A free, browser-based 2D optical workbench.
Draw your optical setup, trace it, measure it, then share it.
Place sources and optical elements on a virtual table: the beams trace as you move the optics or change their properties. Use detectors to read the attributes of light, such as power, spectrum, polarization and pulse duration.
Share the whole setup as a link or a paper-ready figure.
No install, no account, nothing stored on a server.
Live ray tracing
Simulated, not sketched: rays refract, reflect and disperse through the optics you place, and follow every component as you move it.
A real element library
More than 60 optical elements already in the library — sources, lenses, mirrors, fibers, modulators, nonlinear crystals and detectors — with more added regularly.
Direct manipulation
Resize and rotate components on the canvas, with tuning handles for supported parameters.
Paper-ready export
Vector SVG and high-resolution PNG for papers, looping GIF animations for presentations, all cropped to the frame you choose.
Share a link, not a file
One link carries the entire setup. Opening it rebuilds the live scene: no account, no file, nothing stored on a server.
Readouts with stated limits
Inspect simulated power, spectra, polarization and pulse timing with the appropriate detectors. Selected calculations are checked against independent references; each model's limits are in the wiki.
How it works
- Choose a source from the component library — a continuous-wave, pulsed or supercontinuum laser, or a broadband point source.
- Place optics in the beam: lenses, mirrors, filters, splitters, anything the light should pass through.
- Add a detector and select it to read the power, spectrum, polarization or pulse duration it receives.
Draw without an internet connection
Do you want to draw your setup without being connected to the internet? Install OpticalSetup as an app: the canvas and the bundled examples keep working offline. The wiki and the community pages still need a connection.
- Open the canvas once while you are online.
- Install it with your browser's Install app or Add to Home Screen command, where available. For example: in Chrome or Edge, the install icon in the address bar; in Safari on a Mac, File → Add to Dock; on iPhone or iPad, Share → Add to Home Screen; on Android, the browser menu → Install app.
- Launch it from your dock, start menu or home screen, with or without a connection. When you next open or reload it online, it checks for updates.
In browsers supporting offline storage, the canvas remains available at the same address after its initial offline download completes; open it once offline to check before you rely on it. To run it from the source code instead, download it from GitHub and follow the README.