Hi All, I am modeling optical system where there is a need to know the angles of the propgating rays after reflection, diffraction etc.However, when using the Detector viewer/radiance space, I found different angles than anticipated.For example, propagating free rays with tilt x 30, tilt y 20- I got: 21, 28.8 at the detector(attached here):What happend?  Thanks,Nadav 

Hi Guys, Looking for a merit function that was used for the Fly’s eye array for uniformity.Fly’s eye arrays for uniform illumination in digital projector optics – Ansys OpticsThis file also comes in the sample of the zemax file. \Documents\Zemax\Samples\Design Applications\Illumination Systems\1- Flys Eye IntegratorsIf anyone can share the .mf file will be helpful. Thanks, 

Hello,I am currently trying to understand the sampling behavior of the FFT PSF analysis in OpticStudio. The analysis has two sampling parameters:‘Sampling’, hereafter referred to as S, documented as “The size of the ray grid used to sample the pupil”. ‘Display’, hereafter referred to as D, documented as “The display size indicates what portion of the computed data will be drawn when a graphic display is generated. The display grid can be any size from 32 x 32 up to twice the sampling grid size. Smaller display sizes will show less data, but at higher magnification for better visibility”.Based on implementations described in the literature and basic tests with OpticStudio, I assumed the PSF calculation works like this:Sample the wavefront at the pupil with a sampling S; Zero-pad the wavefront to the maximum possible display sampling Dmax; Crop the result to a size D. This last step was inferred from OpticStudio’s output.Based on the properties of the Fourier transform, I assume the foll

Hi Guys, using Opticstudio Professional version. Is there a way to optimize a CAD file (.iges or .step) in the professional version or the CAD file can only be used for visualization and ray tracing? 

Hi, I’m trying to learn how to use tolerancing tools in zemax. For this, I uploaded a singlet file from thorlabs catalog, to start with something simple. No merit function or variables in this file. I do not understand why the RMS spot value is not the same in the tolerancing summary and in the spot diagram.I tried different sampling but it didn’t help. Here the values are close (7.7 and 9.1 microns), but with more complex files the difference was really large.See capture: 

Hi All! I have created an User Extension using C++ and it has built .exe file and can run it when I open Zemax. Is it possible for me to run the user extensions in MATLAB or Python using any ZOS API function?

Ansys has made its help documentation publicly available, and this include Zemax OpticStudio help. It is open to anyone with internet access and has a search functionality. You can access the help file in the following link: Ansys Help

Hello everyone!In my current optical design, I’m observing ray crossings at the image plane (as shown in the attached image). Optimizing for spot size at a posterior plane often turns out to be insufficient to correct this issue.Is there any parameter, operand, or control in Zemax that can help manage or prevent this ray intersection so that the rays remain more orderly when reaching the image plane like trying to get a ‘perfect’ gaussian sphere as wavefront?Thank you in advance!  

When the version is upgraded to 2025R2, only the PRO version is supported

I have a system where the PSF is constructed from several different configurations (>2) simultaneously. I see that the Huygens PSF and MTF can do a coherent sum from different configurations (which is awesome). However in my case I expect them to be mostly incoherent to one another. Is there a way to directly generate incoherent sum PSF and MTF results?

If tolerance the position of an non-sequential object that is the reference object for a second object, is the position of both objects changed together in the tolerancing analysis? I'm asking because I need to tolerance the position of a module that consists of several objects, and I'm not sure how to do it in Non-Sequential Mode

Hello, Going over this material, is there an optimizer available that anyone can point me to? By that I mean merit function. Because not sure what I will be optimizing and where to insert the mask that I want to project. Its not too clear.  Fly’s eye arrays for uniform illumination in digital projector optics – Ansys Optics  

Hi,In the image simulation analysis what is happening when I’m using a wrong ‘field height’?What Zemax do when I’m using a larger field height and smaller field height?Where can I read about the image simulation engine and how to adjust each field type for the image simulation.When to define the pixel size?Last question, lets say I have a lens designed for object height of 10x10.In the Field Data Editor I set the object height to 5X7. What  field height should I use in the image simulation?Thanks in advance.Eyal

I had a post in Chinese but maybe this helps more people who wants to simulate the tolerance of their systems using ZPL. 如何使用ZPL改变POP中的beam和fiber数据 | Zemax CommunityThe MODIFYSETTING can be applied on the .CFG which has the same name of your design file and locates under the same directory of your file. This is the file that the POPD reads. You have to manually click the SAVE button to generate this file first. If we modify the POP.CFG, it does not work.Here is the sample ZPL code.popCFG$ = "C:\Users\Desktop\Fiber Coupling.CFG"MODIFYSETTINGS popCFG$, POP_FPARAM1, 0.005MODIFYSETTINGS popCFG$, POP_FPARAM2, 0.005OPENANALYSISWINDOW POP, popCFG$PRINT MFCN()The OPENANALYSISWINDOW may not be necessary for certain users. When I run the test, I need this line to activate the modification on this CFG file.

What is the method of setting up reverse radiance feature on premium? with a source placed at the detector at the focal plane or else where. 

Hello.I opened this thread because I want to discuss the Overlay Monte Carlo Graphics feature. This might be a long introduction.Until now, I understood the Overlay Monte Carlo Graphics feature to be purely for overlaying the results of repeated Monte Carlo runs onto open analysis windows—Spot Diagram, RMS vs Field, Diffraction Encircled Energy...etc. I think some of you might agree.However, the Optics Studio Manual does not provide any description matching the details mentioned above. It explains its usefulness with a vague expression: "The resulting plots are useful for showing the total range of performance for the simulated lenses."   image 1_Optics Studio Manual I found this difficult to interpret, so I actually ran a tolerance analysis and compared the results one by one against the MC_case number. image 2_test system for Overlay MC Graphics (The image is after Overlay MC)image 3_Each MC case does not fit with each field I have attached two images. As you can see from the picture

Hi All, could someone please clarify how to observe a phase shift, that is induced by a moving diffraction grating? In the layout (see the image), the grating is moved parallel the light source. The defined diffraction orders of the grating are +1 and -1. By recombining the diffracted light, I would expect intensity change due to interference as a function of a gratings position. However, this is not the case, and the intensity remains constant (see the graph).   

Hi all,I'm looking for help understanding how to effectively extend depth of field using optical design principles—specifically within the realm of fundamental optics (no digital post-processing).The concept I'm exploring involves a multi-focal lens system, similar in spirit to intraocular lenses. To illustrate, I’ve configured a simple f/5.5 system using a single Binary 3 surface. This allows for two annular regions where I varied the phase² and phase⁴ terms to achieve nearly perfect spot sizes at two distinct object positions—one 25mm before and one 25mm after the nominal object at 250 mm. The focal length is approximately 10 mm.In the diagram below:Green rays represent a conventional single-focus lens. Blue rays show the multi-focal design, optimized for object distances of ±25 mm from the nominal. The inner multi-focal region (longer focal length) has a radius equal to half the full aperture.Here’s the resulting MTF vs. object distance plot:Red curve: single-focus lens (green rays)

Hi Zemaxers I am reading this tutorial, and the NA in System and Fiber coupling confused mehttps://optics.ansys.com/hc/en-us/articles/42661821960851-How-to-model-angle-cleaved-fibersAs far as I know, the fiber coupling efficiency does not use the system NA to calculate, but you need to input in the its ownAnd I am just wondering, why the two NA do not match? say, both NA 0.2 or NA 0.1the tutorial shows a setup likeobj- lens- imagesimulates  source fiber - lens - receiver fiber so shall the light source NA = source fiber?   it will be appreciated if you point out my misunderstanding thank you Yang

I want to design an underwater optical system using non-sequental OpticStudio.  I know how to do this in sequential, but doing it in non-sequential is baffling me.  Any advice?

Hi all, Just wanted to share something I figured recently while creating teaching materials.In Non-Sequential, you can use a Source Ray Array with enough density to make a continuous solid beam. The actual sampling required is to be tested on every machine (due to screen resolution), but it did the job for me in this animation I made. All the frames are generated with OpticStudio and Fiji was only used to compile the AVI file.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9DlwIyLc38 (static preview below)The beam size is changed by updating the number of rays in the array using SETNSCPROPERTY with code 161 or 162.Note that I also used a Source Ray Array to fill the aperture profile on the left as the ray colors are more realistic than those you put on Objects.EDIT: the ray thickness in the NSC Shaded Model didn’t seem to have an impact on the necessary sampling (as I expected).The thing that I like is that although its an animation, the raytracing is actually correct.Hope it helps, and take care, Da

Hello community, I have a CAD object created from a STEP file loaded into the lens editor. When I run a raytrace and save rays, I see a correct raytrace. When I try to use the X_HITFACE(n,b) filter to isolate and visualize specific rays it does not work. I set up the filter to show only rays that pass directly thru the faces that define the lens region. The filter returns no rays passing thru the lens face even though I can clearly see rays passing and refracting at the lens face. I have correctly identified the lens faces using the CAD tab under the object of interest. Does the filter not work on CAD objects.  I am using Ansys OpticStudio 2025 R2.01

Hil All,could anyone share a boilerplate for a ZOS-API application using VB.net.This would be a great starting point for me.Thanks!Hans