ANSYS SPEOS
Optical simulation of illumination, visibility and sensors, carried out within the whole product including its mechanical parts. Zemax OpticStudio designs the idealized optical system; Speos places that design in a real assembly and environment and evaluates light distribution, stray light and what the sensor sees.
Overview
An optical simulation tool for designing optical components, illumination systems and sensors, and confirming that they hold up. It solves how light interacts with lenses, materials and the surrounding environment on a physical basis, predicting illuminance, visibility, image quality and glare before a prototype is built.
Analysis takes place inside the CAD assembly. Because evaluation covers the geometry including the barrel, the housing and the interior and exterior trim rather than the optical element alone, light leakage and reflections that only appear once parts are assembled are included.
The accuracy of its illumination simulation has been evaluated by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) against the CIE 171:2006 test cases.
What Ansys Speos gives you
01
Uses measured optical properties to reproduce scattering, reflection and transmission on complex surfaces and coatings. BRDF, BTDF and BSDF data can be used as is.
02
Models the camera imaging pipeline and human vision on a physical basis, so you can evaluate what the sensor and what a person each receive. 1:1 luminance rendering on an HDR10 display is also supported.
03
The CAD assembly itself is the analysis target. Structural and thermal analysis is handled by the respective Ansys solvers; Speos takes those results and evaluates the effect of deformation or temperature change on optical performance. Speos does not solve the structural or thermal problem itself.
Where it fits
Ansys Speos and Zemax OpticStudio cover different territory. The following is a guide to choosing.
Use Ansys Speos to
Tools used alongside it
The territory covered by Zemax OpticStudio and by Ansys Speos. Designing and optimizing the imaging system, and evaluating illumination, visibility and sensors across the whole product, are separate stages.
Application
Evaluates headlamp light distribution and how a head-up display appears. Image quality metrics such as distortion, sharpness, ghosting and parallax can be handled.
It can address the emission sequence including the scan pattern, and the raw time-of-flight (ToF) signal before processing. It is also used to study sensor placement on a vehicle.
Evaluates the luminance and contrast of a display on the basis of human vision. Verification on HDR displays and in VR is also supported.
Evaluates what is actually captured in a real environment, through the camera sensor’s imaging and electronic processing. The effect of stray light on imaging performance is included.
Inputs and outputs
Given a CAD assembly and definitions for sources, materials and sensors, it returns illuminance and luminance distributions and raw sensor signals.
INPUT
| Three-dimensional geometry | The CAD assembly: the optical elements plus the barrel, housing and surrounding mechanical parts |
| Light source | Measured ray files, area sources, display sources, and ambient light such as CIE standard skies |
| Materials and surface properties | Measured optical properties, BRDF / BTDF / BSDF, coatings |
| Sensor definitions | Illuminance, luminance and intensity, cameras, LiDAR, human eye |
Ansys Speos
Non-Sequential Ray Tracing
OUTPUT
| Illuminance and luminance distribution | Photometric quantities and chromaticity on the detector surface |
| Light distribution | Intensity distribution, and conformance against a standard |
| Stray light | Identifying stray light by detecting its path |
| Sensor images | Raw camera signals, and raw LiDAR time-of-flight (ToF) signals |
| Appearance | Rendering based on human vision, and glare evaluation |
Related capabilities
Speos offers the capabilities below. What is available to you depends on your environment and version.
Design the imaging path of an automotive head-up display and evaluate its image quality against standards and specifications. Distortion, sharpness, ghosting and parallax are covered.
Evaluate raw camera and LiDAR signals in a driving environment, apply the electronic processing, and study sensor placement on the vehicle.
Add compute resources to shorten run times. Both on-premises clusters and cloud clusters are offered.
Edit optical properties imported from measurement equipment, or create new ones in the Labs editor, and apply them to the optical 3D mock-up.
The conditions of use depend on your environment and version. For details please Contact.
Frequently asked questions
Questions we are often asked before adoption.
Can I use Zemax OpticStudio design data as is?
Optical Design Exchange (ODX) lets you bring a supported optical design created in OpticStudio into Speos. Geometry, optical properties and image surface information are passed across. Any surface with no coating specified on the OpticStudio side is given the Optical Polished surface property.
Which CAD systems are supported?
Add-ins that run inside the CAD system are provided for Siemens NX and PTC Creo Parametric. Geometry update is supported for Dassault CATIA V5, Creo Parametric, Siemens NX and Dassault SolidWorks. The standalone version can read CATIA, STEP, IGES and STL among others.
Can Ansys Lumerical results be applied?
This uses the LSWM plugin. Coatings are solved with STACK, and diffraction grating and metalens unit cells with FDTD or RCWA, and the result is read into a Speos surface property as a data file. The handover is one-way, not a two-way coupling.
How has the accuracy of the illumination simulation been confirmed?
The International Commission on Illumination (CIE) has evaluated it against the CIE 171:2006 test cases, which exist to assess the accuracy of illumination simulation software.
I would like to know what license configuration I need.
The configuration you need depends on your application. Tell us what you want to evaluate and what you need to check, and we will propose a configuration and provide a quote.
We can advise on everything from setup to judging whether a result is sound. Hands-on training is also available.
Support →
Training →
You do not need to share everything. Whatever you are able to tell us is enough.
The demo uses subject matter close to your own. We can also tell you the license configuration you would need there and then.