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Given the break with direct cad exchange with Solidworks and Ansys OpticStudio, can anyone recommend a Ray Trace plugin solution for Solidworks? I’ll still use OpticStudio for all the rigorous analysis and just want a tool that will allow faster iteration with cad geometry directly in Solidworks.


These all seem to be options:

  • RayVis from Lambda Research
  • APEX from Breault Research Organization
  • Photopia from LTI Optics, LLC

Anyone have good/bad experiences with them? Others to consider?

I have no idea on the pricing yet.


Thanks in advance for any advice.

I don’t have any experience to share about these options, but since this is a question about alternatives to Zemax you might want to try asking on the Optics subreddit. 

Thanks for the suggestion @Sean Turner,

Here is a link to the post on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Optics/comments/1dnhhts/advice_for_solidworks_ray_trace_plugin/

I would just work with STEP files unless you need the ability to change the SolidWorks part from within the optical design code. I don’t know if any of the codes mentioned allow that feature or not. But if you’re just raytracing the part and not optimizing it in a closed-loop I’d just use STEP

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