High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Fred Optical Engineering Software (FRED) is a commercial 3D CAD software program for optical engineering used to simulate illumination through optical systems. Fred can handle both incoherent and coherent light using Gaussian beam propagation. The program offers a high level of visualization using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) parametric interface. According to the publisher, Photon Engineering, the name "Fred" is not an acronym, and does not mean anything.