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3 Tour of the interface

Every icon in the sidebar, one paragraph each. Skim once, come back when you need it.

3.1 The three panes

The Eddy window is split into three columns you can drag to resize:

  • Left sidebar — icon rail (the tools listed below) plus a context panel that changes with the icon you pick.
  • Centre workspace — the file editor, mesh preview, or wizard content. Whatever you're actively working on lives here.
  • Right Copilot panel — the AI chat that has full visibility of your case files. Collapsible with the toolbar toggle.

Along the bottom is a status bar that shows: OpenFOAM version, current case path, token usage this month, and connection state to the AI backend. A red or amber counter next to your email means you're approaching the monthly token limit.

Tip

Hover any icon in the rail to see what that tool does before you click it. The panel you are in is highlighted, so you can always tell where you are.

3.2 Project Navigator

Icon: waves · Purpose: browse and open OpenFOAM cases, solver directories, mesh files, and results.

This is your starting point. Point it at any folder containing system/, constant/, and a 0/ directory and Eddy recognises it as a case. From the tree you can:

  • Double-click any file to open it in the editor (dict files, .foam files, logs, STLs).
  • Right-click a .foam file → Open in ParaView (Eddy launches it with the case pre-loaded).
  • Right-click an STL/STEP → Open in FreeCAD for geometry inspection.
  • Drag any folder into the sidebar to add it as a workspace shortcut.

Note

The Navigator watches the file system in real time. Edits made outside Eddy (by ParaView, an external editor, or a solver run) show up in the tree within a second.

3.3 Case Builder

Icon: dashboard grid + C badge · Purpose: build an OpenFOAM case form-by-form without editing dict files by hand.

Nine solvers have a full Case Builder template: simpleFoam, porousSimpleFoam, pimpleFoam, pisoFoam, icoFoam, buoyantSimpleFoam, buoyantPimpleFoam, rhoSimpleFoam and rhoPimpleFoam. The dropdown lists the wider OpenFOAM family too, but anything without a template is marked not yet supported — pick one of the nine, or build that case by hand in the Project Navigator. For a supported solver the builder walks you through every dictionary it needs:

  • Physics — kinematic viscosity, transport model, and turbulence model.
  • Boundary conditions — per-patch dropdowns matched to what the solver actually accepts (no more digging through the header of every BC file).
  • Numerics — a sane fvSchemes and fvSolution preset for the chosen solver, editable per-term.
  • Runtime — start/end time, writeInterval, adjustable time-step controls.

Set Case name and Parent directory before you write — the write button stays disabled until both are filled in, which is the usual reason it looks like nothing happens. Eddy then writes each dictionary in turn and shows a live counter; if a file fails it stops and tells you which one, leaving the rest in place so you can retry. The finished case is loaded into the Navigator automatically, ready to run.

Tip

You don't have to touch the forms yourself. Ask Copilot — e.g. "set up a Boussinesq buoyant case for this geometry with air at 300 K" — and it drives the Case Builder for you, previewing every change before writing.

3.4 Solver Workshop

Icon: code brackets + S badge · Purpose: clone, edit, and compile OpenFOAM's C++ solvers when a built-in solver doesn't quite fit.

Use cases: adding a custom source term, modifying a turbulence model, wiring in a new transport equation, or just reading the solver source to understand it. Workshop gives you:

  • One-click clone of any solver in your OpenFOAM install into ~/IteraSim/solvers/.
  • Syntax-highlighted C++ editor with jump-to-definition across the solver's files.
  • Compile button that runs wmake and streams the log to a panel below the editor — errors are clickable and jump to the line.
  • Copilot integration: highlight code and ask "turn this into a compressible variant" or "add a Coriolis source term".

Note

The Workshop is a power-user tool. If you've never touched OpenFOAM C++ before, start with the Case Builder — 95% of simulations don't need custom solvers.

3.5 CFD Workflow Wizard

Icon: compass + W badge · Purpose: a guided step-by-step flow for setting up a full simulation from scratch, in the right order.

Where the Case Builder is form-driven and non-linear (jump to whichever tab you want), the Wizard is a linear pipeline that mirrors the real CFD workflow:

  • 1 Geometry — import STL/STEP, run checkMesh, or generate primitives.
  • 2 Mesh — pick blockMesh / snappyHexMesh / Gmsh and configure.
  • 3 Physics — pick solver and boundary conditions.
  • 4 Solve — run and monitor residuals.
  • 5 Post — hand off to ParaView with pre-loaded views.

Each step has a green check when it's ready and blocks you from advancing until the previous step is valid. Great for learning the workflow and for building repeatable case templates.

3.6 Compute Engine (HPC clusters)

Icon: CPU · Purpose: connect Eddy to a remote HPC cluster over SSH and run cases there instead of locally.

Once you add an SSH profile (host, user, private key or password, remote workspace path) you can:

  • Upload the current case to the cluster with one click — Eddy rsyncs only what changed.
  • Submit a Slurm or LSF job from a template — Eddy fills in the case path and MPI process count.
  • Watch the remote solver log stream back into the local console, live.
  • Rsync results back to your machine for post-processing when the job finishes.

Tip

For clusters that need MFA or a jump host, put the config in your ~/.ssh/config as you normally would — Eddy reads it and inherits the settings, including ProxyJump chains.

3.7 Cloud Storage

Icon: cloud + gear · Purpose: back up and share cases via cloud providers (S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, or your own SFTP/WebDAV).

Useful when you're collaborating with a colleague or moving between machines. Point it at a bucket and drag any case folder into the panel to sync. The panel also handles versioning — you can revert an entire case to how it was three commits ago without leaving Eddy.

Note

Cloud sync is optional. All local functionality (Case Builder, solver runs, ParaView handoff) works fully offline — you only need the internet for the AI copilot and, if you use it, cloud sync.

3.8 AI Extensions

Icon: lightning bolt · Purpose: configure which AI model powers Copilot and, on Free tier, plug in your own API keys.

On the Pro plan this panel is mostly informational — iteraSim provides managed access to Gemini 2.5 Pro and Claude Sonnet, routed automatically based on the type of question. You can override the default routing per-request if you want.

On the Free plan you bring your own key from one of:

  • Google Gemini (free 2.5 Flash tier is generous)
  • Anthropic Claude
  • OpenAI GPT
  • Local Ollama for fully-offline use (slower, quality varies by model)

Keys are encrypted at rest with your OS keyring (libsecret on Linux) — not stored in plaintext, not sent to any iteraSim server.

3.9 Copilot panel

Right side of the window · Purpose: the AI chat that reads your case files and can modify them safely.

The Copilot has full read access to whatever case you have open — it sees your controlDict, fvSchemes, boundary files, mesh statistics, and recent solver logs before answering. Ask questions in plain English:

  • "Why is my kOmegaSST diverging after 200 iterations?"
  • "Set up a Boussinesq-buoyant simulation for this geometry."
  • "Fix the boundary conditions so the outlet doesn't back-flow."
  • "Explain what relaxationFactors under 0.3 means for my convergence."

When Copilot suggests a change to a dict file, you get a Preview change button that shows a red/green diff of the exact lines that will be modified. Nothing is written to disk until you approve it. Approved changes are also recorded in a per-case history so you can revert.

Tip

The status bar shows how many tokens you've used this month. Free-tier users see the counter turn amber near 40k tokens and red at 50k. Upgrade to Pro (section 5) for a 100× monthly quota.

3.10 Editor + mesh preview

The centre workspace hosts two things depending on what you're doing:

  • Editor — syntax-highlighted view of any dict/text/STL/log file you open from the Navigator. Auto-saves on blur. Detects when the file changes on disk (e.g. from a solver run) and offers to reload.
  • Preview3D — a lightweight WebGL viewer for meshes and geometry. Rotate with left-drag, pan with right-drag, zoom with the scroll wheel. This is a sanity check, not a post-processing tool — for full contour plots, streamlines, and slicing hand the case to ParaView using the toolbar button.

Note

The Preview3D deliberately doesn't render huge meshes fully — opening a 50-million-cell mesh here would freeze the app. ParaView is the right tool for anything above ~1 million cells.

3.11 Appearance & preferences

Bottom-left of the sidebar, palette icon. Change zoom level, text size, theme (dark / light), font family, and the accent colour. All of these persist across sessions and apply immediately — no restart needed.