Sports protective eyewear

[dcroteau]

Hello all!

Is there any 3D software which could be used in the process of designing lenses?

Here is my situation :
- I wish to design a sports goggle for using in impact sports like Squash, Racquetball, etc.
- I want to use 3D CAD software for the frame design and then use another software to design the lens with all it's optical properties (minimization of aberrations, optimization of thikness, etc.) while using the frame design as the template for the lens design.

I know of certain "lens design" softwares (Zemax, OSLO, ASAP, Code V, etc.) but they are mostly designed to create lens systems involving more then 1 lens like in telescope, microscope, cameras, etc.
I've also found "illumination, ray-tracing" softwares (TracePro, OptisWorks, ODYSSEY, LightTools, etc.) but these software mostly imply designing a system with a power source for light like in LED board, car control panels, etc...

If I want to design a motorcycle helmet's visor or sports goggles....what tools can I use? :(

Any hints about that?
Thanks,
D.

[rbaker]

AutoCad

[dcroteau]

Could you be more specific?

Surely the base version of AutoCAD does not contain Optics capacity?
If there's a specific plug-in, do you know the name of it? (And maybe an internet link to more info about it?)

Thanks,
I am going right away on AutoDesk's website....

[Jacqui]

AutoCAD for the frame and use a standard material for the lenses

[dcroteau]

Thanks,

but actually I am trying to find a plug-in or a software to used in combination with my actual CAD software (SolidWorks).

I don't think that AutoCAD by itself can cover the specific part of optical lens designing without any plug-in or external optical software.

Can it do ray-tracing and/or aberrations minimization?

[AWTECH]

Before you get in this project too deep. If you want to offer this design in Rx you had better make sure you will not need a $250,000 5 axis CNC edger.

Optical design software is available but I don't quite understand why you would need a different curve other than a sphere for the front?

[dcroteau]

Hi,

It's ok, all Rx requirements are going to be as insert so the protective eyewear won't require any by itself.

The front surface can be spherical but the back surface will have to be at different thicknesses to reduce abberations in the case of a visor and to ensure that there is no residual prism, no residual spherical power, no residual astigmatic power, etc.

This change in thicknesses all over the back surface requires an optical software...

[rbaker]

Say what . . . varying thickness on a plano lens?
Autocad does geometry quite well

[AWTECH]

You can do this with math for various points to get the optics and then plot the curve with auto cad. You could also save yourself a great deal of problems and not have that much expense is to let a optical design firm do this simple design.

You can also use a simple 8 base front sphere and use an 8 base decentered sphere infront of the estimated eye placement and have a great lens. The size of the lens will make the nose area a little thicker as the diameter increases, as you need to have material on the outer edges.

[dcroteau]

That's a good idea AWTECH.
And for letting an optical design firm do the design, that's what we're actually doing but we want to see if we can take that expertise internally because the main problem with design firms is that you keep paying and paying for a product, but you never get more knowledgeable about HOW to do it....you're always kept in the dark.

So we want to evaluate different software as to be able to design the optics lens internally...since we have only 1 lens in our "lens system" / eyewear.

Do you really think it would always be cheaper to do that externally by design firms?

Or...maybe we don't need a "lens design" software but use a combination of math and simple CAD tools...but that doesn't help us in optimizing the geometrical parameters of the lens to reduce as much as possible all residual power, aberrations, etc...

Thanks anyway for your advice!