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Converting measured scatter data into a TracePro Surface Property

Question

I have measured scatter data, and I want to use this data to create a Surface Property in TracePro. What options are available?

Synopsis

Converting measured scatter data into a TracePro Surface Property

Solution

  1. The TracePro Surface Property Generator can be used to convert many scatter measurement file formats into a TracePro Surface Property. Select Import in the Surface Property Generator and note the supported file formats in the current release of TracePro.
  2. Plan B is to manually convert the data. The general rule for getting measured scatter data into a format so it can be imported into TracePro as a Surface Property is that if you can create a Surface Property using the TracePro Surface Property Editor, then data can be imported to fit that set of options in the Property Editor.

The best way to verify the format of the measured data is to:

  1. create a "template" property using the TracePro Surface Property Editor, adding incident angles, wavelengths, etc., so it is consistent with the measured scatter data (or at least adding some of each so the format will be apparent), but do not actually enter the BSDF Values.
  2. export the template property as a text file
  3. open the text file in a text editor or spreadsheet application
  4. copy and paste the measured data into the template property
  5. import the resulting property into TracePro