Source Types

Description

The source is used to illuminate the optical lens. In the interface, 3 types of sources are available.

Punctual Source

A Punctual source is a simplified source that emits light from a single point.

Extended Source

An Extended source is used to emit light from a surface.

To use this option, a source geometry (light bulb, LED, surface) must already exist or be created.
With an extended source, the source images are available in the feature viewer.
The Flux to be set is used to run the Photometry tool simulation that generates a photometric preview displayed in the Feature Viewer, a HTML report and a XMP file of the selected element(s) of the feature. For more information on the Photometry tool, refer to Understanding Display Properties.



Cylinder - P21W	Chip - Luxeon Rebel PL01

Directional Source

A Directional source determines the direction of the rays by selecting a line in the interface. The light source is considered as perfectly collimated before interacting with the lens.

When selecting a directional source, a refractive index is required. This refractive index refers to the medium from which rays are coming. In most cases, this medium corresponds to the air, but if rays are coming through a different medium, you should apply the material's refractive index here.

For example, if you want to create a lens on top of a plexiglass (PMMA) block, you need to apply the refractive index of the PMMA instead of the refractive index of the air.
With a directional source, source images are not available and cannot be displayed in the feature viewer.

TIR Lens

As of version 2025 R1, the TIR Lens source type allows you to create an Optical Lens that will be merged with one or several TIR Lenses. All TIR Lenses are combined together, extruded to the support surface along the TIR Lens Direction, cut by Optical Lens contour and merged with optical Lens. The result is a unique solid body in Structure tree.

This source type is particular as you will define each TIR Lens directly in the Optical Lens feature definition. The TIR Lens parameters used in the panel correspond to the same parameters used in a TIR Lens feature definition.