QUADOA® FAQQUADOA® Optical CAD's FAQ provides detailed answers to common questions about the software's features, usage, and troubleshooting.
No. The license quote request is not a binding sales agreement and without any obligation and therefore without any incurring costs for you. After the submission of a license quote request, we will send you a non-binding offer via mail with further license information. There are no costs and obligations for you.
There are no annual costs as long as you buy a perpetual license! QUADOA® Optical CAD is available as perpetual licenses without incurring any annual costs and as subscription licenses on semi-annual basis. After purchase of the perpetual license, the license has no expiration date. You can use QUADOA® Optical CAD for as long as you want at no additional costs. Subscription licenses are available on a semi-annual rental basis.
QUADOA® Optical CAD is sold as a perpetual license without any incurring annual costs and as subscriptional licenses on annual basis. Once purchased a perpatual license of QUADOA® Optical CAD, the license can be used as long as you want without expiring. The subscriptional licenses are offered on annual rental basis. A subscriptional license allows to have access to one QUADOA® license at a time and to share the license from different places around the world, without the need of a single license dongle.
Following protection types are available to secure QUADOA® Optical CAD against unauthorized usage.
Hardware-based
Hardware key: In this case, QUADOA® Optical CAD is unlocked by connecting an USB dongle containing the license key to the computer. A commercially available USB port must be present and permanently available on the computer used. Restrictions regarding the required standard of the USB version may result from the Agreement. If a hardware key is used, the Software can be migrated independently to a new computer if the technical requirements are met on this computer.
Hardware-based (network version)
Hardware key (network version): In this case, QUADOA® Optical CAD is unlocked by connecting an USB dongle containing the license key to the network server. The license key is provided within the network by connecting the USB dongle to the network server, which allows QUADOA® Optical CAD to be opened on computers connected to the network server. Since the licenses are concurrent licenses, QUADOA® Optical CAD can be opened on one (1) computer at a time per purchased license. The computers must be permanently connected to the functional network in order to use QUADOA® Optical CAD.
Software-based
Software Key: In this case, QUADOA® Optical CAD is unlocked by reading in an encrypted license key into the computer. When the license key is read in, the license key is installed on the computer, which allows QUADOA® Optical CAD to be opened on this computer.
Software-based (network version)
Software key (network version): In this case, QUADOA® Optical CAD is unlocked by reading in an encrypted license key into the network server. When the license key is read, the license key is installed on the network server, which allows QUADOA® Optical CAD to be opened on computers that are connected to the network server. Since the licenses are concurrent licenses, QUADOA® Optical CAD can be opened on one (1) computer at a time per purchased license.
QUADOA® Optical CAD licences are protected via an USB-Dongle in order to avoid unauthorized usage. In order to run QUADOA®, the QUADOA® hardware USB-Dongle has to be connected to your computer or network server.
A QUADOA® Optical CAD cloud license gives you access to QUADOA® from every PC around to world which has access to the internet. In addition, the QUADOA® license can be shared for example with your colleagues, even if they are working on a different continent. If you own more than one cloud license, it is possible to have simultaneous access to QUADOA®. QUADOA® is installed on your private PC as usual. For that all data is saved on your private PC. Only the QUADOA® license key is stored on a cloud server.
The Software & Maintenance Support is included for the first year in the license price. After the first year, you can extend the service for annually 25% of the current license purchase price. For subscription licenses, the Software & Maintenance Support is included for the term of lease.
For the first year, the Software & Maintenance Support is included in the license purchase price. For the following years, you can extend the Software & Maintenance Support Service for additional 25% of the current license purchase price. You will get access to frequently updates for the basic version and toolpackages you have purchased, to ensure you have the newest features available in QUADOA® Optical CAD. The Software & Maintenance Support Service includes free advice via mail at support [at] quadoa.com in all technical issues as well as operating questions regarding QUADOA® Optical CAD. We are eager to help you in the best possible way, in order to give you the best user experience with QUADOA® Optical CAD and to succeed with your optical design tasks. Issues regarding general optical design are not included in that service.
The Software & Maintenance Support includes free updates for the basic version of QUADOA® Optical CAD as well as the purchased toolboxes. Updates of QUADOA® Optical CAD will be released at least two times a year. The Software & Maintenance Support Service includes free advice via mail at support [at] QUADOA®.com in all technical issues as well as operating questions regarding QUADOA® Optical CAD. We are eager to help you in the best possible way, in order to give you the best user experience with QUADOA® Optical CAD and to succeed with your optical design tasks. Issues regarding general optical design are not included in that service.
Yes! The Free 45 Day Trial is totally free of charge without any incurring costs. The trial is valid for 45 days. After that period, the trial will be automatically deactivated without the need to unsubscribe and without incurring any costs.
The Free 45 Day Trial is functional limited, e.g. saving and the access to the Python, MATLAB® and C++ SDK user interfaces is denied.
University research institutions can acquire the QUADOA® Optical CAD university research license. The research must be carried out and accommodated on site at the university and must be funded by the university. If QUADOA® Optical CAD is used as part of your education class for teaching purpose, you are eligible for a education and research license.
The QUADOA® Optical CAD research license for universities gives researchers access to a modern optical design tool. The Research License is not subject to any restrictions on use for publications and patent applications. The research must be carried out and accommodated on site at the university and must be funded by the university. If the research is funded by third-party funds from industry, a commercial QUADOA® Optical CAD license is required.
Only University research institutions are eligible to acquire a QUADOA® Optical CAD university research license. Free economy companies have to acquire a commercial license for research purposes.
QUADOA® considers its responsibility to support scientific institutes and research institutes with cost-effective and straightforward modern software tools. The cost-effective research- and education license of QUADOA® Optical CAD provides scientists and students with an affordable access to state-of-the-art optical design software. As a result, QUADOA® contributes to a successful education of students and supports scientific research institutions with advanced optical design software.
A QUADOA® Optical CAD network license allows to run QUADOA® without the need of a personal USB-Dongle connected to your computer, if connected to an internal network server. In order to run QUADOA® with a network license, a special network dongle has to be connected to your network server or the license has to be installed on your network server. Dependending on the number of licenses purchased, one or more users which are connected to the same internal network are able to use QUADOA® simultaneously.
QUADOA® Optical CAD is also Linux compatible. We recommend to test the free 45 Day Trial with your operating system first before purchasing.
In order to update or upgrade your QUADOA® license, please send a *.c2v-File generated by the License Update Utitily to sales [at] quadoa.com. You can refer to the Update & Activation License Guide which you can find in the QUADOA® Download Center
Some mechanical CAD software packages don't show rays when exporting an optical design from QUADOA® as a STEP file. See below how to solve the problem for different mechanical CAD software packages.
SOLIDWORKS®
Change following import settings in SOLIDWORKS® in order to activate the ray-import out of STEP or IGES files.
Fusion 360 and other mechanical CAD software
For now Fusion 360 and other mechnical CAD software only support the import of surfaces and solid bodies. Importing curve data from STEP or IGES files is not supported. To solve the problem, export the rays out of QUADOA® as "Smooth Beam Hull" or "Polygon Beam Hull".
A black box file is an encrypted file format that allows a proprietary optical design to be encrypted and shared with a customer or partner company. The black box can then be used to simulate the lens in a larger system without revealing the design itself.To achieve these contradictory properties - encrypting the lens while making it possible to run ray tracing through it, which of course requires the data to be accessible and not encrypted - the “secret” key is also typically stored within the installation of such software that provides black box files.It would therefore be technically possible for anyone with appropriate computer science knowledge to extract the “secret” key, however this is not legal in Germany (§ 202a StGB) and other European states (see DIRECTIVE 2013/40/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL) due to IT law.As a result of this regulation, QUADOA® is unfortunately unable to provide import methods for third-party black box files.
If the error message "Feature has expired (H0041)" pops up, the QUADOA® license key could not be found or is not valid for the QUADOA® version you are trying to run. Please check if the QUADOA® Sentinel USB-Dongle is connected to your machine or to the network server. For software licenses, please check if you have an active license key under http://localhost:1947/ Features. If you don't have access to http://localhost:1947/ you may need to install the Sentinel HASP/LDK Runtime driver for Sentinel Dongles from the QUADOA® Download Center
If after installing QUADOA® the error message "Sentinel License Manager version too old (H0042)" pops up, you need to install the Sentinel HASP/LDK Windows GUI Runtime Installer for Sentinel License Dongle. If you have already installed the Sentinel HASP/LDK Windows GUI Runtime Installer please update to the newest version. You can find the Sentinel HASP/LDK Runtime driver for Sentinel Dongles in the QUADOA® Download Center
QUADOA® can be opened with a maximum number of 3 concurrent licenses. If the error message "Too many concurent user (H0038)" pops up while trying to open QUADOA®, the maximum number of 3 concurrent QUADOA® licenses is reached.Please note: After an unexpected software crash it might be, that the message "Too many concurent user (H0038)" appears. This error message is caused by an incorrect logout of the QUADOA® license by the Sentinel License Manager. To solve the problem, it is required to place the "Sentinel External License Manager" (hasp_rt.exe) next to the application which crashed. In case that your Python or MATLAB® scripting inteface application crashed, the hasp_rt.exe file has to be placed in the Python and/or MATLAB® installation folder. You can download the Sentinel External License Manager in the QUADOA® Download Center
If the error message V2C unknown HASP API 42 ERROR pops up, the Runtime version of Sentinel HASP/LDK is too old or not installed. If you have already installed the Sentinel HASP/LDK Windows GUI Runtime Installer please update to the newest version. You can find the Sentinel HASP/LDK Runtime driver for Sentinel Dongles in the QUADOA® Download Center
If the error message Feature could not be found pops up for example when trying to run QUADOA® or when trying to run the QUADOA® Mechanics Toolbox, the Runtime version of Sentinel HASP/LDK is too old or not installed. If you have already installed the Sentinel HASP/LDK Windows GUI Runtime Installer please update to the newest version. You can find the Sentinel HASP/LDK Runtime driver for Sentinel Dongles in the QUADOA® Download Center
If the error message Vendor library cannot be found pops up, the personal QUADOA® Vendor Library for the QUADOA® Optical CAD license could not be found on the computer. Please install the QUADOA® Vendor Library for software protected licenses on your PC in order to solve the problem. You can download the QUADOA® Vendor Library from the QUADOA® Download Center.
After installation of QUADOA® on Linux the message appears "Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.":
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.
Available platform plugins are: xcb.
Solution:
in terminal
$ export QT_DEBUG_PLUGINS=1
$ ./AppRun
Check output which library is missing: Cannot load library...
