The complete history of release notes can be found here as pdf document.

VirtualLab™ 5.1.2 resolves some GUI problems for detectors and interfaces. Please read the release notes for a complete list and more details.

January 19, 2012.

VirtualLab™ 5.1.1 resolves some GUI problems and introduces some improvements for grating simulations. Please read the release notes for a complete list and more details.

January 9, 2012.

VirtualLab™ 5.1 introduces a 3D view of the entire system making the setup easier. A ray tracing mode is available now which gives a first insight about the behavior of systems. Catalogs for light sources and components have been added. Further, the usage of grating components has been revised, in particular more options for defining rotations have been added. These are just a few of many more innovations, please read the complete release notes for a complete list and more details.

December 19, 2011.

VirtualLab™ 5.0.3 is a service release without additional features.

September 12, 2011.

VirtualLab™ 5 introduces a variety of new features and improvements. First of all, the new Lighting Toolbox provides field tracing and design tools that give more flexibility for the design of compact illumination systems using microstructures and diffractive optics for the homogenization and shaping of LED light. In addition, VirtualLab™ 5 contains new session editors that simplify the design and the parametric optimization of refractive laser beam shaping systems. Further, parametric optimization has been enabled for the design of sub-wavelength gratings which can be used e.g. as antireflection structures or in order to modify the polarization of incident light. The simplified handling of Fresnel zones for optical interfaces and new modes for the control of the parameter run are some of the other new features of VirtualLab™ 5. Please read the complete release notes for additional improvements and more details.

June 22, 2011.

VirtualLab™ 4.10.2 is a service release with some enhancement: in VirtualLab™ Advanced, grating simulations make extended use of multiple cores resulting in a better performance. Further it is possible to switch off the parallelization of the loop of the parameter run separately, which might improve the performance in case of grating simulations.

March 2, 2011.

VirtualLab™ 4.10.1 is a service release with a few minor enhancements including additional free parameters for the parameter run and the parametric optimization.

January 17, 2011.

VirtualLab™ 4.10 introduces parametric optimization (available in VirtualLab™ Advanced) for optical systems, e.g. laser systems, represented by a light path diagram (Starter Toolbox). Further, new samples for optical interfaces and media have been added to the catalog and a new data based interface using non-equidistant data points is now available. As part of the diffractive optics toolbox, a new session editor for diffractive beam shapers is introduced. VirtualLab™ Advanced allows to use the FFT provided by the Intel MKL resulting in a gain of performance for many applications. These are just a few of many more innovations, please read the complete release notes for a complete list and more details.

December 13, 2010.

VirtualLab™ 4.9.3 is a service release without additional features. A bug in the export functions for interfaces has been resolved.

November 4, 2010.

VirtualLab™ 4.9.2 is a service release without additional features. Some computational issues have been resolved and the behavior of dialogs of optical interfaces has been improved.

October 25, 2010.

VirtualLab™ 4.9 extends the flexibility of 3-D grating simulations considerably. Sequences of x-y-modulated interfaces and x-y-z modulated media in between can be used to define a single period of the grating structure. The structure design capabilities have been revised. As a result all optical interfaces can be replicated periodically and do provide an export function now. Further, generators for data based and programmable spectra are available. For geometrical optics propagation, the option of a polynomial phase fit has been added. The Zernike and polynomial phase detectors have been revised and added, respectively. Please read the complete release notes for additional improvements and more details.

September 28, 2010.

VirtualLab™ 4.8.1 is a service release without additional features. Some computational issues with respect to the Grating Toolbox have been resolved.

July 8, 2010.

VirtualLab™ 4.8 extends the flexibility of 2-D grating simulations. Using so called stacks, the period of the structure can be defined by sequences of optical interfaces, including grating, conical, aspherical, sampled and programmable interfaces. In VirtualLab™ Advanced, larger periods and more orders can now be simulated in parallel. For optical interfaces pixilation and quantization has been enabled and more structural parameters can be varied in the parameter run. Please read the complete release notes for additional improvements and more details.

June 21, 2010.

The interface catalog of VirtualLab™ has been extended by Fresnel and cylindrical Fresnel interfaces, several types of grating interfaces and the combined interface. The ray tracing analyzer allows to adjust the brightness of rays according to their intensity in the input plane similar to the light view.
These are just two of many new features - a complete list can be found in the release notes.

March 30, 2010

The electromagnetic analysis of 3-D index-modulated gratings has been enabled. In version 4.6, the index-modulation can be described by a pillar-type medium that can be used to simulate, e.g., artificial media.

January 18, 2010.

VirtualLab™ 4.5.1 is a service release without additional features. The performance of programmable interfaces has been improved.

December 16, 2009.

With version 4.5 numerous new features increase the benefit by modeling optics with VirtualLab™ based on unified optical modeling. In Version 4.5 we add a new toolbox for resonator analysis to the VirtualLab™ product family. Further we enable the simulation of ultra-short pulses as part of the starter toolbox. These are just two of many new features - a complete list can be  found in the release notes.

December 1, 2009.

Version 4.2.1  is a service release without additional features.

May 28, 2009.

A 3D view of  interface sequences, Collins integral by ABCD matrix propagation and some new Light Path Elements have been added in the latest release version VirtualLab™ 4.2. More detailed information can be found in the Release Notes.

May 8, 2009.

Programmable Sources and programmable Transmissions are the major enhancements of VirtualLab™ 4.1. More information can be found in the Release Notes.

February 12, 2009.

VirtualLab™ 4.0.2 again introduces several Light Path Elements and other new features. Detailed information can be found in the Release Notes.

January 13, 2009.

The Release Notes describing enhancements and new features of VirtualLab™ 4.0.1 are available as PDF document.

December 3, 2008.

With a lot of new powerful and user-friendly features, LightTrans provides you with a new optics modeling and design package. If you have already a license and valid upgrade service, use the update service program to install the new version. Otherwise ask for your trial version now. The Release Note gives you an overview about the new features coming with VirtualLab 4.

November 2008.

VirtualLab™ 3.7 introduces the new toolbox concept of LightTrans: the Starter Toolbox Professional Edition replaces the Analysis Toolbox, the Diffractive Optics Toolbox Basic Edition replaces the Design Toolbox.

The following features have been added or updated in Version 3.6.

VirtualLab™ 3.6 supports latest Windows Operating Sytems:

• Microsoft Vista, Vista x64

• Microsoft XP, XP x64

VirtualLab™ 3.6 supports different license models:

• Single User License (1 dongle per computer)

• Network License (1 dongle attached to the server, floating license)

• Education Licenses in conjunction with a Single User License

VirtualLab™ 3.6 supports real color imaging

• Import of real color images

• Visualization of real color images

VirtualLab™ x64 3.6 supports 64-bit and multi-core systems

• VirtualLab™ x64 can make use of a multi-core system speeding up designs and simulations by a factor close to the number of CPU cores.

• VirtualLab™ x64 can exploit the entire physical memory allowing higher spatial and spectral resolutions of fields.

 For more information on VirtualLab™ 3.6, feel free to read the PDF overview.

The following features have been added or updated in Version 3.5.

• Automated sampling option for sources, transmission functions and propagation operators allow you to concentrate on optics instead of numerics.
• New light and data view visualizing all pertinent light field information at a glance, such as color, intensity, amplitude and phase of all three electric field components and polarization.
• New source concept featuring a choice of multiple wavelengths, polarization and partial coherence for modeling thermal sources, LEDs, multimode and excimer  lasers.
• New design of the main window and more intuitive structure of the menus.
• Steadily increasing number of modules that are part of VirtualLab™. Several  modules for polychromatic source modeling and detectors are already available.