Automotive designers use TracePro to integrate LEDs, HID lamps, and incandescent lighting into cars, trucks, and commercial vehicles. LED-based headlamps are now used on many vehicles. These high-power LED systems must be analyzed to verify performance.
LEDs have long been used for automotive ambient lighting. They also illuminate dashboard and gauge clusters using light pipes and light guides, which employ gentle curves to steer light by Total Internal Reflection (TIR). This is combined with beveled corners that act as mirrors, enabling designers to use fewer LEDs.
Designers of Head-Up Displays (HUDs), windshield systems, collision detection systems, rearview cameras, and backup illumination systems use TracePro to analyze their designs, including:
- Illuminance from any interior or display lighting
- Luminance maps, photorealistic renderings, and “lit appearance” of instrument panels and interior and exterior lighting
- 3D illuminance on any surface
- Candela plots on any surface
TracePro helps automotive designers visualize the effect of their LED layout, design, and placement through the use of photorealistic rendering of interior and exterior uses, including the illumination of:

- Instrument panels, consoles, and other controls
- Door handles and window openers
- Footwells and storage areas
- Trunks/boots and truck beds
- Headlamps and tail lights
- Warning Lamps
- HUD and windshield design
- Navigation, stereo and informational displays