Photopia Lamp Modeling

Background

Photopia comes with a large library of lamp models for use in optical designs. Sometimes a lamp you may want to use is not in the library. In these cases, you can either construct a lamp model yourself using information in the Photopia User's Guide, or have us construct the model for you.

-back to top-

Components in a Lamp Model

Lamp models in the Photopia Library contain 3 basic components: a CAD model, an IES formatted bare lamp photometric file, and luminance information for the source.

The geometry is described in an AutoCAD 2000 formatted DXF file. The model includes all of the physical geometry as well as non-physical geometry such as arc shapes. Materials are assigned to each part of the lamp model, so that the correct interactions occur wen light comes back into contact with the lamp.

The output of the lamp is described in a bare lamp photometric file. This file is created by a lab measurement of the candela distribution and lumen output of each lamp.

The final part of a lamp model is a description of the luminance properties of the source. For HPS and Metal Halide lamps this means determining the shape and luminance variation of the arc. The image below shows a sample 1500W Metal Halide arc tube with the arc inside, along with the Photopia model of the arc. For fluorescent sources this involves the luminance variation across the surface.

-back to top-

Creating your own Lamp Model

If you are looking for a lamp in the Library and don't find it, you can make your own lamp model. There are instructions for creating lamp models in Appendix B of the Photopia User's Guide, which is available by selecting Help > Documentation in Photopia.

-back to top-

Getting a new lamp in the Library

If you are looking for a lamp in the Library and can't find it, let us know and we'll try to get it in the Library. Lamp manufacturers can have their new products included in the Photopia Library. This is a very beneficial service as your products will be seen by all of our users. You can see more information about adding a new lamp to the Library on this order form.

-back to top-