allows the integration of PDU(Power Distribution Unit) monitoring. Empower DevOps to check capacity and energy consumption based on different areas. For instance, check and statistics based on each floor, each room, each cabinet for an institutive insight.

Pipeline Lightweight Visualization

Pipeline visualization usually focuses on network links, HVAC pipelines, electrical wiring. However, most of the pipeline is underneath the ground or hiding inside the wall, which makes it hard to do traditional 3D modeling. On the other hand, in the operation aspect, there is no need for a real position of the pipeline, we are more interested in the monitoring and alert.

Therefore, Hightopo brings a special pipeline visualization algorithm to generate pipelines that link from one equipment to another. Integrate with real data sourced from the control system, visualize and monitor network interface, HVAC pipelines (water-cooled air conditioners, water towers, chillers, cooling pumps, constant humidity machines), electrical pipelines (transformers, distribution boxes, battery packs, battery cabinets, switch cabinet, control cabinet) and other pipelines.

Environmental Monitoring

In a data center, there are many pieces of hardware and equipment that make up the moving parts necessary to protect critical information. It’s crucial to ensure that a colocation facility is committed to keeping track of all environmental variables for each piece of equipment. This helps the facility’s technical team remain aware of issues requiring corrective action, and enables them to enact the preventative measures necessary to avoid these issues in the future. Proper utilization of these environmental monitoring tools will allow the data center provider to see which system is using which resources, in turn positioning the facility for optimal use.

• Power & Voltage Monitor types of equipment info such as the input and output voltage, electric current, power, battery voltage, status of rectifier, inverter, battery and other components. Record and alarm when the abnormal status occurs.
• Temperature & Humidity Connecting to the data center IOT device( temperature & humidity sensors) to get the point-to-point data and display them in 3d heatmap. Many data centers these days installed sensors along with high, medium, low vertically. Utilizing the 3D thermal cloud map brings a more intuitive visual experience and quickly locates the heating conditions of the equipment on each cabinet.

• Airflow Proper airflow within the data center is closely tied to the facility’s air conditioning system. Maintaining airflow will work in conjunction with temperature and humidity control, acting as a third regulator for consistency. According to the data transmitted by the temperature and humidity sensor, a real-time airflow map — CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) is formed, so that the flow direction and distribution of cold and hot airflow in the computer room can be clearly seen.

• Security Management (Smoke & Fire Suppression, Access Control) Smoke and fire alarms are wired into the alert system so that in the event of a fire, the alarm will alert the technical team in order to tend to the facility’s critical equipment as soon as possible. Access Control is another crucial part of security management. Integrated with video surveillance and access control system, allows visualizing all the surveillance cameras and access control location, view the real-time camera footage, get historical information about staff enter and exit. HT visualization tool extends from vanilla HTML5, which can only support MP4, OGG format of video. However, steaming RTSP can be achieved by converting RTSP to HLS. Furthermore, the access control system supports facial recognition and records the unauthorized person. Emerging video fusion technology (using texture + algorithm to process irregular shapes, video correction, color correction) to achieve the effect of virtual and real scene combine together.

• Energy Consumption Monitoring Adopt a visual energy-saving strategy, use the intelligent algorithm provided by the Hightopo, calculate the current equipment and environment temperature, and automatically recommend power for each cooling equipment. Optimize the airflow of air conditioning in the data center to reducing energy consumption and to effectively cooling.

• Early Warning A comprehensive warning and alarm system is integrated. Including event self-diagnosis, analysis, and other functions. For events that exceed the performance threshold, it will show the warning information and notify the DevOps team. Saving historical information and alarm events also supported .

Conclusion

Hightopo DCIM tool ties together data from the IT side — virtual machine, server, storage or network equipment — and data from the facilities side — cooling, power distribution unit, uninterruptible power supply, sensors, or generators into an overarching monitoring and analytics environment that lets them make better decisions, optimize the use of their capital spending and increase the overall efficiency-related not only to power but also to capacity, utilization, and operational aspects.

Furthermore, Hightopo DCIM tool is also a good fit for edge data centers, which likely have few or no IT staff on-site. No software is required at edge sites, and they can be monitored remotely — from any device that supports a web browser.

FAQs

How to make a 3d model like this?

We recommend clients provide satellite images, design sketches, aerial views of the property, CAD drawings, on-site photos, etc to designers for modeling.

I already have BIM(Building Information Modelling), can we use that for web display?

BIM, offers a digital representation of the real facility, not only the basic shape of the building but also including function systems (HVAC, electrical) and aesthetics (walls, roof, windows). Therefore, BIM files are very heavy in size, from a hundred MB to a few GB. This is almost impossible for the web where all display content is loaded in real-time.

Although HT encapsulates ht-bim.js to read the IFC format BIM file and dynamically load part of the model and then rendering on the web in real-time for a faster display, in real-world projects, we still need to consider various facts to analyze whether to use bim or not. For instance, visualize underneath pipeline which is impossible to re-modeling and has to use the bim. But for most cases, we do not suggest use bim as it’s mainly for construction purposes and does not look appealing. Re-modeling the property and minimum file size by using texture to present details ensures efficient loading and smooth operation on web pages.