In Zemax, the Q-type Freeform surface is defined as:Surface equation of the Q-type Freeform​​​​​​In the above equation, c is the vertex curvature, k is the conic constant,  u = r/Un where r is the radial coordinate on the surface in lens units, and Un is the Norm Radius value for the surface.The polynomial terms are chosen to minimize the departure of the surface gradient from the surface normal of the best-fit sphere, as described in the paper: G. W. Forbes, Characterizing the shape of freeform optics.  Optics Express, Vol. 20 No. 3, 30 January 2012, pages 2483 – 2499.The Max Polynomial Radial Power column gives the maximum power of u included in the equation of the full surface.  Powers of u up to 20 are allowed and the corresponding allowed values of m and n are listed below.  (There are 229 coefficients if the order of u is 20.)Terms included in the Q-type Freeform surfaceThe full sets of Q polynomials can be derived using the following two equations, where delta is the Krönecker d

Hello, As the Help file said that the Qcon surface formula used by ZEMAX is based on the document 'Shape specification for axially symmetric optical surfaces' written by G. W. Forbes. So the formula used by ZEMAX to describe the surface shape using Qcon is as illustrated in the following formula diagram, right?                           Thanks

It would be nice if we could change the color of an individual cell in a row. For example, I’m working on a system with 2 scan mirrors, and each mirror has a row in the non-sequential component editor where I can apply a tilt at an axis of rotation. I have changed the color of those rows to stand out from the rest, but it would be even more helpful to identify which mirror uses Tilt About X or Tilt About Y values.I have notes in the comment, but if I am sharing this file with others, the color coding would provide more clarity.

Hello,I would like to modelize different benches, some on the top and some on the bottom.I use multi-configuration editor to do so. I have a beam coming from the top bench going to the bottom bench (top-down), with a central plane where the beams of the other benches will go at the end.I chose that my central plane is the global coordinate reference surface.I have a beam from the bottom bench, with a source, which has a path and going through the same optics (PBS etc.) of the way (top-down) but it is going through them in the “opposite” direction to go on the top bench (down-up), through the central plane.To model that, I just add all the surfaces from this down-up direction in another configuration (“configuration B”), before the central plane, and ignore them in the other configurations (“configuration A”), only the central plane is common to all configurations. I then model again the optics which the beam from the bottom is going through, until the central plane. I ignore for this c

Hi Community,I am confused by the way Zemax calculate surface curvature in X and Y direction. Consider a very simple case: a sphere.Take  latitude direction as X axis and  longitude direction as Y axis, and pick up 3 points P1,P2,P3 in different latitude circle. You will see each latitude circle has different circular radius. SO I will expect surface cross section curvature analysis (or use SCUR operand for data 4/5) will give different curvature values in these positions,BUT OpticsStudio always give same value constant equal to sphere curvature. Same true for use SCUR(data 4/5 for XY direction, even  data 0/1 for tan/sag direction).So what happened here? Did I miss something simple?  thanksEric Yu  

Hello, I am currently trying to build an OAP mirror that will collimate a gaussian source that is diverging at an angle of roughly 40 degrees. The light source diverging will engulf the mirror when it reaches that far, so the mirror is only capturing a fraction of the total light emitted from the source. Ideally my off-axis distance is roughly 6 in (152.4mm), so my source is off centered from the mirror “center axis” by 6in. My source is at the focal length of the mirror so when light reflects it is collimated (I think?). My mirror has a focal length of 60 in (1524mm) and a diameter of 6 inches and is parabolic. I will attach a picture of my model below. This is my “severalith” attempt at creating it but am not having much luck. I am unable to get the light collimated at the detector. I have tried using the merit function to optimize it as well but am clearly not having much luck with that since it keeps moving my source off of the mirror. I have also tried to follow along with the How

Sample code using Interactive Extension:TheConnection = ZOSAPI.ZOSAPI_Connection();TheApplication = TheConnection.ConnectAsExtension(21);TheSystem = TheApplication.PrimarySystem;Obj2 = TheSystem.NCE.GetObjectAt(2);Obj2_VolumePhysicsData = Obj2.VolumePhysicsData;Obj2_VolumePhysicsData.Model = ZOSAPI.Editors.NCE.VolumePhysicsModelType.DLLDefinedScattering;Obj2_ModelSettings = Obj2_VolumePhysicsData.ModelSettings.S_DLLDefinedScattering_;Obj2_ModelSettings.DLL = 'Mie.dll';Obj2_ModelSettings.MeanPath = 5;Obj2_ModelSettings.SetParameterValue(0, 1.53);Obj2_ModelSettings.SetParameterValue(1, 0.5);Obj2_ModelSettings.SetParameterValue(2, 100000000000000000);Obj2_ModelSettings.SetParameterValue(3, 0.001);Obj2_ModelSettings.SetParameterValue(4, 1); For newbies, re-requested steps:The object is set to a volume object  The interactive extension is activatedMore information:You can find the settings for DLL Defined Scattering in the ZOSAPI.Editors.NCE.IVMPS_DLLDefinedScattering Interface Reference. T

I was so excited to see the bug was fixed in 2024 R2 release notes, but it continues to happen. 

I would like to use lenses from Thorlabs to collimate the NA=0.22 beam to around 0.4mm size. What merit functions should I use to achieve this goal? Can I also use Stock lens matching and merit functions together to achieve this goal?

I am looking to make a mirror with a rectangular hole in it, similar to the one above that I’ve made in SolidWorks. I think there’s a way to do this with Boolean operations but I’m not too familiar with non-sequential mode and haven’t found a good tutorial. Thanks in advance for the help.

I'm running opticstudio 20.2.2 and don't understand the help about the off-axis conic freeform surface. Opticstudio help on this surface type says it is governed by 'equation 5', which I've transcribed below: z_f(r) = w(r) + A_1 x^2 + A_2 y^2 + .... The terms listed in the lens-data editor are presented as XnYn where n is an integer from 0 to whatever # of terms you like. So, what is the relationship between the A_n coefficients in the documentation and the XnYn coefficients in the lens data editor? Note the A coefficients start at the second power of x. I.e. is the equation something like z(r) = w(r) + X1Y0 x^2 + ... or z(r) = w(r) + X1Y0 x^1 y^0 + XiYj x^i y^j + ... It would also be great if it was possible to get the same surface but as a radius instead of x/y.

Is there a way to plot more than 12 field points in 3D layout etc?  I’d like to display a few more to fill the field of view.

Hello everyone. This is my first time asking a question, so please understand that there may be some inadequacies.We succeeded in giving random Zernike coefficients to Zernike surfaces with non-sequential modes. However, we could not do the same with Zernike standard phases in sequential mode using the same ZPL.Are there any different conditions when dealing with ZPL in sequential and non-sequential modes?

Hello,How can I get the operand values?I want to obtain the TOLR value.Additionally, the commands for Show/Hide of MCE, TDE, and MFE are not working correctly. I would appreciate any advice. I am currently using MATLAB. 

Hi, Is there a way to copy a glass from one catalog to another in the newer versions of Zemax? I was able to do this in the earlier versions of Zemax but it seems that the copy glass functionality is not available in the 2024 R2 version. I have included screenshots of the materials catalog from both Opticstudio 18.9 and 2024R2 to show the difference.Screenshot from 18.9: Screenshot from 2024R2: Thank you,Sam

One of our goals in Ansys is to model reality so our customers get the most accurate modeling analysis that agrees with their measurements in the real world. As part of this goal, we are enhancing the Non-Sequential mode in OpticStudio. In the 22.3 release, the team brought to life the NSC single ray trace analysis; let me tell you, it is powerful and cool!With the NSC single ray trace tool, you can add a source ray anywhere in the system space to evaluate light propagating. This tool will not modify or add an NSC object in the editor, allowing you to keep your editor system clean. Also, it provides all the ray data just as the ray database does. No more filtering ray databases to find the ray you want to evaluate! If that is not enough, the tool is also available in the ZOS-API and allows the extraction of any computed parameters. See attached example code for a basic introduction to this tool.Also, look at the NSC single ray trace layout tab at the bottom of the analysis window. Here

I’m trying to create an orange from boolean orange slices in Zemax.  The question is how to wrangle them into position in the simplest way possible.  I’ve attached a screenshot which shows the LDE and the incorrect placement of the 2nd wedge.  Thanks!

I am trying to use the N-BK7 Rod lens from Edmund Optics in my non-sequential mode simulation. When I try to insert the lens into my system (located in the Zemax library under Edmund Optics, PN: 54087), I always get the error message "Invalid Toroid Sag." How do I fix this issue? Thank you for your help

Hi there.I’m trying to collimate this system. I have to use the first aspheric lens that I already have. I added a second lens to experiment with. Do you have any suggestions on how I can achieve collimation for the system?

Hey friends, the object nesting rules is quite confusing sometimes to me. I have a ball lens, connected with a tube volume with the same material and an optical fiber sending photons to it. See below. Rays should not be bent here. What is wrong? Can anyone help?Thank you! 

Hi there.I have a laser diode with divergence angles of 30 degrees and 6 degrees in the x and y directions, respectively. I represented the divergence angles in two fields: 30 degrees in the x direction and 6 degrees in the y direction. I want to achieve the minimum spot size where the two fields overlap. However, when I perform the optimization, I get results where each field has its minimum spot size within its own field. How can I obtain the minimum spot size where the fields overlap?

Dear All, I see an artefact in rays being projected from 45° to the first lens surface.One of the rays does not hit the lens surface as shown here: The first surface is a dummy surface because object distance is infinity.The spot diagram show a radius of about 1200 µm whereas the spot radius for other object angles is between 4 and 9 µm. Surprisingly 40° and 50° object angle rays do not have same behaviour.  Is there a way to rectify this or maybe ways to find sources of this artefact? Any suggestions are welcome. Regards,Amit PS: For confidentiality i could not add an image of the entire cross section of the objective design.

I have many different project folders with different STEP files.  I need my defined polygon objects in some of the folders, and others in other folders.  However, Zemax apparently only wants to see *.POB files in the C:\Users\user_name\Documents\Zemax\OBJECTS folder.  It can’t find them otherwise.  What’s the trick to get Zemax to acknowledge *.POB files that are copied to other folders that have been selected in Preferences?If there’s no solution, can we get a dedicated folder in the preferences list?Thanks, Mike

I’m trying to make a high power beam dump in the form of a triangle with a slit for the incident power.The idea is that each surface should be X% absorptive and that the beam should bounce around between the three multiple times before enough of it’s energy dissipates.I’m getting constant errors with either not enough segments, or geometry errors.Also, I’m wondering if there might be a better way to “coat” it with a X% absorptive coat.What I’ve been doing, is placing a very thin piece of glass in front of each detector and coating the glass accordingly. 

Is it possible to truncate the top/bottom of a spherical lens in Zemax?For example. I would like cut the top/bottom part of a spherical lens to produce a rectangular spherical lens as shown below.Cheers!