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!  

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

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

Hello Friends, Looking for a knowledge-based article on how to design the TIR lens pretty much as heifeng has done in his linked in profile. I want to be able to follow the article and create the same types of TIR lens. Can someone please fwd me the KB article if there is one or any instruction?  https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/artrix-tir-toolbox-haifeng-ding-8kkkc/?trackingId=md6AK5RuSQayBhTrKb21EA%3D%3D

I’ve seen prior posts on this with people indicating that there is no option for adjusting the values.  Somehow I’ve got them at two different sizes, but I cannot find anything I’ve done differently.  Does anybody have any guidance, since I literally cannot read the axis labels in the plot on the right?  

Is there a difference between the reported "ray" and "field" coefficients used in polarization ray-tracing through thin-film coatings?

HiI am using 2025 R2.02 version. It looks like the issue previously reported about the ISO drawing has been partially solved which is cool (https://community.zemax.com/topic/show?tid=5444&fid=7).I still have one problem, it’s the number of digits used for the SAG and edge thickness on the drawings.There is 5 to 6 digits on my drawing. In the L (R) surf TAB of the drawing, you can uncheck the Automatic box and change the surface sag but it seems to have no effect on the drawing… Do I miss something?Renaud

Hi all:I installed 2025  R2.02 and opened up a known good design with multiple POP analysis. The file  takes forever to load up. Has anyone else encountered this issue? I tried to click on “terminate” that appears on the POP windows but nothing really happens.Fortunately I  still have 2025 R2.01 and it has no problem opening the file.-Asuku

Hello Experts, My name is Arun, and I'm a beginner in Zemax design. I am trying to design a zoom system that can control a laser spot size from 50 microns to 500 microns, in 100-micron intervals, at a fixed working distance of 100mm. I am using a 520nm laser as a source. I'm having difficulty controlling the spot size while also ensuring that all spot sizes are focused at the fixed working distance. Could you please explain which operands I should use and how to properly set up the system to achieve this? Any initial design suggestions would also be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance for your support. 

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: 

Hello, I am wondering, why the value of RMS in the Surface Sag tool does not correspond to the RMS value set inside TEZI operand in the tolerance data editor. The values are quite similar (for example, RMS inside TEZI set for 1e-6 and RMS in the Surface Sag is 1,093e-6). Surface is spherical, so i just remove base radius in the Surface Sag tool. Regarding the TEZI documentation, both values should be identical. Better sampling of the sag also does not help.

What is the new filter for X_Hit(n,b)?

Hello, I’m having issues with system I built. It contains an object (a prism) which is contained in nonsequential part. The system reflects the rays, until the last reflective surface, at which point half of the rays are reflected, and another half are transmitted. I do not know why this issue persists. The prism was built in SolidWorks and imported as .step file. I get error messages saying “Error in target 1. Missed surface 5” and “Error 10561: NSC group surface 4, source 0. Geometry error object 1 detected.” with additional info about coordinates.I would normally press the “Ignore trace errors” button, but I need to get information on spot size, chromatic focal shift, etc. so I need to fix it in order to be able to obtain this information. I attached the prism.step file and .zmx and zda. files in .zip archive. If somebody knows what’s the issue I’d be happy to hear the fix. Thanks in advance. 

If you system has vignetting, is there a way to list surface(s) are doing the vignetting?Thank you,John 

Hi All, I have multiple configurations set in zemax opticStudio.How can I export the CAD file together with the geometric ray tracing of these multiple configurations into CAD softwares?Now zemax opticStudio can export the CAD file of  single configuration.I need to export the Layout together with the ray tracing of multiple configurations to CAD software, how to do it?  Thank you,