Setting Laser Reflection Parameters

The amount of laser beam power deposited at each surface element includes contributions from:

• Direct laser illumination
• Reflected laser light.

To specify parameters for calculating the reflection of laser light (or "glint"), select the Lasers | Set Power Calculation Parmas menu item. Parameters for computing reflected laser light are on the Reflection tab of this dialog.

Reflected laser light can be calculated for up to a maximum of 5 reflections. Note that as more reflections are computed, the CPU requirements can increase significantly.

If the power in the reflected light falls below the specified threshold value, the light is no longer reflected. The user specifies this threshold as a percentage of laser power in a given laser beam cone.

The reflected laser power is normalized to ensure the beam power for each cone is appropriately conserved. In doing this line-of-sight tests are performed to determine if power escapes the grid. To set the number of radial and azimuthal points in the test grid, press the Advanced button and adjust the parameters.

The reflection of laser light is computed using a Phong reflection model. The specular reflection parameter, η, can be specified by the user. To do this, for Phong Reflection, select Specify Value, and enter the value in the box to the right. A lower value for the Phong reflection parameter results in the reflected beam being spread out over a larger area.

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