question about grouping multiple surfaces together

  • 25 March 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 284 views

Hi there,


My name is Bin Wang, and I am a graduate student at University of Colorado Boulder. My Zemax key serial number is L116967 and I'm on premium subscription.


The problems that I'm trying to solve is to simulate a K-mirror system [wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K-Mirror_(Optics)], and verify its property, i.e., when you rotate the K mirror by 20 degrees, the output beam rotates by twice of that.


In particular, I'm having problems with:


1. I defined 3 reflective surfaces in the K mirror system individually, but how to combine them into one subsystem, so that I can rotate them without changing the relative positions and orientations?


2. I do not want to move/rotate the detector plane when I'm rotating the K mirror system. How to achieve that?


 


Best regards!


2 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +4

Hi Bin,


Since you mention a detector, I assume you are using non-sequential mode. The best way to control multiple objects as a group is to assign them all the same reference object. In your case, you can create a Null object as a dummy object and then reference it in each of the objects you want to move as a group. If you position the dummy object at the center of rotation, then adjusting the tilts of the dummy object will cause the group of objects that reference it to rotate about it.


If the center of rotation is not at the global origin, then a good way to contruct this is to place the dummy object at the center of rotation, select the objects to be grouped, and use the Modify Reference Object tool in the menu to modify the reference of the selected objects to become the dummy object. This will keep them at the same location while modifying the reference.


In the editor, the reference object must precede the objects that refer to it.


Here is what it looks like in a simple example:


Hi David, thank you very much for the help. It's working perfectly :)


 

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