[Raytrace] Where do you get the software for Raytracing?

[John D. Upton]

Joseph,

At 04:37 PM 12/2/01 -0800, Joseph Goins wrote:
>Here's a first one for the archives.  What software is recommended for 
>raytracing?

     That is an excellent starter question for the list.  It gives us a 
chance to list some of the ray trace resources that are available to ATMs.

     All the programs listed below are available free of charge.  Several 
are scaled back (limited) versions of professional optical design and 
evaluation programs.  The "big brothers" of these programs can cost 
thousands of dollars (US).  The companies that produce them have made these 
free versions available to amateurs and students like us.

     There are a number of other low cost and free ray tracing programs 
available.  Most will do basic ray tracing and spot diagram generation.  I 
do not mean to slight the usefulness of those programs by not listing them 
here.  This list simply consists of the "heavy duty" programs that I have 
at least heard something about.

     For this mail list to achieve its goal of sharing knowledge of these 
programs, we need folks who have used them to actively participate.  I have 
played with OSLO-LT, but have only scratched the surface of what it can 
do.  I expect to learn as much as anyone else on this list.

     Our goal is to generate a set of tutorials and FAQ concerning how to 
use ray tracing programs to answer the types of questions that come up on 
the ATM list from time to time.  The ray tracing FAQ will ultimately reside 
on the ATM_Site web site.  I wrote up one such tutorial for my web site 
last year.
<http://www.atm-workshop.com/dall-setup.html>
Hopefully, this list will inspire other step-by-step tutorials to be 
written for the ATM_Site.  So feel free to ask questions about how to do 
some specific tasks in these ray tracing programs and we will see if the 
group can figure out how to do it.  We will all learn something in the 
process and common questions and procedures will go into the FAQ for future 
use.

     Here is the list of free programs.  I have included the known 
limitations of each as best I know them.  The links will take you to the 
respective companies' web sites where you can download the program.

OSLO-LT (Limited to 10 surfaces)
http://www.sinopt.com/

ZEMAX (Demo only -- Cannot save?? How is it limited??)
http://www.focus-software.com/demo_z.html

MODAS (Limited to 4 surfaces)
http://ivankra.tripod.com/modas.html

ATMOS (Limited to 3 surfaces)
http://web.tiscali.it/ATMOS/

SYNOPSYS (Full featured for 90 days -- Limited to 12 surfaces thereafter)
http://home.gwi.net/OSD/home.htm

Roadrunner LT (Limited to 12 surfaces)
http://www.acmeoptics.com/



John D. Upton
Georgetown, TX
<http://www.atm-workshop.com/>      "The ATM's Workshop Page"
<http://members.aol.com/RonWin20/>  "Ronchi For Windows Software Page"