Your source for optical design software and consulting.


photopia screenshots

Photopia Features

We're happy to announce the release of Photopia v3.0. This release represents a significant advancement over Photopia 2.0 with over 50 changes that improve usability and expand the types of calculations that can be performed.

Photopia 3.0 has been released to customers who have a current Annual Design and Upgrade Package (ADUP). If your ADUP has expired and you would like to receive the upgrade to Version 3.0, you will need to renew your ADUP.

  • Lamp and Material Libraries
    • Material BRDF/BTDF Library - (Optional) This data characterizes exactly how light scatters from real materials upon reflection and refraction. The General Materials Library currently includes over 350 materials such as semi-specular aluminum, hammertone and textured aluminum, and various paints. The library of measured data means you don't have to guess at material scattering properties. You simply pick your material from the list and get an accurate simulation. The data is measured in our custom-built measurement device allowing us to add new materials as they become available and measure special materials for our customers as a service. To see an image illustrating real measured BRDF data and how it changes with the light incidence angle, click here.
    • Lamp Library - Photopia includes a library of more than 400 lamps commonly used in the architectural and entertainment industries. We are always adding new lamps, including low wattage ceramic metal halides and the latest high-power white LED's. The lamp models include the true geometry of the physical lamps as well as their photometric characteristics. You may also construct your own lamp models or use LTI Optics' lamp construction service. See our technical papers for more information on lamp models.
    • Refractor Module - The refractor module adds the ability to model 3D refractors. Refractor elements are modeled in the same way as reflector elements, so there is almost nothing additional to learn.
  • Working with Your Model
    • Full-featured CAD - Photopia has a CAD system which allows you to view and manipulate model geometry, create new geometry, work with layers, set the view mode, and view illuminance planes.
    • Surface Properties - Materials are assigned by layer from the materials library and material properties can be changed without re-importing the CAD model.
    • Luminous Dimensions - Can be specified within Photopia for more accurate luminaire luminance calculations and placement in the IES file.
    • STL/DXF/DWG Import - Luminaire designs may be built in any CAD package that exports to STL, DXF, or DWG formats. STL files can be exported from many 3D solid and parametric solid modeling software programs. Photopia will import wireframe models built using 3DFACEs, and 3D Polyline and Polyface meshes.
  • Analysis
    • Complete Control - You determine how many rays to trace and how many reflections, in addition to many other settings. The output provides an indication when the raytrace settings are incorrect for your specific model.
    • Performance Statistics - Test reports include the luminous intensity distribution, luminaire efficiency (LOR), indoor/roadway CU values, zonal lumen summary, and roadway/floodlight classifications. In addition you can see how much light was absorbed by and incident upon the various components of your luminaire model and how much light exited with each reflection. There is even a value that indicates if you need to trace more reflections. Here is an example report.
    • Continuous Results Display - All graphical output and reports are updated continuously during the simulation. You can stop a simulation at any time to make alterations to your design or simulation settings.
    • General Refractors - Refractor calculations include material index of refraction, extinction coefficient, and also allow for special properties including the effects of light scattering at each optical interface.
    • Speed - Raytracing is very efficient in complex models. Version 2.0 saw speed improvements of 150 times with detailed models.
  • Output
    • Luminous Intensity Plots - Luminous intensity may be displayed as candela polar or cartesian plots, contour plots, and tables of values. Any arbitrary horizontal and vertical angle set can be specified.
    • Illuminance Plots - Illuminances can be calculated for multiple, user-defined rectangular planes and displayed as contour plots, shaded images, or tables of values. An extremely valuable feature is that these planes may be placed as close to the luminaire as you require (even inside the luminaire) to provide accurate near field results. Small details in light patterns such as striations, halos or spokes are easily seen in the shaded images.
    • Roadway Plots - Graphs of Roadway CU, TM-15 2007, and iso-illuminance curves are displayed for roadway tests.
    • IES Classifications - Photopia determines the IES cutoff, roadway type, and TM-15 2007 classifications for roadway photometry.
    • NEMA Classifications - Photopia determines the NEMA classifications for floodlight tests.
    • View 3D Rays from Analysis - Light rays can be shown in Photopia's CAD system to see how the light behaves in the luminaire and to help troubleshoot problem areas.
    • Plot Export - All plots can easily be saved to bitmap files, and polar, contour, and x-y plots can also be saved to DXF/DWG files to create vector based art for your catalogs or website.
    • Photometric Files - Photopia outputs industry standard photometric files in the IES, EULUMDAT, and TM-14 file formats.
  • Support
    • Printed Documentation - Photopia includes a comprehensive printed and PDF manual.
    • Network License - Photopia may be accessed from a server, enabling multiple users to share a limited number of licenses.
    • High Quality Technical Support - The LTI Optics technical support staff is highly trained in illumination, optics, 3D CAD, photometry, and luminaire design. Experience drawn from our own use of Photopia during the course of our optical design consulting services helps in both designing a useful program and understanding our customers' needs. We consistently receive high praise for our technical support.

      • Thank you very much for the information. Many thanks for your infinite patience!!!

        - Henryk Wachta (Technical University of Rzeszow Poland)

      "You must be clairvoyant...I am truly impressed with your follow up...most software vendors just take the money and run post sale..."

        - Mathieu Grumberg (Zumtobel Staff)

      Perfect!!! Thanks a lot...I'm very happy to have this.

        - Jayson Auger (Eureka Lighting)