Hi Ying,

Unfortunately, there is no built-in way to get the 3D location of the vertex of the exploded part in Non-Sequential mode.  The reason is because when OpticStudio explodes the individual CAD components, it uses the global reference as the XYZ origin.  So, if you toggle the Object Properties > Draw > Draw Local Axis, you can see that each exploded part has the same XYZ origin and that is at (0, 0, 0).

As with almost anything in non-sequential mode, you’ll need to run a ray trace to get any useful information.  For this specific case where you have a good idea that the lenses are “on-axis”, you can use a Source Ray and the NSRA Merit Function Operand to determine the XYZ location of the vertex:

1. Insert a Source Ray anywhere in NCE
2. Set the Z Position to a negative value (like -5)
3. Set the # Analysis Rays to 1
4. Hide the objects you don’t care about (you’ll need to analyze the objects one at a time)
5. Open the Merit Function Editor and add a NSRA operand
6. Set the following values:
   1. Src# = row number of the Source Ray
   2. Splt? = 0
   3. Pol? = 0
   4. Seg#: use 1 for the front vertex and 2 for the back vertex (assuming you’ve hidden all previous objects)
   5. Data: 3 for Z (1 for X and 2 for Y)
   6. Source # = 0

~Michael

Hi Michael,

This is very helpful. 

Thanks,

Ying