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3034 Topics
D
DusanVisible
asked in Got a question?
ISO Drawing Problem

Hello After having opened a lens file I sometimes want to check one or the other ISO drawing, which had been created with this file in the past. I proceed as follows: in the GENERAL Tab I click LOAD, select the ISO drawing of interest and after it has opened I click APPLY. Most of the tolerances appear correct but the shape of the lens not. OK, then I go to the GENERAL tab again and select the correct start surface for that lens. Now the shape looks better BUT - the 2nd radius of curvature flipped from plus to minus. So I now have a plano-concave instead of a plano-convex lens... Of course, this can be corrected by applying "Reset from LDE" but now my manually defined AR coating for that surface, which was not input in LDE, disappears...Manually defined coating was also the reason for unclicking "Automatic" in the associated surface tab. Anybody with similar experience? Best regards, Dusan

301
Angel Morales
En-Lightened
David Nguyen
Zemax Staff
David NguyenZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
The Universal Plot does not consider TCE values in the Lens Data Editor

I've setup a Universal Plot to display the variation of ensquared energy (DENC Merit Function operand) with the temperature (TEMP Multi-Configuration operand). At first glance, the plot looked convincing. However, when I changed the TCE of one surface, the plot did not changed even slightly. Therefore, I think that the TCE is not accounted in the Universal Plot. Could you confirm?

671
David Nguyen
Zemax Staff
David Nguyen
Zemax Staff
David NguyenZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
How to reset/adjust the window layout

OpticStudio uses a layout manager to determines how to position and resize the windows. This manager can sometimes go into a state where the window of an editor/analysis take a default undesirable shape. This thread idea has been suggested and co-written by Dusan Zadravec.

1701
David Nguyen
Zemax Staff
Hooman.Akhavan
Hooman.AkhavanInfrared
asked in Got a question?
How can I design an Alvarez lens in Zemax?

Hi!  How an Alvarez lens can be designed in Sequential Zemax? Thanks, Hooman

2671
Zach Derocher
Alissa Wilczynski
Zemax Staff
Alissa WilczynskiZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
How can I create a toroidal surface in X?

When I want to create a toroidal surface, I only see the ability to create the toroid in Y, but I want it along X. How can I do that?

10001
Alissa Wilczynski
Zemax Staff
Nicholas Herringer
Zemax Staff
Nicholas HerringerZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Can OpticStudio be used to model any portion of the electromagnetic spectrum?

Although OpticStudio is well known for modeling visible, infrared, and ultraviolet applications, but is it accurate when using radio, x-ray, or other "non-optical" wavelengths?

2841
Nicholas Herringer
Zemax Staff
Michael Cheng
Zemax Staff
Michael ChengZemax Staff
posted in Got a question?
Should I use Planar or Spherical Reference when using Huygens for single-mode fiber coupling

This is a frequently asked question. To answer this question, let's slightly discuss how spherical reference works.When calculating Huygens PSF with Spherical Reference, OpticStudio will first trace rays to image surface and then "go back" to exit pupil like below.Then each ray interception point on the exit pupil will be considered as point source that radiate spherical waves and interfere on the image plane. This is called spherical reference.On the other hand, when in planar reference, each ray is simply considered as a plane wave and still interfere on the image plane, which is same as spherical reference.The difference of the two methods will mainly be large when the Huygens PSF is supposed be large. OpticStudio will detect this by checking the distance from exit pupil to image surface and the expected size of the PSF.Back to the discussion about which reference we should use. Usually, we can let OpticStudio decides automatically. However, there are some cases that the spherical r

1300
Michael Cheng
Zemax Staff
Julia
Zemax Staff
JuliaZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Universal Plot - - error message 'Error in operand parameters'

I'm going to plot diff between two operands vs thickness by using the feature Universal Plot, but the analysis window always show 'Error in operand parameters', how to avoid this error?

361
Julia
Zemax Staff
Julia
Zemax Staff
JuliaZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Tolerancing- On which field of view did the tolerance calculation based ?

I'm running a sensitvity tolerancing analysis, with the option Separate Fields/Configs unchecked. My question is on which field of view did the analysing result based?  And what's the difference between check and uncheck this option? 

1551
Julia
Zemax Staff
H
Zemax Staff
Heng.LiZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Where can I find information about High Yield Optimization?

It sounds like a cool idea, but where can I find the detailed information? 

10211
Alissa Wilczynski
Zemax Staff
Zach Derocher
Zach DerocherInfrared
asked in Got a question?
Angular Spot Diagram Units -- Afocal Image Space

Question: When using Sequential Mode with the 'Afocal Image Space' option enabled, the units for the Spot Diagram become angular (milliradian). What angle is this referring to?

6071
Zach Derocher
Zach Derocher
Zach DerocherInfrared
asked in Got a question?
API -- Can't Connect to OpticStudio, License Error

Question:  I'm trying to use the API to connect to OpticStudio. I'm using the default template script to establish a connection. When I run the script, I get an error message "License Check Failed" or "License is not valid for ZOSAPI use".   

3421
Zach Derocher
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
How do I save text files without a .txt extension?

I'm trying to write a ZPL macro in Notepad but I can't figure out how to save the file with the .zpl extension. Every time I try to save, the file name ends up looking like "MyMacro.zpl.txt". How can I change this?

6351
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Is an angle of incidence report available in the Ray Database Viewer?

The Ray Database Viewer reports quite a bit of data, but it doesn't seem to have angle of incidence. Is there an option to show that information? Or do I have to derive it myself?

28668
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
What is virtual propagation?

What does it mean to do a virtual propagation of rays?

5241
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Where is the nominal criterion value in my tolerance output coming from?

Why is the nominal criterion value different from my Merit Function value in some cases? Is there a different analysis feature in OpticStudio that the nominal criterion is supposed to match up to? If not, then how is it being computed?

5281
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
What are the "ray" and "field" coefficients in the coatings calculation?

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

2311
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Why does the CPU usage on my computer seem to be single-threaded during optimization?

I thought OpticStudio was supposed to utilize multi-threading for a faster optimization process. Why is my optimization running as a single-threaded process? Is this a setting I could change?

5471
Allie
Zemax Staff
Alissa Wilczynski
Zemax Staff
Alissa WilczynskiZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Different stop surface for different fields

I'm working in a wide angle system and would like to ignore the stop setting so that different fields can have different stop locations. How can I do this?

7171
Alissa Wilczynski
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
How is radiant intensity defined?

The Help file defines Radiant Intensity as “The incoherent intensity of the ray in cosine space (Radiant Intensity) This is the sum of the ray intensity divided by the solid angle subtended by the pixel." The question I have is how this solid angle subtended by the pixel is defined?

9471
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
What does selecting a mode flag on a "Birefringent In" surface do?

OpticStudio seems to have four accepted values for the mode flag under a "Birefringent In" surface: 0, 1, 2, 3. What are they for, and when do I use them?

7601
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
What is the best way to reference a surface or object in ZPL?

What is the best way to reference a surface or object in ZPL so that the macro still works even when the numbering changes because surfaces/objects are inserted or deleted?

4321
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
How does OpticStudio define the s- and p-polarization states?

What are the s- and p-polarization states? How do I make my incoming beam s-polarized?  

10491
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
Can I control what files are included in my .ZAR file?

I am trying to save my Non-Sequential system as an archived file (ZAR) but the file is very large. I know that the ZAR file type is a compilation of several different files that help define the lens file but can I safely remove certain files to reduce the overall file size?

1821
Allie
Zemax Staff
Allie
Zemax Staff
AllieZemax Staff
asked in Got a question?
No rays are scattered when I use Importance Sampling?

I want to use Importance Sampling to trace scattered rays, but when I do, no rays are traced. How do I fix this without changing my optical design?

2081
Allie
Zemax Staff

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