Synopsys enhances LucidShape for automotive lighting design
Designers can perform comprehensive optical simulations and analyses of automotive lighting products within the CATIA V5 environment, says Synopsys, as it introduces the latest release of its LucidShape CAA V5-based software.
LucidShape CAA V5 Based version 2019.06 is now available and supports designers to conceptualise and explore design solutions for automotive lighting.
The LucidShape surface sensor feature supports accurate analyses of illuminance and irradiance on curved surfaces. This enables designers to evaluate performance of highly complex or curved lamp components, such as those used in interior ambient illumination, light guide surfaces, and stylised headlamps and tail lamps. The surface sensor feature has been expanded with more powerful and flexible analysis options that give designers the ability to measure luminous flux on any geometry when the surface sensor is combined with the lumen sensor material. Geometry can consist of a single surface with one or more faces or multiple surfaces, and surfaces can be planar or curved.
The part design view displays results of the surface sensor with lumen sensor material in 3D. It is also possible to set separate analysis options for the lux sensor and lumen sensor in the same simulation to efficiently analyse lux sensor and lumen sensor results.
Designers can specify the criteria for light data measurements such as intersection point, maximum value (including its XYZ position), or integral value to streamline analyses and tailor the output to fit the application. It is also possible to control the scope of the measurement—to cover a single face, for example, or the entire lumen sensor.
It also affords the option to analyse, measure, and visualise colour effects directly in the part design view.
A new surface result filter allows designers to filter the rays recorded on a sensor based on their interactions with specified surfaces. For example, designers can record only rays that hit a surface last, rays that hit at least one of the specified surfaces, or rays that hit all the specified surfaces during a simulation. This feature provides an efficient way to identify and troubleshoot parts that interfere with light distribution.
Enhancements to the Light Guide Design include illumination optimisation features that automatically design light guides and their extraction features. New capabilities include new options for prism items that enable designers to save portions of a design. They can be applied as a starting point for a new light guide, which could have a different number of prisms, if desired.
There is also an option that allows designers to set non-uniform spacing of prisms according to a desired extraction density (XWidth) curve, which is useful when there are design constraints on the smallest XWidth size.
There is now also the ability to detect ambiguous surface profiles using end gaps, as well as the ability to make intelligent profile rotation guesses based on nearest “good” neighbour profiles.
XYZ and LMN light target direction list options, says Synopsys, are easier to use than HV space, for example, to aim light from a light guide to a specific region in an interior lighting design application.
A simplified view set-up allows designers to obtain parameter values by selecting an axis system.
There is also the ability to optimise for flux uniformity with prism items other than XWidth, which provides flexibility for special applications.
