Zemax launches OpticsBuilder to streamline optomechanical packaging

22 Jan 2020

Streamline how engineers package optical designs with software that empowers optical engineers and CAD users to work more efficiently and analyze their impact on optical performance.

Zemax today announced OpticsBuilder™ for SOLIDWORKS, a software solution for companies using OpticStudio® that helps improve optomechanical packaging. OpticsBuilder helps optical design teams and CAD users become more productive by providing a new way to build, analyze, and share their work. With OpticsBuilder, they can quickly convert optical designs into native SOLIDWORKS parts, analyze how their mechanical packaging impacts the optical performance right inside SOLIDWORKS, and export optical drawings to manufacturing teams.

“The addition of OpticsBuilder to our growing product portfolio, which includes OpticStudio and OpticsViewer, streamlines how optical designs are packaged, analyzed, and shared with engineering teams,” said Dr. S. Subbiah, Chief Executive Officer at Zemax. “Through continuous innovation, Zemax is creating new, more efficient workflows that deliver enhanced team productivity throughout the product lifecycle. By empowering CAD users to quickly import designs and easily understand how their mechanical packaging impacts the optical performance, optical design teams can create better products faster while reducing the tedious back-and-forth needed to get designs right.”

The Need for OpticsBuilder
Turning optical designs into reality mean a team of engineers needs to coordinate their individual expertise around one common goal. Oftentimes the limiting factor is the time and effort spent to export/convert design data from one tool to another. CAD users spend hours, if not days, converting complete optical designs into the CAD formats that are required by their CAD platform. During optomechanical assembly design, engineers frequently lack the insights they need to analyze how their packaging methods may impact the performance of the optical system. Once the CAD user is finished packaging the optical design, they are often limited by the optical drawing process that requires manual work that is prone to error.

Improved Manufacturability: Better, Faster, Cheaper
OpticsBuilder enables optical engineers and CAD users to increase productivity and work more efficiently by providing the tools needed to build, analyze, and share their work. CAD users can quickly start packaging optical designs by flawlessly converting OpticStudio files into CAD. By delivering analysis tools focused on how mechanical packaging impacts optical performance, CAD users find errors early, reduce back-and-forth with Optical Engineers, and avoid expensive prototyping. Additionally, CAD users can easily share ISO compliant optical drawings with manufacturing using an automated push-button drawing export tool.

Learn more about OpticsBuilder here.

About Zemax
Zemax’s industry-leading optical product design and simulation software, OpticStudio®, OpticsBuilder™, and OpticsViewer™, helps optical, mechanical, and manufacturing engineering teams turn their ideas into reality. Standardizing on Zemax software reduces design iterations and repeated prototypes, speeding time to market, and reducing development costs. Acquired by EQT Partners in 2018, Zemax is headquartered in the Kirkland, Washington, area, and has offices in the UK, Japan, Taiwan, and China.
For more information: www.Zemax.com