@Paula Sola.de la Serna 

In general you can build any Merit function you like. However, keep in mind that the default Merit functions, that are generated by the wizard, are quite efficient in terms of speed and robustness of optimization.

I’d recommend keeping a DMFS operand in case you ever need to use the wizard (even accidentally...), and put all your non-default operands above it.

Once you setup your ZERN operands, you can give them a target and a weight value, and it will be taken into account in the calculation of the Merit function. You can also use operands such as OPLT and OPGT (operand lesser than and operand greater than) to constraint the result of a ZERN operand to remain below a certain value for example.

Do you have a specific example in mind to share with us? It might help to get more specific advice.

Take care,

David

Try to use RWCE operand.

Hello David,

Thank you for your reply.

The merit function I am attempting to build is not for optimisation, but for its use as a function of merit for tolerance analysis. I was wondering if it could be possible to build a similar function than the wizard does with the OPDX operands, but rather than referring to rays that sample the pupil, to the Zernike coefficients of the resulting emerging wavefront. I am not sure it makes sense though, but I’m trying to get some insight on the aberrations that the different perturbations induce into the system, so that I may be able to find compensator candidates. 

Thanks!

If you want to get different Zernike orders for tolerance, you can try to use Tolerance script and print several Zernikes to report.