Looking for Optical Simulation Software

Do you mean freeware? check OSLO (edu version) @ www.lamdares.com

OSLO Edu is the freeware version of OSLO Pro. It has limited functionality but is still quite effective and a good choice.

Zemax is another ray tracing program worth considering.

Unless you have a lot of optical surfaces to deal with, OSLO Edu is likely your best bet.

L.J.

Hi..

I know one software which will useful for you.To see it please visit this link.

http://optifocus.co.uk/Contactus.aspx

This is one of the best optician software as per your requirement.Good luck

I hope you will satisfied with my information.

Edmund Optics sells an optical simulator called Olive.

I had a look at Zemax and Oslo, but they're too number based. Not being and optics professional and not needing to deal with issues like complex surface types etc, they're slightly more technical than I'm after.

Olive seems pretty good, but the demo version doesn't let you do much with custom lens and mirror types, so it's hard to tell if the software is worth buying.

I've been granted a demo version of Fred, which looks quite good. Having a play with that now. I especially like that I can import surfaces from Rhino3D. Nice if you could drag things around rather than translate numerically, but I'll live.

I design fixtures for optical systems for a variety of applications. This puts me into contact with some skilled opticians. If you expect to have any success ray tracing a design, you will likely have to get comfortable with numbers.

Every optical system I work with has side effects beyond it's light path. You can't tell what they will be unless you define the optical components mathematically. I hate math too but unless you resign yourself to that learning curve, you risk frustrating your efforts.

L.J.

One of the things Olive does (I believe) is it lets you input Edmund Optics lens part numbers from their catalog. This way, you can check out the characteristics of a lens or mirror in the catalog, then add it automatically to your ray-tracing configuration.

Kind of handy.

U can go for OSLO or ZEMAX ot Tracepro. this are the low cost software for optics design. you can contact this email for this software. he is the teach OSLO AND ZEMAX in India.

"Neeraj Lakhotia"

Thanks all for the info. I ended up going with FRED, as my RHino 3d models plug nicely into it and it generally does what I need.

ta.

TRACEPRO IS THE BEST. We have Fred also. which version of fred you are using??

Ismail

I'm actually not sure, I used it for what I needed and don't have it currently installed. Most of the optics simming I've been doing have been reflective, so I mostly just use rhino.

The Oslo freeware is good, but is I believe limited to ten surfaces. Another possibility would be Beam 4 (Stellar Software). The version I have is purely geometric - it does not deal with diffraction. But since you are not concerned with image quality this is not a problem. It is 'number' based, but I think all optical design software is as well. You can't just 'drag' a lens or reflector design and 'drop' it where you want, but seriously we are talking about Jr. High level math.

Luckily what I'm designing is pretty basic, technically speaking. Just solar concentrators with a couple of parabolic mirrors, ending in a light pipe. It's not a camera lens and as I'm just going to be making it myself from cardboard and mylar, I don't need any precise data calculation.

Basically I'm just trying to previs the thing so I can see the best way forward and getting the thing as generally efficient as reasonable.

The first boiler I did in Rhino3D just using the bounce command, and that was really helpful just figuring the general approach of the thing. Now with the light pipe aperture I need some basic refraction vis so I can see whether to use a flat plate / spherical plug, etc. Also seeing the effects of the sun shifting, how much that messes things up and how quickly.

So, in terms of software, basic functionality and ease of interface is the way forward.

Try TracePro 30 day trial at www.lambdares.com