Optical-Calculation features: calculations tables, ray tracing, optimization, use case solvers and AI interface

Handy Calculations covers a wide field of photonics. It is broken down into 287 user-friendly calculation pages, each requesting a small number of inputs and returning the result immediately — 53 of them are free of charge. Each page offers contextual support (page and parameter descriptions, glossary, usage tips) as well as tutorials, for a better understanding of photonics and a better use of the application. They can be used at the same time as the other tools of the platform to solve a practical or theoretical problem in optics.

Our sequential ray tracing software is suitable for the analysis and the optimization of optical systems. It makes it very easy to enter a system, even a non-centered one, thanks to its quick entry interface, its component catalogs and its automatic positioning functionalities. Many calculation and display options are available, as well as contextual support features.

Developing a new product, a new process or a new experiment involving photonics generally requires several calculation and simulation sequences to be run in a given order.

Finding an optimum configuration for coupling a laser beam into a fiber optics, or estimating the signal-to-noise ratio obtained on a camera pixel knowing the light source, the scene and the imaging system, requires a number of steps using both the Handy Calculations and the Optical software tools — steps that can be long to carry out and are not necessarily obvious to the user.

The Use case solvers take advantage of the two modules and automate these sequences, solving in one click complete problems that could take hours or days to an expert. They are equally accessible to non-experts, providing solutions to complex problems with very limited learning. They significantly speed up developments, minimize the probability of error and overcome possible blocking shortcomings.

Solvers apply in many different fields and each one is mostly produced on demand. We are always interested in developing new solutions and invite users to submit their application. Tell us about yours.

Finding the right tool among hundreds of calculations, catalogs and solvers requires knowing how the platform is organized. The AI interface removes that step: you describe what you want to compute in plain language, and the assistant takes you to the relevant tool.

It reaches the whole platform — the Handy Calculations, the Optical software, the catalogs and the Use case solvers — without any prior learning of the menus, the terminology or the structure of the site.

Requests can be expressed the way you would explain them to a colleague: a physical quantity, a domain, the kind of system you want to model, the input parameter you would like to enter or the tutorial you are looking for. Depending on what you asked for, the assistant opens the matching tool with the context already set, or acts on your current system directly.

This makes the platform immediately usable by occasional users and newcomers, while regular users keep the standard menus for direct access.