Objects as Detectors
Most objects may act like a detector. This includes objects with flat faces, such as the polygon, STL, and rectangular volume objects. Objects not supported: sources, detectors and non-physical objects (e.g. Ray Rotator, Slide..)
To make any of these objects a detector, choose "Object Is A Detector" from the Type tab of the Object Properties dialog box. Once the object is set to be a detector, the intensity detected will be displayed on the Shaded Model display, and on the text listing of the Detector Viewer window. The color scheme the detector will display on the Shaded Model may also be selected on the Object Properties dialog box. By default the color chosen represent the Irradiance but may also represent the total Flux.
Objects acting as detectors can only display incoherent intensity. Each individual triangle used to draw the object becomes a single pixel. All rays which strike the pixel will be summed to yield the total intensity. The object detectors are cleared whenever all detectors are cleared from the detector control dialog box.
A tool for creating POB files for use as detectors is described in " Create Polygon Object ".
Comments on general objects as detectors pixel numbering
The pixels are numbered in the order the polygons are defined, and there is no general way to describe the pixel ordering. For these objects, some experimentation may be required to determine the exact pixel ordering method.
Comments on general objects as detectors text data
The format of text data shown in the Detector Viewer analysis for general objects as detectors is same as the text data for the Detector Surface object. See "Comments on Detector Surface text data" in the Detector Surface Object section.
Use with LightningTrace
This detector type is not supported with LightningTrace.
Comment on pixel size when objects are detectors
For most of the objects, the pixel size can be changed in the Object Property > Draw > Drawing Resolution. For a STEP/IGES/SAT CAD file, the pixel size is controlled by the parameter Chord Tolerance in Object Properties > CAD. See "Chord Tolerance" for more information. For a STL file, the pixels are decided by the triangles defined in the file and cannot be changed.
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