Software to link optical design and manufacturing

There has traditionally been a barrier between optical designers and fabricators that has impeded progress towards efficient overall engineering/production teams. The reason for the barrier is quite understandable: each group typically faces problems best solved by art rather than science. The fabricator is subject to the uncertainties that go along with processes that require highly skilled craftsmen, while the designer often does not know how the design works, or what the best tolerances are for a particular design. Current efforts to develop deterministic fabrication processes, along with increases in the computational power available to designers, hold promise of improving the situation and reducing the barrier between the two groups.