LightTools Enewsletter

• The following new features expand LightTools’ capabilities for ghost and glare analysis:
  
  • Harvey-Shack and ABg scatter models for simulating polished optical surfaces.
    For both the Harvey-Shack and ABg scatter models, a Scatter Evaluator has also been added so that you can see how the total integrated scatter (TIS) changes for different angles of incidence (AOI), refractive index differences, and wavelengths. The BSDF data/chart at the regular parameters are also displayed.
  • Microfacet scatter model for simulating very rough surfaces using a surface profile or BSDF curve simulating the scatter with random surface perturbations.
  • Contamination scattering for modeling the effects of dust and other particulates that may contaminate optical surfaces, such as mirrors.
     
• To identify contributions from ghosts and flare, seven new receiver filters were added that count ray-surface interactions. Used with the Region Analysis and Ray Path features, these filters can help you to isolate imaging rays or specular and scatter illuminance, for example. 

• The Ray Path analysis feature delivers increased performance and provides data to locate ghost images. Enhancements to this feature include:
  • A Ray Path receiver filter added automatically when you enable Ray Path data collection.
  • A new option that enables you to calculate the following filtered data for each path: Max (peak) Illuminance, Illuminance Power, Illuminance Rays, and Max (peak) Intensity, Intensity Power, and Intensity Rays. This data can help you understand how much unwanted power is incident on your detector, for example, or identify the peak power when looking for distinct ghost images and evaluating a system prone to laser damage.
  • Options for specifying a Normalized Power Range so that you can filter the results to a subset of ray paths based on the total power collected in each path.
  • Surface sets added to support ray path analysis. These can be used when you have imported geometry that has split a surface into two or more faces but you consider the same or when you do not need to distinguish individual surfaces on a solid, like rays traveling through a light guide. When a surface set is defined on a solid, all paths that hit any of those surfaces have a path string that specifies the surface set name instead of the surface and zone names. The effect is that there are generally fewer paths in the ray path results.
     
• Improvements to scatter aiming provided additional flexibility when specifying aim areas, with options for polygonal and surface-based shapes, as well as the ability to position the aim area in global coordinates.

New Analysis Features for Faster Adjustment of Source Power in Lighting Systems

A new feature added for receivers enables you to adjust scale factors on sources in the model. The source scaling feature enables you to rescale the power collected by a mesh without having to change the flux on individual sources or rerun the simulation. The options for this feature are on a new Source Scaling tab in the receiver's Properties dialog box.