Sketch optical setups. Watch the rays trace live.
A free, browser-based 2D workbench for lasers, lenses, mirrors, and everything between the source and the detector. Place components on a virtual optical table and the beam paths update in real time — no install, no account, no server storing your work.
Live ray tracing
Mirrors fold, lenses focus, dichroics split by wavelength, gratings and prisms disperse, samples fluoresce — every edit retraces the scene instantly.
A real element library
Lasers, LEDs and point sources, mirrors (flat, curved, galvo), lenses and telescopes, polarization optics, gratings and prisms, modulators, nonlinear crystals, fibers, detectors, and a focusing human eye.
Direct manipulation
Select a component to get resize handles, a rotation handle, and a tuning knob for its key parameter — right on the canvas, no dialog required.
Paper-ready export
Export a crop of your setup as SVG or PNG for a manuscript or slide deck. An optional Figure frame sets the exact export bounds without appearing in the artwork.
Share a link, not a file
The Share action compresses your sketch into the URL itself and generates a QR code. Opening the link rebuilds the exact setup — no account, no server-side scene storage.
Honest about what's simulated
Every component is labeled as simulated, needs setup, or diagram-only. OpticalSetup is a qualitative geometric-optics workbench, not a calibrated design package, and says so.
How it works
- Choose a source from the component library — a laser, LED, or 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 signal, spectrum, or polarization the tracer computed.