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APEX User Documentation
Article Type: Documentation
Updated: Jun 11, 2010
Author(s): Breault Research Organization
Abstract
APEX® is a stand-alone application that facilitates and optimizes an engineer’s interaction with optical-engineering software tools by fully integrating them in the industry-standard SolidWorks® 3D-modeling environment. In APEX, optical designers learn, create, design, and analyze in the same program environment. To facilitate your work, APEX includes built-in user documentation in the form of its Help topics.
To view Help, APEX must be installed on your computer and launched. When a part or assembly file is open, a task-related topic is quickly displayed by any one of these approaches: clicking Help, Help topics on the menu bar; clicking the Help button on an active dialog box; or clicking the “?” icon on an active PropertyManager.
Since APEX is built in part on SolidWorks, a separate Help file is included about SolidWorks fundamentals and features that are in APEX. Click Help, APEX Modeling Help to view this file. When you are using an interface specific to SolidWorks and click the Help button or icon, the related task topic is displayed in this Help file.
A glance at the Contents tab gives you a frame of reference for the topic categories in APEX Help. Click a book on this panel to open its pages, and then click any topic title to view the topic on the right panel. You will find procedures related to your task, conceptual overviews, and background reference topics of a technical nature. Here are highlights of each book in Help:
Welcome includes a brief overview of APEX, the copyright and license agreement, and contact information for BRO Customer Service.
Introduction to APEX includes key concepts, a peak at the user interface, and an introduction to the Optics Manager, where you will be creating and interacting a lot with APEX. Before you start using APEX to do your work, please take some time to review this book. The APEX Workflow topic introduces you to the four-step process of working in APEX, and this workflow is visible in the remainder of the Content tab:
- Define and verify your system geometry
- Define and verify your system sources
- Trace the rays
- Analyze the results
Topics in each of these four workflow books contain the feature-rich information you need to get your work done in APEX.
When APEX is not open, Help can be viewed as a stand-alone file from your APEX installation area (KernellangenglishAPEX_Help.chm).