Do you require assistance with your FRED software? First, be sure to check our Knowledge Base and FRED’s internal help system (available in FRED from Help… Help Topics) which answer many common questions. If you require additional assistance or have further questions, our support team is here to help!
Contact Email:
fredsupport@photonengr.com
Office Hours:
Monday – Friday (excluding Holidays)
To obtain support please email your question to the email address above including:
your FRED license number. You can find this from Help -> License Authorization. If you’re unsure where to find your license number please screenshot the dialogue and include it with your email.
where possible, a FRED file that demonstrates the issue. To help us understand the issue more quickly it is helpful if the file is stripped down to the bare minimum complexity needed to discuss / show the issue. Note that any files shared with us must not be subject to export controls or NDA’s of any kind.
a detailed description with screenshots as necessary to explain the issue and guide us where to look or how to recreate your results.
Where we find we cannot address an issue by email then we will offer a call back or Teams meeting, but all support requests must start via email.
Note that technical support is staffed internationally. Whilst we treat all files received in confidence, you should not send files that are commercially sensitive or subject to export controls of any kind. Where the original file cannot be shared, please recreate the issue in one of FRED’s many sample files or create your own ‘toy’ model and share that instead.
We aim to answer email questions within two business days and often do so much sooner. Questions sent to support will receive an automated acknowledgement, if you do not receive this please check your spam folders and be sure to add our domain (@photonengr.com) to your safe senders list.
If your current codes have expired, a license authorization dialog box opens when you start FRED. To manually open the License Authorization dialog box, select Menu > Help > License Authorization from the menu.
Upon renewal of a FRED license, Photon Engineering sends new authorization codes to the registered user with instructions for entering these codes into FRED.
No, you do not need to uninstall older versions of FRED. The newer version is installed in a separate directory with a path name corresponding to the version number.
Note: Remember that FRED files are not forward compatible. A FRED file saved in a newer version cannot be opened in prior versions of FRED.
FRED automatically installs the necessary USB key drivers, but there may be instances when a standalone key driver must be installed manually. The installers are included in the FRED installation directory at <install directory>\Utilities\
SuperPro keys require the Sentinel Protection Installer.exe.
Sentinel keys required the Sentinel Runtime Environment Installer.exe.
If you’re not sure what key type you have please contact support.
Note: Please make sure to remove all USB dongles before installation.
Yes, multiple network USB dongles can be used on the same computer. Available licenses are the sum total of the network keys.
For SuperPro keys the network license monitor can be accessed on the license server by navigating in a web browser to the address: http://localhost:6002.
For Sentinel keys the network license monitor can be accessed on the license server by navigating in a web browser to the address: http://localhost:1947/
Upgrading a network license to the most recent version of FRED is a two-part process that includes 1) the installation of FRED on the local PC, and 2) the upgrade of the Sentinel License Server on the server. Verify both have been done. If not, the Sentinel Protection Installer can be downloaded from their website at: https://sentinelcustomer.gemalto.com/sentineldownloads/.
Select the following search options: User Category = End User, Product = Sentinel SuperPro, Operating System = Your Operating System,
Type = Runtime and Device Driver, Language = Your Language
Click Search.
In the Search Results table, make sure to select the option that includes the FULL installer, not just the driver.
Click I Accept at the bottom of the End User License Agreement.
Click on the Download link in the Knowledge Base article to begin the download.
Also, see FRED’s Online Help topic entitled “Safenet Hardware Key – Network Setup” for more information.
Please refer to our KB articles:
While we don’t recommend a specific manufacturer or model, the following items should be considered when selecting a computer to run FRED:
FRED only runs on Windows. We recommend Windows 10 (Windows 7 is no longer officially supported).
FRED performs multi-threaded calculations on up to 17 threads while FRED Optimum supports up to 127 threads. Any number of threads beyond the limit for your version of FRED are not used.
Many components of FRED, such as BASIC scripting calculations and model updating, are not multi-threaded. Therefore, high-speed processors are advantageous. In many scenarios, performance is better for a smaller number of fast CPUs compared to a larger number of slow CPUs (e.g., 16 cores at 3.2 GHz vs. 24 cores at 2.4 GHz).
We recommend between as much RAM as you can afford to avoid buffer overflows that may occur when working with large raytraces. A good rule of thumb is 1-2GB per processor.
Sometimes, buffering cannot be avoided (e.g., when you need to trace more rays than can be processed with the available RAM). For this reason, it is beneficial to have a system with a high disk I/O. This stands for input/output, which is the speed of data transfer between the hard disk and the RAM. A solid state drive (SSD) is also recommended.
While FRED Classic and FRED Optimum do not leverage GPUs for computing, the user experience and model editing are much improved with a quality graphics card. Photon Engineering has had reliable performance with NVIDIA NVS series graphics cards.
FREDmpc does leverage GPUs for raytracing and analyses. An NVIDIA GPU board is required to use this functionality. Please refer to the FREDmpc page for more information about this product.
By far, the best way to learn FRED (and any new software package) is to attend a training class. Our Introductory course covers all the essential information to get you started off on the right track.
Our help system has a tutorial area which we also encourage new users to work through.
Finally, our support site (support.photonengr.com) has a number of interesting articles covering all manner of topics.
FRED Optimum can take advantage of multi-threading operations on a maximum of 127 threads while FRED can only use a maximum of 17 threads. Therefore, to achieve the best possible performance, it may be advantageous to upgrade your computer to leverage the maximum thread limits available in FRED Optimum.
For a full features list for both versions, visit our website’s FRED Software page.
Photon Engineering has adhered strictly to the OpenGL standard, but sometimes, graphics card drivers may cause problems. Try changing the pixel format preference by selecting Tools > Preference from the menu, clicking on the Visualization tab, and setting the pixel format to “Fast”.
Note: This change does not take effect until you start a new FRED session.
Photon Engineering has adhered strictly to the OpenGL standard, but sometimes, graphics card drivers may cause problems. The following solutions are recommended:
Select Tools > Preferences from the menu and click on the Visualization tab. Set the pixel format to “Safe” to enforce a software rendering mode. Please note that any changes to FRED preferences do not take effect until a new FRED is opened.
Use the GLView.exe utility included with your FRED installation to determine an acceptable OpenGL hardware rendering mode for your graphics card. Please see FRED’s online help topic entitled “Adjust the OpenGL pixel-rendering mode” for a detailed description of how to use this utility. In general, choose a pixel mode in which the “letter cube” of the GLView.exe utility rotates without flickering. (This may not necessarily be the fastest rotation.)
Download and install the latest video drivers from your manufacturer’s website.
By default, FRED autosaves one “level of undo” in the Undo directory. So, one action can be undone by selecting Edit > Undo from the menu. That action is stored in a *.fru file or *.frs script in the Undo directory.
The number of autosaved FRED documents may be increased by selecting Tools > Preferences from the menu, then clicking on the Miscellaneous 2 tab, and then using the up or down arrow to change the “number of levels of undo”. The autosaved*.fru files are named “FREDUndoXXXXXXX_Y.fru”, where X represents the timestamp of the autosave and Y indicates the undo level. However, FRED only autosaves one, the most recent, script (MostRecentScript.frs) file.
To recover a *.fru file, locate the Undo directory and change the file’s extension from “fru” to “frd”. You can then open or move this file as you normally would.
To recover the most recent script file, locate the file in the Undo directory and open it as you normally would any script file. You can then save this file as you normally would.
Note: The default Undo directory is “C:\Documents and settings\<username>\Local Settings\Temp\Fred Undo”. You can change this by selecting Tools > Preferences > File Locations from the menu, then scrolling through the file list, and then editing the entry for “Undo directory”.
Another Note: To have FRED automatically search the Undo directory and recover the most recent *.fru document, make sure “Allow about recovery” is selected as a preference. To do this, select Tools > Preferences from the menu, then click on the Miscellaneous tab, and check the “Allow abort recovery” checkbox.
Hyper-thread technology creates virtual CPU cores which do not have the same functionality as physical CPU cores. Therefore, the expected linear speed scaling does not apply. Keep in mind that performance scaling can be dependent on the specific construction of the FRED model. For example, the types and organization of surfaces in the model affect how well the raytrace scales with the number of threads. Also, remember that a raytrace’s Trace and Render option is a single-threaded calculation which doesn’t use a computer’s additional cores.
FRED can raytrace and analyze up to 2^63 rays in a single raytrace.
This error message indicates the likelihood that security software is interfering with with FRED’s read/write operations. Please consult your IT department for information regarding recent updates to your security software.
This can happen when the minimum free hard disk space is less than the amount required for the Ray Buffer pagefile. Please read FRED’s Online Help topic, “Troubleshooting – Unable to allocate memory for RayBuffer (RBV)” or our Knowledge Base article, “FRED Preference Optimization” for more information.
This can also happen when the minimum free hard disk space is less than the amount required for the Ray Buffer pagefile. Please read FRED’s Online Help topic, “Troubleshooting – Unable to allocate memory for RayBuffer (RBV)” or our Knowledge Base article, “FRED Preference Optimization” for more information.
The parametric construction of NURBs is fundamentally different than other native FRED surfaces, which can lead to difficulty in positioning or attaching analysis surfaces to NURBs. Unlike the native FRED surfaces in which the origin is definite and known, imported CAD models can contain NURB surfaces of arbitrary shape, size and position. This flexibility leads to a fundamental question: What point on the arbitrarily shaped NURB surface becomes the origin after import? For a detailed description on attaching analysis planes to NURB surfaces, please read the NURB surface origin section of FRED’s Online Help topic entitled “File – Import CAD” or read our Knowledge Base article, “CAD Surface Position and Orientation“.
Please see FRED’s Online Help topic entitled “Creating Basic Shapes”.
If you are absolutely positive that the surface information is correct, the cause is most likely due to visualization settings. Try increasing the tessellation (decreasing the tessellation scale size) for the selected entities. For more information on the visualization attributes, please see FRED’s Online Help topic entitled “Visualization Attributes”.
This message is encountered after having written a FRED document out to a *.frs file and attempting to run the script in v9.50 or earlier. The solution to this error message is to remove the lines “Sub Main” and “End Sub” from the script file before running.
While we don’t recommend a specific manufacturer or model, the following items should be considered when selecting a computer to run FRED:
FRED only runs on Windows. We recommend Windows 7 or newer (XP is no longer supported)
FRED performs multi-threaded calculations on up to 17 threads while FRED Optimum supports up to 63 threads. Any number of threads beyond the limit for your version of FRED are not used.
Many components of FRED, such as BASIC scripting calculations and model updating, are not multi-threaded. Therefore, high-speed processors are advantageous. In many scenarios, performance is better for a smaller number of fast CPUs compared to a larger number of slow CPUs (e.g., 16 cores at 3.2 GHz vs. 24 cores at 2.4 GHz).
We recommend between 16 and 48 GB of RAM to avoid buffer overflows that may occur when working with large raytraces.
Sometimes, buffering cannot be avoided (e.g., when you need to trace more rays than can be processed with the available RAM). For this reason, it is beneficial to have a system with a high disk I/O. This stands for input/output, which is the speed of data transfer between the hard disk and the RAM. A solid state drive (SSD) is also recommended.
While FRED and FRED Optimum do not leverage GPUs for computing, the user experience and model editing are much improved with a quality graphics card. Photon Engineering has had reliable performance with NVIDIA NVS series graphics cards.
FREDmpc does leverage GPUs for raytracing and analyses, which can run up to 150X faster than the same calculations on the CPU. When using FREDmpc, an NVIDIA GPU board is required. Refer to the FREDmpc page for more information.