Getting started with some basic ray tracing

[NemoAndrea]

Trying out the Optics Workbench

There are many great open source optic simulations and/or raytracing packages out there. Too many to name in python and a few in Julia too. Still, in the current state of design I don't really need perfect physics simulation of the optical performance. What I want to have is a quick way to verify the focal points and profiles of the light paths relative to the design parts.

So a simple library that integrates with FreeCAD to allow for rapid prototyping. I think the Optics Workbench fits that bill.

A quick little test with the Medjed optical system

I ran a quick test with the Medjed system, trying to see if the arrangement of lenses and light paths could work, and it works in some sense:

But a bit limitation right now is that you cannot make something like a beamsplitter or selectively ignore optical elements. The former is important because there are many beamsplitting elements in the design. The latter is important because the design has a insertable mirror to switch between white light microscope and lithography machine.

Since the library is quite minimal (not a bad thing), it was easy to draw up a modification to work around these issues. It is submitted as a pull request.