Defining TracePro Solids

If it is not visible in the current view, it is either too small to be seen, or it is outside the view. You can either select Zoom Window (if it’s too small), Zoom All (if it’s too large or outside the view) or Zoom Selection to make it visible.

Rubberband Primitives

In addition to the dialogs described above, some primitives solids may be defined interactively using rubberband tools. Spheres, Cylinders, Cones and Blocks have rubberband tools.

To create a sphere:

1.Select the Sphere Tool.

2.Press the left mouse button and drag to define the radius of the sphere.

3.Release the mouse to display the object.

To define a Cylinder:

1.Select the Cylinder tool.

2.Press the left mouse button and drag Up or Down to define the base radius. The base radius is defined along the vertical axis of the screen.

3.Release the mouse button and drag Left or Right to define the length. The length is defined along the horizontal axis of the screen.

4.Press the left mouse button to display the object.

To define a Cone:

1.Select the Cone tool.

2.Press the left mouse button and drag Up or Down to define the base radius. The base radius is defined along the vertical axis of the screen.

3.Release the mouse button and drag Left or Right to define the length. The length is defined along the horizontal axis of the screen.

4.Press the left mouse button to display the object.

To define a Block:

1.Select the Block tool.

2.Press the left mouse button and drag Left or Right to define the length of the block’s square base. The length is defined along the horizontal axis of the screen.

3.Release the mouse button and drag Up or Down to define the height. The height is defined along the vertical axis of the screen.

4.Press the left mouse button to display the object.

Defining TracePro Solids

TracePro allows you to define objects that are commonly used in optomechanical systems, namely an optical element, Fresnel lens, reflector, tube or baffle vane. TracePro uses primitive solid objects and Boolean operations to create these objects, except for aspheric optical elements. To create a lens object yourself, you could define two primitive objects, spheres of appropriate radius, and subtract them with a Boolean operation. This tends to be a tedious task so dialog boxes are provided for common elements.

TracePro 5.0 User’s Manual

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