ASAP Software Training

BRO offers a variety of software classes to enable you to efficiently and accurately solve your optical challenges using the Advanced Systems Analysis Program (ASAP®) by BRO. Courses include the introductory ASAP tutorial, application-specific ASAP tutorials, and custom training to meet your needs.

Classes are taught at BRO's training center in Tucson, Arizona, as well as International locations. At all classes, BRO provides each participant with a computer running the latest version of ASAP (and ReflectorCAD®, if appropriate). All of our classes receive high marks in terms of both technical content and the hospitality shown to students. Tutorials are taught by our senior optical engineers, who are experts in their fields and skilled in the art of teaching. Classes are a mix of lecture and hands-on sessions. Enrollment for all classes is limited to ensure individual instruction.

Course Title: Introduction to ASAP Tutorial

This introductory tutorial instructs ASAP users on approaches to solving pre-defined imaging and illumination problems. Designed to acquaint the new user with the full list of ASAP features leading to a basic competency, the tutorial is a balance of hands-on exercises, demonstrations and lectures. By guiding you through some straightforward examples (imaging and non-imaging systems), you learn both fundamental ASAP capabilities and methods and procedures for solving the most common types of optical problems. Toward the end of the tutorial, several advanced simulation and analysis concepts such as ray splitting and ray scattering are introduced.

Course Outline

• ASAP menus and dialog boxes, including the Builder; powerful scripting language; and integrated translators (including ASAP/IGES, ASAP/OSLO, and ASAP/ZEMAX)
• Optical system modeling, including optical properties, system geometry, and object database construction
• Source modeling, including physical, spatial and angular definitions of incoherent point and extended sources, as well as coherent point sources
• Numerical and graphical verification of system and source models
• Ray tracing and analysis
• Several advanced simulation and analysis concepts, such as object bounding, ray splitting, and ray scattering

The Introductory Tutorial is a five-day course limited to 12 participants. Familiarity with geometric and optical concepts is helpful but not required.

Course Title: Automotive Lighting Illumination Modeling (Advanced ASAP Tutorial)

BRO's Automotive Lighting Illumination Modeling tutorial concentrates on the application of BRO's ASAP Optical Software package to the development of automotive illumination systems. The tutorial gives participants the knowledge and skills needed to model the optical performance of automotive illumination systems that will most benefit their particular workflow. Participants will gain hands-on experience applying ASAP to different problems in automotive illumination through a series of practice sessions.

Course Overview

Basic knowledge about automotive lighting is not needed but is helpful. The course covers the simulation and analysis of automotive illumination systems based on the ASAP software program. Primary emphasis is placed on exterior lighting systems, however interior applications will also be discussed, including lightpipe designs. A brief introduction to the terminology, regulations, and underlying physics for automotive illumination is given.

The class addresses how best to use ASAP in each step of the automotive lighting design process, including feasibility, initial design, final design, tolerancing, and troubleshooting. Examples of actual lamp designs executed by BRO engineers are shown. Applications of sources from traditional incandescent to LED and HID sources are discussed. Additionally, as many automotive lighting users rely on internally developed programs to design their lighting systems, the tutorial covers the use of VBscript within ASAP to enhance the interaction between ASAP and external programs, as well as use of ASAP in batch mode.

Prerequisites*

• Completion of BRO's Introductory ASAP Tutorial or equivalent knowledge and experience
• Familiarity with a CAD package (Rhino3D® will be used during class)

Course Outline

Automotive Illumination Basics

• Review of relevant optical physics
• Review of photometry principles
• Review of regulations and testing methods

Automotive Illumination Design Process Using ASAP

• Source Modeling Review (Incandescent, LED and HID)
• Feasibility
• Initial Design
• Final Design and Package Verification
• Tolerancing
• Troubleshooting

Integrating ASAP Into Your Automotive Illumination Design Process

• Scripting Capabilities in ASAP for interfacing with external programs with particular emphasis on VBscript
• Using ASAP RabetP.exe in batch mode for enhanced interoperability with other programs

* If you are unsure that you meet these requirements, please speak with the instructor prior to enrolling in the class.

Course Title: Illumination System Design (Advanced ASAP Tutorial)

BRO's Illumination System Design tutorial gives participants the knowledge and skills they need to use ASAP and ReflectorCAD to design, model, and analyze general illumination systems.

Course Overview

Learn illumination and optics principles and how those principles are connected with illumination systems, including the design of luminaires, lightpipes, lightguides, headlights, taillights, and display systems. SAE and ECE standards are used in the design process with the use of the External Lighting Test Module (ELTM). Participants will access the BRO Light Source Library for a number of the sources used in the modeling. Theory and analytical methods are presented to provide the participants with the underlying design principles. Participants balance theory with hands-on experience by applying each lesson in a series of demonstrations and practice sessions.

Prerequisites*

• Completion of BRO's Introductory ASAP Tutorial or equivalent knowledge and experience
• Ability to build and view elementary systems with surface and edge-based entities
• Ability to define and trace rays from various sources, and perform power, irradiance, and intensity calculations
• Ability to comfortably write and run command scripts and macros
• Basic knowledge of CAD software such as Rhinoceros® will prove useful during the course but is not essential

Course Outline

• ASAP commands and their use in illumination systems
• Importance of radiometry and photometry
• Illumination with imaging and non-imaging optics
• Design procedures for elliptical, parabolic, and edge-ray reflectors
• Maximizing uniformity and efficiency
• Using looping structures to automate the procedure of investigation
• Importance and use of surface roughness for illumination
• Understanding the difference between far-field and near-field distributions
• Overview of total-internal reflection (TIR) systems for lightpipes/lightguides
• Modeling sources in ASAP, including incandescent sources, LEDs, and laser diodes
• Design of an arc source in ASAP
• Specular and diffuse luminaire design in ReflectorCAD and ASAP
• Advanced luminaire design algorithms
• Working with CAD in illumination design
• Microstructure modeling with ASAP
• Fabrication issues of microstructures
• Designing a microstructured lightguide to be used as a display
• Methods to obtain light output in the desired areas from lightguides
• Design principles for reflectors and lenses in headlight design
• Novel reflector design techniques for headlights
• Design considerations for lightpipes, lightboxes, taillights, and headlights

* If you are unsure that you meet these requirements, please speak with the instructor prior to enrolling in the class.

Course Title: Stray Light (Advanced ASAP Tutorial)

BRO's Stray Light Tutorial gives participants the knowledge and skills they need to do stray light analysis with ASAP, BRO's Advanced Systems Analysis Program. The class covers scattered light, ghost reflections, thermal emission in infrared systems, edge scatter and wide-angle edge diffraction. Participants balance theory with hands-on experience by applying each lesson in a series of practice sessions.

Course Overview

The course covers standard methods for finding and correcting stray light problems in existing systems, as well as designing systems with low stray light levels. Information on the scatter characteristics of optical and mechanical surfaces is presented. A detailed study of how to efficiently perform quantitative stray light calculations is done, which includes in-depth coverage of the ASAP commands used for stray light analysis and the interactions between them. Analytic formulas that are useful for performing top-level stray light estimates and spot checks on quantitative stray light calculations are also presented.

Prerequisites*

• Completion of BRO's Introductory ASAP Tutorial or equivalent knowledge and experience
• Ability to build and view elementary systems with surface and edge-based entities
• Ability to define and trace rays from various sources, and perform power, irradiance, and intensity calculations
• Ability to comfortably write and run command scripts and macros
• Experience in the use of the CONSIDER and SELECT commands in ASAP to isolate objects and rays

Course Outline

• What is stray light, why is it important, and where does it come from?
• Stray light design procedures
• The importance and use of stops
• Elementary front baffle and sunshade design
• Performing ghost calculations
• Design techniques for reducing stray light from ghosts
• Introduction to stray light calculations
• Elementary radiometry and radiation transfer
• Introduction to scatter characteristics of surfaces
• Characteristics of scatter measurements
• Using the ASAP BRDF fitting utility
• Quantitative descriptions of stray light performance
• Top-level stray light calculations with a pocket calculator
• ASAP scatter commands and their use
• Scatter from contaminated mirrors and lenses
• Evaluating the accuracy of stray light calculations
• Calculating ghost irradiance
• Stray light calculations for infrared systems
• Calculation of stray light from edges
• Stray light considerations for spectrographs, laser systems, coronagraphs, and chopped systems
• Scatter from anisotropic surfaces

* If you are unsure that you meet these requirements, please speak with the instructor prior to enrolling in the class.

Course Title: Volumetric Scatter and Fluorescence Modeling, including Biomedical Applications (Advanced ASAP Tutorial)

The main focus of BRO's Volume Scatter and Fluorescence Tutorial is volume light scattering and fluorescence with emphasis on, but not restricted to, applications in life sciences. The tutorial gives participants the knowledge and skills they need to model the optical performance of biomedical systems and instruments with BRO's ASAP software package. Participants balance theory with hands-on experience by applying each lesson in a series of practice sessions.

Course Overview

The course covers the simulation and analysis of volume light scattering and fluorescence, based on the ASAP software program. A thorough introduction into the underlying physics is given. Basic knowledge about light scattering and fluorescence is not needed. Basic concepts are explained both theoretically and in practice sessions. Standard measurement techniques are discussed and simulated using ASAP.

Prerequisites*

• Completion of BRO's Introductory ASAP Tutorial or equivalent knowledge and experience
• Ability to build and view elementary systems with surface and edge-based entities
• Ability to define and trace rays from various sources, and perform power, irradiance, and intensity calculations
• Ability to comfortably write and run command scripts and macros

Course Outline

Light scattering by a single particle

• Introduction into the phenomenology of light scattering
• Observable quantities: cross-sections, efficiencies and the phase function
• Mie theory

Scattering media

• Quantities to measure the amount of scatters: number density, volume concentration and area obscuration per length
• Particle size distributions

Multiple scattering

• Radiative transfer and Monte Carlo simulation
• Phenomenological radiative transfer equation and the Henyey-Greenstein model
• Inhomogeneous media
• User-defined scattering models
• Analysis of light propagation and absorption inside a scattering media using VOXELS

Fluorescence

• Physical background
• Fluorescence measurement methods
• Simulation and analysis methods

* If you are unsure that you meet these requirements, please speak with the instructor prior to enrolling in the class.

Course Title: Wave Optics (Advanced ASAP Tutorial)

BRO's Wave Optics Tutorial gives participants the knowledge and skills they need to perform wave optics analysis with ASAP, BRO's Advanced Systems Analysis Program. The class covers propagating fields in ASAP as well as polarization analysis. Participants balance theory with hands-on experience by applying each lesson in a series of practice sessions.

Course Overview

The course covers source construction methods and the ASAP approach to coherent ray tracing. Participants will learn how to correctly sample objects during ray tracing, how to propagate fields past edges and through apertures, when and how to decompose the current field into a new set of beams, and how to recognize and correct field propagation problems. Proper coherent flux calculations as well as trouble-shooting procedures will also be presented.

Prerequisites*

• Completion of BRO's Introductory ASAP Tutorial or equivalent knowledge and experience
• Ability to comfortably write and run command scripts and macros
• Basic knowledge of physical optics

Course Outline

• Gaussian beam fundamentals
• The concept behind the ASAP coherent field propagation
• ASAP coherent commands and their use
• How to establish and verify coherent sources in ASAP
• How to propagate coherent fields through optical structures
• How to calculate the amplitude and phase of coherent fields
• Correct sampling techniques during source construction, propagation, and field calculations
• Calculation of impulse response and optical transfer functions
• Determining the amounts of field clipping and its effects on the field
• How to input arbitrary fields
• How to couple fields into fibers and wave guides
• How to handle spatial and temporal coherence
• How to detect and correct problems
• Coherent radiometry
• Hands on modeling of imaging systems, diode lasers, interferometers, gratings, etalons, and more
• Modeling polarization components
• Creating polarized sources
• Polarization ray tracing
• Polarized flux calculations

* If you are unsure that you meet these requirements, please speak with the instructor prior to enrolling in the class.