Defining the Prisms Orientation - Direction

Prerequisites: A Light Guide must be created.
  1. Define the prisms' orientation and construction mode:
    1. From the Type drop-down list, select how the prism should be oriented in relation to the light guide body. Select Direction if you want all prisms having the same orientation.
    2. In the 3D view, click and select a line to define the optical axis.

      The optical axis is used to define the average orientation in which the light is going to be extracted from the light guide.

      Note: The optical axis must not be collinear with any tangent to the guide curve.
    3. From the Operation drop-down list, select how you want the prisms to be generated on the light guide:
      • Select Add if you want the prisms to be added to the body.
      • SelectRemove if you want the prisms to be removed from the body.
      • Select Hybrid if you want prisms to be both removed/added based on prisms parameters.
    4. Define the Refractive index of the light guide.
  2. In Distances, from the Type drop-down list:
    • Select Curvilinear to base the distances on the guide curve.

    • Select Projection to define curvilinear distances based on the guide curve projected on a projection plane.

      Click and in the 3D view, select a line to define the Projection axis.

      The projection plane is defined as normal to the projection axis.

  3. In Start and End group boxes, define the size of the prism-free zones at the beginning and at the end of the guide curve.
    Note: Start value is always respected, however in some cases End value might not be respected because the last prism is not cut by this parameter. Prisms are created to respect the End value as much as possible.
Now, define the prism geometries.