Zemax launches OpticsBuilder for Creo and brings new workflow to OpticStudio

KIRKLAND, Wash., May 20, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Zemax announced the release of OpticsBuilder™ for Creo Parametric and OpticStudio® 20.2, the latest release of their flagship software. Both releases enable engineering teams to work more efficiently than ever before. OpticsBuilder revolutionizes how optical design teams build, analyze and share their work, saving users days of work while also improving their ability to check how their designs impact the optical performance. OpticStudio 20.2 is focused on advancing freeform design and improving manufacturability by delivering tolerancing insights early in the design phase.

"The expansion of OpticsBuilder to the Creo Parametric CAD platform and the latest OpticStudio release enable optical design teams to revolutionize their design workflows to create better products while minimizing production costs," said, Dr. S. Subbiah, Chief Executive Officer of Zemax. "Today, many of us are learning how to bring our teams closer together while we are forced to isolate from one another. These releases come at a pivotal time when engineering teams are focused on efficiency and delivering new innovations to an evolving marketplace. Empowered with the right tools, design teams can work together to quickly bring much-needed innovation to market."

OpticsBuilder: Improved Manufacturability - Better, Faster, Cheaper
OpticsBuilder enables optical engineers and CAD users to increase productivity and work more efficiently by providing the tools needed to build, analyze and share their work. CAD users can quickly start packaging optical designs by allowing OpticsBuilder to automatically convert and build OpticStudio files into native CAD parts. By delivering analysis tools focused on how mechanical packaging impacts optical performance, CAD users find errors early, reduce back-and-forth with Optical Engineers, and create a virtual prototype in lieu of reworking expensive physical prototyping. Additionally, CAD users can easily share ISO compliant optical drawings with manufacturing using an automated push button drawing export tool.

OpticStudio: Design for Manufacturability
When designing optical products, optical engineers need to balance what is theoretically possible with what is manufacturable at-scale. Traditional optical design methods have forced engineers to first design for an optimized nominal performance, then tolerance their system to account for manufacturing limitations. Oftentimes, these two steps are inversely correlated. Optimizing towards perfection creates designs that are more sensitive to manufacturing error, while tolerancing for a high manufacturing yield often dulls the fidelity and performance of the optical product. Optical engineers are forced to oscillate between these two steps to continually rework designs until they can balance performance with manufacturability.

OpticStudio 20.2 combines new tolerancing features like Quick Yield and Tolerance Data Analyses to establish a new workflow that delivers early design insights, enabling designers to more easily balance performance with manufacturability. With early tolerancing insights, optical engineers can confidently assess if they are meeting their manufacturing requirements and swiftly change course early in the design process if their projects need further modifications. This new manufacturability workflow empowers optical engineers to create systems that are more manufacturable and improves their efficiency by upwards of 50%.

OpticStudio: Improved Freeform Design
Based on industry-leading techniques and work done by cutting-edge optical designers, OpticStudio 20.2 makes state-of-the-art parametric freeform surfaces readily available to all users. With the introduction of TrueFreeForm™ in OpticStudio 20.1, an industry-first freeform design capability, 20.2 adds new capabilities by allowing freeform designers to constrain their TrueFreeForm designs for symmetry, enabling users to rapidly produce the correct lens geometry.

About Zemax
Zemax's industry-leading optical product design and simulation software, OpticStudio®, OpticsBuilder™, and OpticsViewer™, helps optical, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering teams turn their ideas into reality. Standardizing on Zemax software reduces design iterations and repeated prototypes, speeding time to market and reducing development costs. Zemax is headquartered in the Kirkland, Washington, area and has offices in the UK, Japan, Taiwan, and China.
For more information: www.Zemax.com 

CONTACT
Lisa Bukowitz
Go-To-Market Director, Zemax
425-305-2762
[email protected]

SOURCE Zemax