TracePro

FRED is a comprehensive tool that simulates the propagation of light through optomechanical systems using ray tracing. It supports both coherent and incoherent light propagation and allows users to assign realistic surface properties to every component in a system. Key features include fast and accurate simulation of various light sources, such as lasers, arc lamps, LEDs, ideal emitters, bulbs, and user-defined ray sets. The software offers advanced geometry, scatter, optimization, scripting, and graphic tools, along with fine-grain control of ray trace properties during simulations. It provides comprehensive post-trace analysis features and reports, real-time visualization and editing of complex optical and mechanical systems, and is highly extensible via user-defined scripts. FRED provides core capabilities for propagating light through optomechanical systems.

Polaris-M is an optical design and polarization analysis software developed by Airy Optics, Inc., integrating ray tracing-based optical design methods with polarization calculus, 3D simulation, anisotropic materials, diffractive optic simulation, stress birefringence, and diffraction theory. Developed over a decade at the University of Arizona's Polarization Laboratory and licensed to Airy Optics in 2016, it includes over 500 functions for ray tracing, aberration calculation, polarization elements, stress birefringence, diffractive optical elements, polarization ray tracing calculus, and liquid crystal cells and optical elements. Polaris-M requires Mathematica, providing a powerful macro language for optical design and a deep set of algorithms for graphics, computer algebra, interpolation, neural networks, and numerical analysis. The software features comprehensive documentation with active help pages accessible via the F1 key, offering explanations, inputs, outputs, and live examples.