Engineering challenges in automotive
The automotive industry is one of the largest consumers of advanced optical simulation software. A modern vehicle contains dozens of optical elements — from front headlights through DRL lamps, rear combination lamps, and daytime running lights, to HUD displays, ADAS cameras, and LIDAR systems in autonomous vehicles.
Each of these systems must meet strict photometric standards — ECE/EHR regulations for the European market, FMVSS for the US, and increasingly global UN standards. Verifying compliance at the physical prototype stage is costly and time-consuming — a single iteration can cost tens of thousands of zloty and weeks of work. Computer simulation allows this verification to be completed in days, with no prototype required.
TracePro is the tool of choice for lighting engineers at leading Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers — from designing the optical system through a TIR lens, through light distribution analysis of a multi-segment reflector, to photometric verification against the standard's limit curves.
How does our software support design?
| Product | Role in this area |
|---|---|
 | Design of LED reflectors, DRL lamps, TIR lenses, photometric analysis, stray light |
 | HUD projection systems, reversing-camera lenses, ADAS system optics |
 | Simulation of optical links in long-range LIDAR and V2X systems |
 | Verifying lighting-system geometry directly in SolidWorks |
a full-LED reflector compliant with ECE R112
Geometry import
The reflector geometry developed in SolidWorks was imported into TracePro using the RayViz add-in, preserving complete information about the optical and mechanical elements.
Light source model
Each LED was assigned the manufacturer's radiation characteristics, imported from a standardized IES photometric file, allowing the real source parameters to be accurately reproduced.
Ray tracing simulation
A 50-million-ray tracing simulation was run in TracePro, determining the illuminance distribution on a measurement screen 25 m away, in line with the automotive reflector evaluation procedure.
ECE R112 compliance verification
The luminous intensity distribution analysis showed that three test points failed to meet the ECE R112 requirements. The simulation results were used to optimize the reflector geometry and the light source positioning.
Verified design
After five iterations, the design met the ECE R112 photometric requirements, allowing the design process to be completed without building physical prototypes during the optimization stage.
Frequently asked questions
Automotive
Does TracePro support IES and LDT photometric files from LED manufacturers?
Yes. TracePro imports IES (IESNA LM-63 format) and LDT (Eulumdat) files directly from LED manufacturers (Osram, Lumileds, Cree, Nichia, and others), ensuring accurate modeling of the angular characteristics of the sources.
Does the software support ECE/UN compliance verification?
TracePro lets you define measurement points in line with ECE R112, R123, R7, and other regulations, and compare simulation results against the required irradiance values. Automatic compliance reports can be exported to PDF.
How do you model LIDAR systems in TracePro?
TracePro supports modeling both the LIDAR transmitter (pulsed laser with collimating optics) and receiver (lens system with an APD detector). The simulation accounts for reflections from objects in a 3D scene and analysis of the return signal.
Can models from Creo or CATIA be imported?
TracePro supports import from SolidWorks, Pro/ENGINEER (Creo), and Solid Edge via STEP and IGES formats. For CATIA, we recommend exporting to STEP V2 before import.
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