Hi all, I am using Opticstudio to simulate hybrid (diffractive&refractive) systems. I know there are diffractive surfaces like Binary 2 to use. But my problem is that my diffractive components are wavelength-selective. One component (diffractive lens) only responds to one single wavelength. So how can I achieve this in Opticstudio? Lots of thanks! Jasper

Dear All, I am interested in desiging an optical design for an instrument that will have a slit width of 20µm (with a 3mm length). Now, how can this be defined for the system? Thank you very much. Naif

I would like to run batch raytracing of several nonsequential files. How can I automatically do that? Is there a way to open .zmx file within ZPL? Any other way? Batch file should do a sequence: open .zmx file, run raytrace,exit raytrace, save detector view as bmp, close file, open next .zmx file... Thank you.

How I can model a source with Batwing radiation pattern?

Question: I know the image sensor has 1280x960 pixels with 5 um pixel pitch. The system effective focal length is 10 mm. What is the Field of View of my system and how do I enter the field definition in the OpticStudio Field Data Editor?   Answer: Knowing the X and Y pixel numbers and pixel size, we can calculate the image size. The ratio between the half diagonal length and the effective focal length is tangent of angle θ which is the Half Field of View (HFOV) angle. In this case, the HFOV angle is calculated to be 21.8 degrees. If you would like to use Angle as the field definition in your system, you can click open the Field Data Editor, and in Fields Wizard, choose Distribution: Equal-area Y Fields and enter Max Field Y as 21.8 degrees. 

I am working in NSC and I want to put a boundary on the angle of the rays reaching a detector. I know that there are various ways to do this in sequential mode, but is it something feasible in NSC? Thank you in advance, Michele

Hi,  I am generating FFT PSFs in OpticStudio. The question now is how do I get the pixelwise PSF. OpticStudio just outputs a PSF in a certain Samplesize, but what does this 'Samplesize' acutally mean? Furthermore it gives you a 'Pupil grid size' and 'Image grid size' what exactly do these two parameters mean?   Thank you 

I have possibly a rather elementary question. Is it possible to export to a txt file (ASCII) the ray coordinates (or cosine directors) shown on a 'Standard Spot Diagram' or 'Footprint Diagram' ? The 'Text' tabs only offer a summary of the overall ray tracing but not the rays themselves. The closes thing I found is in 'Extended Scene Analysis --> Geometric Image Analysis' but has a completely different purpose, so not sure why it cannot be done for standard analysis tools... this is a big obstacle for more complex optical analysis. Many thanks!

Hi All, Apart from the Zeonex and Sabic catalogues, where else can I find plastic or polymer (non opthalmic) materials in Zemax? Thanks Richard

Hello, I would like to change the material properties of certain object types using a macro. Therefore I would like to use a For loop to scan all object types and change the material and all coatings of my CAD parts in mirrors. In itself very simple, but I did not find out how to use my commands. GetNSCObjectData is my plan for the Objecttype To change the material and the coaatings I am not sure about the right command. Additionally it would be good to know if there is a 'number specification' of all objects, comparable to .length in other languages. If a ZOS API application is required for this it would be good to know if I need to pay attention to this. With kind regards

Hello,    I'm exploring the use of Zemax with mirror setups in NSC mode and I'm a little confused, but then I'm a student in this field.   In order to limit the amount of rays in disk, I launch the ray trace with a filter string where I state save only those rays which impact last my detector (which it's ABSORB as well). Good for now (checked in 3D layout, only rays going to the detector)   Then I run the Path Analysis and I found the _1 path is listed with quite a lot of energy but the sequence showed it's not what I asked for.   Checking, and I see it's empty. Empty? Empty but listing an energy contribution?   I've checked with both the DB viewer and the NSC 3D layout, and yes, the ray subset _1 is empty. Also if I request the Detector Viewer to plot for subset _1, it's zero Watts.   Mind, the Path Analysis report stated there is a non-zero total flux out for that subset. There's an energy outp

Is there any way to get the raw data from the plots? For example get the raw data from the OPD Fan plots?  It used to be possible in the old Zemax but not in OpticStudio. Thanks

Hello, I would like to build a demo of Kohler illumination with paraxial lenses for teaching but I'm not sure how to go about it. I would like to assemble the Kohler illumation path with the field and aperture diaphragms and use this to illuminate and image a 'sample'. I would like an Image Simulation pane that demonstrates changes in depth of field and area illuminated when I tweak the field and aperture diaphragms. It is this last part in particular that I have no clue to how to achieve. I have assemble the illumination side on its own in sequantial mode. I can use this to demonstrate that the source is out of focus in the image plane, and that tweaking the field diaphragm alters the size of the footprint. I am not sure which statistic to use for measuring the NA of the illumination incident at the sample. It's not image space NA.    Thanks  

Hi, I am simulating an intense source in NSC, and I therefore need to use a lot of Analysis Rays. However, I the maximum number of rays that I can set is 4E+09. Is this a general threshold, or is it related to my computer? Is there a way I can simulate more rays than that? Also, when I try to run it with the Saving Rays function turned on, I get the error 'Failed to write ZRD file: the temp folder may be full!'. How do I avoid it? Thanks in advance, Michele

Last week it took 2 minutes to open the forum. Today it takes less than 10 seconds.  THANKS!

It's great that you have included the Design Templates in OpticStudio. I have a copy of Zebase from about 2005 which has some of the same information. The new included version is better. But there is one aspect of Zebase that I miss. The book that came with it included a table of contents. This table was organized by design type. If I was looking for a microscope objective I could go the that section of the table and quickly scan through the titles, which generally gave magnification or NA, and find a design close to what I needed. Other sections included 'Double Gauss Lenses' , 'Petzval Lenses', 'Telephotos', etc. This was so useful that I scanned the table of contents to a PDF and put it in the Zebase directory. I don't find the search criteria in the current Design Templates very useful. I would ike to see design types added as a criteria, so we can quickly locate a list of designs of a particuar type.  Kind regards, David    

Dear OpticStudio users, I had to replicate the design of a patented lens (US patent US7199938) in the context of my research at the MRC - Laboratory of Molecular Biology. In this patent, all surfaces are thoroughly described (radius, thickness, refractive index, and Abbe number), but it is never specified were the STOP position is. It is the second time I am facing this issue, and here is how I went about it: I have reversed the objective lens to have the specimen plane as the IMAGE plane. I am doing so because, usually, the aperture is at the back of the objective lens, and I can avoid using ray aiming (in the end I don't think it makes a big difference, and its probably fine to work with the forward model). I have created 5 equal area Y fields (only along Y because it is a rotationally symmetric design) that fill the field number of the objective lens. After the OBJECT surface (Surface 1), which has an infinite thickness in the reversed state, I have put a dummy sur

Is there any easiest way to make a wedge window in the NSQ mode? I have tried to make a wedge window in the SQ mode and then I converted it NSQ element. But zemax couldn't draw converted it in the NSQ mode. Thanks. 

Hello from a new user here:   Is there a way to easily replace a lens in the optical system? I could not find a relevant info in the forum.  For example, when you've already inserted a doublet lens A into the system, but want to change it to B (both are in the catalog). Is there a simple way to switch the surfaces without deleting and inserting a new one?  Thank you for your time.

Hi,  An error message was displayed when xy poly surfaces were used and more fields were defined. how to address this issue?

After the initial tolerancing of a system, how can I get a feel for which tolerances are affecting performance the most?

Hi, everyone, Can you guys help me. I would like to know how to give wavefront aberration in the initial state of the laser beam. So I want to know the wavefront aberration at the initial conditions of the laser beam. Then, I would like to perform ray tracing. If you have any ideas on how to enter wavefront aberration data in the initial conditions, I would love to know and learn. Thank you.

After optimization 3D Layout is only showing a blank screen and 'Maximum zoom reached'. Shaded model is able to show the system as expected with the same settings. its an infinite to infinite imaging but off coures the surfaces to show are limited to the finite region.      

I am attempting to model a GRIN TFF based 3 port coupler in zemax non-seqential mode. When using comercially available GRIN lens ZMX files in sequential mode, propagation is sinusoidal as expected for GRIN propagation. When I export to non-sequential mode it seems GRIN lens is no longer; propagation is linear and now this cylindrical lens seems to have uniform index of refraction instead of radially varying index of refraction. Additionally I hope to model a variety of TFFs. Any resources on these subjects would be apreciated. -Chris

Hi all, I am trying to simulate a Laser-Driven Light Source (or LDLS) in NSC. In particular, I have an EQ-99X, which I need to focus on a sample. The details of the source can be found here and here. My setup is quite straightforward, as it only consists of two lenses. It is shown in the following image: I would like to have a spot size of 10 µm, while the source has a dimension of 100 µm, therefore I started by designing a sequential system with magnification M=10, which I then optimized. I then chose and ordered the lenses, and the real setup works fine. I am now trying to understand if I can optimize the non-sequential system, to achieve better uniformity and spot size. However, the NS detector does not detect any photons, which is in contrast with the experimental results. Therefore I guess I am doing an error in the model, but I am not able to find it. In particular, I am not sure that I chose the right Source object to model the LDLS: since the source has a circular