Fred Optical Engineering Software (FRED) is a commercial 3D CAD computer program for
optical engineering
Optical engineering is the field of engineering encompassing the physical phenomena and technologies associated with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilization of light. Optical engineers use the science of optics to ...
used to simulate the propagation of light through optical systems. Fred can handle both incoherent and
coherent
Coherence is, in general, a state or situation in which all the parts or ideas fit together well so that they form a united whole.
More specifically, coherence, coherency, or coherent may refer to the following:
Physics
* Coherence (physics ...
light using
Gaussian beam
In optics, a Gaussian beam is an idealized beam of electromagnetic radiation whose amplitude envelope in the transverse plane is given by a Gaussian function; this also implies a Gaussian intensity (irradiance) profile. This fundamental (or ...
propagation. The program offers a high level of visualization using a
WYSIWYG
In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...
(What You See Is What You Get) parametric interface. According to the publisher,
Photon Engineering, the name "Fred" is not an acronym, and does not mean anything.
Fred allows for non-sequential raytracing with support to raytrace on up to 63 cores.
[ Fred also features a downhill simplex optimizer where the user can specify variables, merit function and multiple targets for optimization. The program can import and export ]IGES
The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification (IGES) is a vendor-neutral List of file formats, file format that allows the CAD data exchange, digital exchange of information among computer-aided design (CAD) systems. It is an ASCII-based textual for ...
, STEP, and OBJ CAD formats. Fred is also compatible with other hardware measured light source measurement software such as ProSource. Fred can also interact with MATLAB
MATLAB (an abbreviation of "MATrix LABoratory") is a proprietary multi-paradigm programming language and numeric computing environment developed by MathWorks. MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementat ...
and Mathematica
Wolfram (previously known as Mathematica and Wolfram Mathematica) is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allows machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network ...
using an OLE Automation
In Microsoft Windows applications programming, OLE Automation (later renamed to simply Automation) is an inter-process communication mechanism created by Microsoft. It is based on a subset of Component Object Model (COM) that was intended for use ...
Client/Server interface.
Fred was used in the design of the NOAO's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, formerly known as the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), is an astronomy, astronomical observatory in Chile. Its main task will be carrying out a synoptic astronomical survey, the Legacy Survey of Space and Tim ...
.
See also
* List of ray tracing software
Ray tracing (graphics), Ray tracing is a technique that can generate near photo-realistic computer images. A wide range of free software and commercial software is available for producing these images. This article lists notable ray-tracing softwar ...
References
External links
Photon Engineering Website
Optical software
Computer-aided design software for Windows
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