Creating Face Optical Properties

Creating Face Optical Properties (FOP) allows you to isolate certain faces of a geometry to assign specific optical properties to these faces.

To create Face Optical Properties:

  1. From the Light Simulation tab, click Material .

    A new material is created in the Simulation panel.

  2. If needed, rename the material.
  3. In General, from the Type drop-down list, select Face properties.
  4. Leave the Use texture option to False to apply only surface optical properties to the selected face(s).
    Note: For more information about texture application, see Texture Mapping.
  5. In the 3D view, click , select the faces on which to apply optical properties and click to validate.
    You can apply FOP to faceted geometries:
    • In case you want to apply the FOP on a full faceted geometry, select the faceted geometry in the Structure tree.
    • In case you want to apply the FOP on a region of a faceted geometry, create a Named Selection of facets, then select the Named Selection containing the facets.
    Tip: Right-click a Material and click Select associated geometry to highlight in the 3D view the geometries on which the material is applied.
    Note: The selection of faces from an imported *.obj file is not compatible with the Face Optical Properties.
    The selection appears in Geometries as linkedobjects.
  6. If you want to modify the current Surface properties:
    • Select Mirror for a perfect specular surface and adjust the Reflectance if needed.
    • Select Optical polished for a transparent or perfectly polished material (glass, plastic).

    • Select Library and click Browse to select and load a SOP file.

      If you want to modify the SOP file, click Open file to open the Surface Optical Property Editor.



      Tip: To define a surface which is polarized, select a .polarizer file instead of a .coated file as coated surfaces are isotropic.

    • Select Plug-in, and click Browse to select a custom made *.sop plug-in as File and the Parameters file for the plug-in.

      Note: Make sure each plug-in created has a different GUID.


      For more information, refer to Surface State Plugin.

The optical properties are now created on the face(s). You can edit these properties at any time.