  In nuclear thermodynamics, the determination of the excitation energy of hot
nuclei is a fundamental experimental problem. Instrumental physicists have been
trying to solve this problem for several years by building the most exhaustive
4Pi detector arrays and perfecting their calorimetry techniques. In a recent
paper, a proposal for a new calorimetry, called "3D calorimetry", was made. It
tries to optimize the separation between the particles and fragments emitted by
the Quasi-Projectile and the other possible contributions. This can be achieved
by determining the experimental probability for a given nucleus of a nuclear
reaction to be emitted by the Quasi-Projectile. It has been developed for the
INDRA data. In the present work, we wanted to dissect and validate this new
method of characterization of a hot Quasi-Projectile. So we tried to understand
and control it completely to determine these limits. Using the HIPSE event
generator and a software simulating the functioning of INDRA, we were able to
achieve this goal and provide a quantitative estimation of the quality of the
QP characterization.
