Hi Paul,

OpticsBuilder is an add-in for Creo that provides CAD users with the tools needed to build, analyze and share their work. Using OpticStudio-OpticsBuilder workflow, a live version of the lens design including lenses materials, geometries and positions, optical properties and information about sources, system wavelengths, and detectors can be generated in OpticStudio in ZBD format to be imported into OpticsBuildr.  OpticsBuilder then automatically creates native CAD parts of all optical components. So, CAD users can access the optics reference geometries to design the optomechanics in Creo Parametric, and then analyze the optomechanical components impact on the system optical performance, in terms of Spot size change, Beam clipping and Image contamination, using the OpticsBuilder built-in ray simulation engine. After finalizing the optomechanical design, another ZBD file including both optics and optomechanics can be exported from OpticsBuilder to be opened back into OpticStudio for other analyses. There are options to save the optomechanical components in the ZBD file as native CAD parts or STEP CAD parts. 

Please note that OpticsBuilder is not a CAD platform to be used for creating objects but is an add-in in Creo Parametric to provide access to the optics while designing optomechanics and reduce the back-and-forth between optical and optomechanical engineers.

You can read more information in these knowledgebase articles:

Prepare for OpticsBuilder – Knowledgebase (zemax.com)

How to perform a simulation in OpticsBuilder for Creo Parametric – Knowledgebase (zemax.com)

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best,

Moj