Is it possible to use the output of one OpticStudio (non0sequential) as a source for another?  I have a model with many Source Diodes and would like to use that as the source to another model(s).  That way if I make a change to the original Source Diode model it would be updated in any model that uses it as a source.  Thanks

I am trying to simulate an LED that shines into a cylinder tube and I want to measure how much power is deposited into the cylinder tube walls by adding a detector cylinder but such a detector doesn't exist. I've been using Detector Viewer on Detector Surface to check what the power in watts is, but even though I select checkbox "Object Is A Detector" in Object properties, it doesn't show up in Detector Viewer. I guess it makes sense because how do you show a map of the detector cylinder, but is there another way to measure the power going through the cylinder detector walls?

When I open my merit function, I will sometimes get an error that pops up over and over again that says "Error in Target ___ Cannot Launch Ray". The blank is a number which is a line in my merit function where apparently there is a ray failure of some kind. This requires me to close out a lot of windows, often leading to Opticstudio crashing. It's strange because it is a well behaved lens, and I have gone through weeks of optimization to close in on a final solution and am basically finished, when all of a sudden I get ray errors causing a crash. It happens when I use RMS wavefront as my criteria. When I switch to Contrast, I do not get the errors, however I do not want to use contrast because RMS wavefront ends up giving me a better solution.  Is there a way to ignore the errors so the pop ups don't happen? I could not find anything in the tabs that did this. Or is there a way to further diagnose the errors? When it crashes, I am obviously unable to see what went wrong

In some case, user may want to simulate fiber coupling efficiency and consider the effect of the material inside the receiving fiber (usually by assign material at Image Surface). And, there are two capabilities can be used for Single Mode Fiber Coupling - FICL and POP. Which one should be used in this situation? Or both?  

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

Can anyone help to explain what is the difference between these 3 calculation method? My laser has several tilted cylindrical lens and windows. I use these 3 methods to calculate the beam size of my laser. And these 3 method give me different result (difference quite big). one more thing I notice that paraxial Gaussian beam data always give wrong result on Y direction (10 time bigger then reasonable value). Can anyone tell me which on I should trust?

This question comes up from time to time: You've got a bunch of analysis rays and are running multiple case. If you are using ZPL keywords or Merit Function operands, like NSTR, it is not enough to set the seed to zero. This is necessary, but it is not sufficient. You must also go to the properties of our source and in the Raytrace group, under Sampling Method, choose the Random option. There is also a Sobol option that has many useful properties for getting pseudo-random and less clumpy data, but Sobol will always produce the same sequence of rays, all else equal. This is a property of the source itself, and it will overrule any random seed settings in operands that call the source.

Hello, When tolerancing several parameters at the same time using Inverse Sensitivy Limit, should I expect the same final result as if I tolerance over each individual parameter? Thank you, Narciso

Hello, I'm looking for a way to build a model of a Herriott Cell, similar to the one sold by ThorLabs (https://www.thorlabs.com/thorproduct.cfm?partnumber=HC10L-M02). I'm guessing that it would require non-sequential mode. I would like to use the model to understand the design's tolerance requirements. Thank you for any help you might have, Nick

Hi, I am trying to import a zbf file into Zemax POP, from Lumerical. The wavelength is 1.3 um. However, i get the following warning message in Zemax: "ZBF Wavelength is 0.874153269861089 microns. This differs from the Wavelength set in the 'General' Tab. The ZBF Wavelength is ignored." Also, when I visualize the file in the zbf file viewer, it displays the correct wavelength. Any help would be appreciated. Many thanks Zak

Hello, I am writing a macro in .zpl. My goal is to define an array of rays in non-sequential mode, whereby each ray has a very specific starting position and direction. I want to trace each ray and save the information about each ray in a .txt file. Above all I am interested in saving the x,y,z-coordinates of the individual ray intercept with the last (detector) surface after the ray went has been reflected my multiple surfaces. Information like it is provided in the .ZRD-file. However I would like to get access to this information with .zpl and zos-api commands, because I need this information for a multitude of rays. In the end I want to have an x- and a y-coordinate for each ray written into the same .txt file. Until now I have defined the following single ray direction. FOR yTilt, -yT0/2, yT0/2, step_y             # scan     FOR zTilt, -zT0/2, zT0/2, step_z         #

I would like to model on non sequential mode an image reflected on a surface and study its shape and brightness from many angles. How could I do this? 

There is a INT function in CodeV to define the interferogram function of the surface. I guess probably "Grid Phase" in Zemax have the same function to define the phase surface by using DAT file. But don't know the rule for DAT file. And also, I want to define a circular phase changing surface, how to define in the DAT file? Thank you

I am using the built-in sample "Laikin 100 Degree WFOV" sequential design to pathfind Zemax capabilities. I am trying to simultaneously model the effects of mechanical sag and thermal expansion and contraction on the optical system as a whole. I have already successfully accomplished the latter using a Multi-Config setup I obtained by pressing the "Make Thermal" button and editing the result to suit my scenarios. If I then tilt all surfaces besides Object and Image by the same amount (say, 0.1 degrees about X), according to the grid distortion output, the boresight ray still impinges on (0, 0) on the image plane, which makes no sense to me. That boresight ray ought to be hitting the image plane at an offset of around EFL * tan(0.1 degrees) from (0, 0). Something I have read in the Knowledgebase suggested that I should try this stunt in global coordinates to get the expected result. However, when I try to convert from Local to Global Coordinates, I get this error:

I am creating a macro to change parameters in the analysis tools but when I run the code I get the following error: ERROR in MODIFYSETTINGS: Incorrect version number in settings file.   Prior to running the macro I saved the .cfg in the lens file directory.  I have deleted all the .CFG files in the global and local (lens) directories but am still getting this error.  How do I clear the Modifiy settings and update to the correct version number? On my computer I have Optic Studio 19.8 and 17.5 installed.  Would it be useful to uninstall 17.5?

Hi, I have noticed that my simulations take longer after the update to version 20.1 of optics studio. Can any body confirm this? My simulations take about a factor of 2 to 3 times longer. The optimization function is much slower then before. I run plenty of python scripts via the interactive extension and simulation that to 3 to 4 hours to complete now take 8 to 10  hours. This is severely slowing down my work. What could be the issue? Regards, Rinze

Dear All, When I want to use the ZERN command in Merit function, I constantly get the "insufficient ram" error. It is stated in the ZEMAX help file that "you can get this error" but no solution is given. I need this function to do the optimization. How can I get rid of the error? I cleaned the TEMP folder, reset the computer, but this error constantly comes up. Thanks in advance.

I notice that adding RELI to my merit functions significantly slows down the optimization speed. Is there an alternative for relative illumination optimization that is more computationally efficient? My application is general imaging lens design/optimization.  Other than optimization speed, RELI seems to work fine, this is just a minor gripe that I realize might have a clever solution.  Thanks!

Hi, My system is afocal, currently with a single center field. Due to angle change of one of the elements in the optical path, the spot is shifted from (0,0) in the spot diagram. I'm trying to create a graph of this shift as a function of the element angle, but can't seem to find a suitable merit operand. Is there an operand similar to RSCE/RSCH with respect to the vertex? Thanks in advance, ILAN

I'd like to suggest a small feature request.  When looking at a materials catalog (in sequential mode) I'd like to be anywhere on the line of that surface in the LDE and not have to be clicking on the actual material column. While the material catalog is open I'd like to be able to click on another line or use the keyboard arrows to move to other surfaces to see their properties.  Right now we have to close the materials catalog, change surface and open the catalog again. 

In NSC mode, when I use an imported CAD (*.stp for example) file and execute a ray trace command within a macro, it takes a very long time (during which the RAM usage slowly increases) before the ray tracing actually begins.  I can track this behavior by observing the CPU and Memory Usage in Windows Task Manager.  The memory "ramp up" may occur over a period of 10 minutes or more, and then at some point the ray trace occurs noted by the CPU jumping up to 100% for a short while.  I have noticed that on a different computer (same Window, same ver of OS, same files involved), this RAM ramp up is significantly shorter but not insignificant.   The step file sizes involved are say 20 MB.  The correspond ZOF file might be 80 MB. Any quick suggestions as to what is going on here or hints that might help alleviate? Thank you.

Hello, this might be a stupid question, but I did not find a solution myself. I am designing an optical system for my bachelor's thesis and want to optimize it. Is there any possibilty to easily set boundary values in non-sequential mode like there is in sequential mode? Or to set a start/stop value like when doing a Universal Plot? At the moment, almost all of my optimization attemts lead to impossible settings, like one lens inside the other or the detector placed right after the source. I feel like there must be something I just have overseen. Thanks in Advance!

The DOESAG.zpl macro posted on this site doesn't appear to accurately determine the diffractive sag.   Anyone else think this is the case?

Hi! I am trying to model fluid that is sandwiched by two different silicon structures to gauge optical throughput. Since material data for Silicon in visible wavelength regime is not provided in the default Optic Studio, I am modeling it using a refractive index fit. During the same, I am not sure how to put in the transmission data for an accurate model. As I understand, when light is incident on silicon, there is non-zero reflectivity and the rest of the light is absorbed within Silicon (600 micron substrate). I don't know how to accurately model the transmission or the silicon material to show me what reflectivity would I expect. Ideally, I expect about 5% reflectivity, as I am deducing from my experiments, but I need a prediction using Zemax. Any suggestions will be helpful! Thank you! ~Aditi

Is it possible to create an ISO 2D style drawing from a Non-sequential (Tor. Lens) object?