Yes, STAR allows a direct integration of STOP analysis generated FEA data into OpticStudio Sequential mode and makes the process simpler, easier, and less error prone.

The structural deformation FEA data is loaded and fitted with STAR module. The structural deformation is akin to a grid sag surface where we add a non-uniform “grid-sag” on top of the base surface. The main difference between the STAR deformation data and native Grid Sag surface is that the grid spacing can be non-uniform in STAR and the fitting algorithm is more powerful and provides good quality fit. 

The thermal profiles FEA data is loaded and fitted with STAR module. The thermal data is akin to a grid gradient. Again, we can use non-uniform FEA data instead of needing to do a linear resampling of the data or putting the data into a different format to move forward. More importantly, native Grid Gradient surface takes in index data, but the thermal deformation data output from FEA software is in temperature. STAR converts this temperature distribution into index distribution for the user behind the scenes which makes the process easier and much faster.