ZEMAX exports ray information into IGES, STEP and SAT CAD file formats, however SolidWorks™ does not read this information in by default. This article describes how to get SolidWorks to show the rays inside the exported data files.
ZEMAX Development Corporation would like to thank Dave Mansur from OPTRA, Inc. for providing us with the Solidworks™ details in this article.
It is often useful to export rays along with the optical components of your design to be viewed in a 3D CAD program. When exporting a sequential system, the number of rays to export, as well as the ray pattern is defined directly in the export window:
When exporting non-sequential designs, the ray pattern and number of rays are defined by the sources and their number of layout rays. Note that the STL format does not support the exporting of ray entities.
Although ZEMAX creates the ray information in the exported file, Solidworks™ doesn’t read this information in by default. In Solidworks, the user must change a specific import option in order to read in the ray information from the file to be imported.
When opening a file in Solidworks, choose the “Options” button:
From within the Options window, check “Free point/curve entities” and select the “Import as sketch(es)” option:
That's it! You will now see the rays inside your SolidWorks model.
If you know any secret settings in any other CAD packages that improves the interoperability with ZEMAX, please share this information with us by sending an email to support@zemax.com. We will then add the information that you provide to the Knowledge Base to share with the rest of ZEMAX users!