Cloud native EDA tools & pre-optimized hardware platforms
Unique Capabilities in Version 2021.06 Enable Designers to Explore Design Forms and Styling Options with Speed and Precision
To keep up with fast-moving changes in automotive lighting, designers need new and improved ways to create design forms and speed time to market. The LucidShape CAA V5 Based product provides the only complete optical design, simulation, analysis, and visualization workflow within the CATIA V5 environment and is ideally suited to advancing automotive lighting innovations.
LucidShape CAA version 2021.06, now available, makes it easier than ever for designers to achieve their objectives. Upgrade to this release to reduce overall design time with improvements to performance, usability, and analysis capabilities, efficiently explore creative styling options, and deliver timely, accurate results to manufacturing teams.
“I’m excited to continue our investment in LucidShape capabilities for the headlight industry on the CATIA V5 platform,” said Stuart David, vice president of applications engineering in the 草榴社区 Optical 草榴社区 Group. “The new release of LucidShape CAA includes many new design and analysis capabilities to help speed product development. Updates to the LucidShape CAA SmartStart Library expand the availability of ready-made optical measurements and textures to improve designer productivity.”
LucidShape CAA introduces new Advanced Analysis capabilities to accomplish three key objectives:
Advanced analysis capabilities in LucidShape CAA include the ability to combine UV data files for a high beam and low beam lamp to make measurements for the individual lamps, as well as when both are on.
LucidShape CAA now offers enhanced source modeling and positioning features to meet the demands of applications that require light sources with complex shapes or multiple sources that must be placed in different positions or patterns.
Surface light source (left) and light source using an axis system pattern (right).
You now have additional options to optimize optical simulation accuracy and speed in LucidShape CAA. When running a tessellated simulation, you can optionally specify the tessellation parameters for individual actors, which can be different from the global tessellation settings. This gives you flexibility to target selected actors for high-accuracy simulations, while optimizing overall simulation performance by keeping the remaining tessellation less dense.
Headlamp tessellation with light guide using dense global tessellation.
Headlamp tessellation with light guide using dense tessellation for the light guide and less dense tessellation for the remaining lamp components.
The MacroFocal reflector and lens design features have been enhanced to give you a new way to create unique style characteristics for signal lighting. The new grid of curves option enables you to define a base grid for the reflector or lens by specifying a set of user-created quasi-horizontal and quasi-vertical curves. Use the design flexibility provided by the grid of curves to make your brand stand out.
Signal lighting reflector (left) and lens (right) using a custom styling provided by user-specified curves.
The new light flow sensor in LucidShape CAA collects qualitative luminance data that is useful for visualizing your system’s lit appearance. Before starting an optical simulation using the Luminance Camera Sensor, you can adjust the viewing position and orientation to locate the ideal perspective for your analysis. In addition, the ray file sensor has been updated to support surface selections; this gives you the ability to specify a geometric interface for the recording of the ray file, which significantly alleviates the usage of user-created ray files.
Signal lighting reflector visualized with the light flow sensor.
Projector module simulation with emitted rays from a ray file that has been created with the ray file sensor with surface selection (curves side of projector lens).
The Light Guide Design Module helps automate the construction, analysis, and optimization of light guides and their extraction features. Enhancements in this release simplify the creation of custom light guide shapes; for example, sampled points from a user curve are projected into the reference plane and rotated according to the starting point and the direction that you specify. Furthermore, a new Surface mode light guide provides an alternative light-weight light guide construction, benefiting from significantly faster geometry construction.
User profile light guide surface (left) and surface mode light guide (right).
In addition, an early version of the Texture mode light guide capability in this release allows you to model and optimize laser-etched light control structures. Laser-etched light guide textures are growing in popularity because they can produce high spatial uniformity levels. We encourage you to try the feature and provide us with your feedback.
Laser-etched light guide construction and optimization.
Instead of characterizing optical properties manually, save time by selecting pre-measured material and media properties from the LucidShape SmartStart Library. With this module, you have access to precise light scattering data for faster, physics-based system modeling.
The SmartStart Library has been expanded in this release with new measured BSDF materials from Luminit, Brightview Technologies, and other vendors, as well as mold textures metalized by Vergason Technology. Choose from these materials to precisely model diffusion or reflection effects on surfaces in your lighting system.
LucidShape CAA version 2021.06 adds support for CATIA V5 R30 (without service packs).
If you already use LucidShape CAA, from or contact your local LucidShape distributor. If you’re interested in learning more about how LucidShape CAA can help you design better automotive lighting products faster, contact us to schedule a conversation and start a trial version.