FRED Software - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Fred Optical Engineering Software (FRED) is a commercial 3D CAD software program for optical engineering

Optical engineering

Optical engineering is the field of study that focuses on applications of optics. Optical engineers design components of optical instruments such as lenses, microscopes, telescopes, and other equipment that utilizes the properties of light. Other devices include optical sensors and measurement...

used to simulate illumination through optical systems. Fred can handle both incoherent and coherent

Coherence (physics)

In physics, coherence is a property of waves that enables stationary interference. More generally, coherence describes all properties of the correlation between physical quantities of a wave....

light using Gaussian beam

Gaussian beam

In optics, a Gaussian beam is a beam of electromagnetic radiation whose transverse electric field and intensity distributions are well approximated by Gaussian functions. Many lasers emit beams that approximate a Gaussian profile, in which case the laser is said to be operating on the fundamental...

propagation. The program offers a high level of visualization using a WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...

(What You See Is What You Get) parametric interface. According to the publisher, Photon Engineering, the name "Fred" is not an acronym, and does not mean anything.

Fred allows for non-sequential raytracing with support to raytrace on up to 16 cores. Fred also features a downhill simplex optimizer where the user can specify variables, merit function and multiple targets for optimization. The program can import both IGES

IGES

The Initial Graphics Exchange Specification is a file format which defines a vendor neutral data format that allows the digital exchange of information among Computer-aided design systems....

and STEP

ISO 10303

ISO 10303 is an ISO standard for the computer-interpretable representation and exchange of product manufacturing information. Its official title is: Automation systems and integration — Product data representation and exchange...

CAD formats. Fred is also compatible with other hardware measured light source measurement software such as ProSource. Fred can also interact with MATLAB

MATLAB

MATLAB is a numerical computing environment and fourth-generation programming language. Developed by MathWorks, MATLAB allows matrix manipulations, plotting of functions and data, implementation of algorithms, creation of user interfaces, and interfacing with programs written in other languages,...

and Mathematica

Mathematica

Mathematica is a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, and mathematical fields and other areas of technical computing...

using a OLE Automation

OLE Automation

In Microsoft Windows applications programming, OLE Automation , is an inter-process communication mechanism based on Component Object Model that was intended for use by scripting languages – originally Visual Basic – but now are used by languages run on Windows...

Client/Server interface.

Fred was used in the design of the NOAO's Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is a planned wide-field "survey" reflecting telescope that will photograph the available sky every three nights. The LSST is currently in its design and development phase and will achieve engineering first light four years after construction starts...

.

Fred is available in two commercial and two educational editions.

See also