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Four New Ways to Save Design Time in LucidShape CAA V5 Based

Optical 草榴社区 Editorial Team

Aug 15, 2023 / 3 min read

With the LucidShape CAA V5 Based 2023.06 release, designers working in the CATIA V5 environment have access to a wide range of new features that will save time in creating automotive lighting innovations. From expanded color analysis to enhanced design features, LucidShape CAA provides new ways to streamline product development workflows for all types of automotive lighting. In this article, we highlight four major updates in the latest LucidShape CAA release that will increase your efficiency.

LucidShape CAA Model | 草榴社区

Advanced Analysis: Consolidate and Automate Design Evaluations

The LucidShape CAA Advanced Analysis tool consolidates many analysis steps into a single, automated process that can be done at any point in an optical design project. Advanced Analysis includes new interactive features that further reduce analysis time while giving you all the data you need to confirm that your designs meet performance and regulatory requirements:

  • Drag-and-drop window arrangements to customize analysis views.
  • Interactive exploration with crosshair points on multiple plots to give insights into which part of a light distribution needs to be changed.
  • Slice plot overlays in one graph for easy data comparisons.
  • The ability to add color analysis to existing and new measurements, including many regulation-standard measurements. These measurements are integrated with the measurement data grid, allowing for the validation of regulations for intensity and color in one table. The color analysis supports several color spaces as well as engineering staples such as the Planckian Locus, Helmholtz coordinates, and MacAdam ellipses.
LucidShape CAA Color Analysis | 草榴社区

LucidShape CAA Color Analysis

Ray History Sensor: Rapidly Explore Light Distributions and Ray Paths

An important aspect of design troubleshooting is to identify ray paths or photometry for optical surfaces that contribute to unwanted effects on lighting system performance. This is a time- and computation-intensive process that the LucidShape CAA Ray History Sensor can substantially reduce.

The LucidShape CAA Ray History Sensor allows you to quickly correlate regions in a luminance image with specific ray paths and optical surfaces. Combined with the Dynamic Surface Result Filter, you can use the Restore from Sensor tool to explore partial light distributions or ray paths for selected surfaces without needing to run an additional simulation.

This version of LucidShape CAA expands the Ray History and Dynamic Surface Result Filter capability to most of the other sensors available in the software, including the Planar Lux Sensor, the Surface Sensor, and the License Plate Sensor.

These extensions significantly expand your options for detailed analyses (ray path and light distribution) for most sensors, allowing you to not only analyze the total result on the sensor, but also to investigate partial light distributions for a given region, actor surface, light source, or Luminance Camera.

Ray History Sensor Analysis for a Light Guide | 草榴社区

Ray History Sensor Analysis for a Light Guide

MacroFocal Design: Have the Freedom to Focus on Design Objectives, Not Implementation Details

LucidShape CAA MacroFocal tools take into account the edge geometry of a light source to create a specific light distribution, which simplifies the process for generating complex light distributions such as low beams, fog lights, or individual light patterns. This gives you the freedom to focus on overall design objectives, rather than on the creation of complex optical surfaces.

  • The MacroFocal toolset includes new features to speed design time, including:
  • Global shift, scaling, and stretch for all spreads in a MacroFocal designAbility to define a set of spreads and apply them to facets using a Spread Table
  • Simple Spread algorithm for use in designs with hundreds or thousands of facets
  • Spread adjustment tool to change settings with just a few clicks
Spread Adjustment Controls for MacroFocal | 草榴社区

Spread Adjustment Controls for MacroFocal

Light Guide Design Module: Optimize Light Guides and Extraction Features

New features in the Light Guide Design Module support design for manufacturability:

  • The Draft Keyhole profile shape allows you to pick a draft direction for the walls of a keyhole profile to improve demoldability of your design.
  • The User Profile now uses parameterized values similar to predefined profile shapes, giving you more precise control over profiles in your design.
Draft Keyhole Profile in Light Guide Design Module | 草榴社区

Get Started Today

If you already use LucidShape CAA V5 Based, upgrade to version 2023.06 from or contact your local LucidShape distributor.

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