I notice these are “Reload Surface” and “Reload All Surfaces” tools on the top of the LDE window. Does anyone know how do we access this tool in Matlab API? I did not find such a function in ZOS-API. One similar function is  “Reload Object” but it doesn’t work for “Reload Surface”.The reason why I need this function is I am simulating gradient index lenses whose property is read from an external file named “GRADIENT_9.DAT”. After I change the material property in this external “.DAT” file, I need to Reload All Surfaces to update the material.If anyone has suggestions on how to do this, I would appreciate it a lot.

Hello!I’m attempting to use the ZOS-API in Python (3.8.13). I’ve been running my code from the terminal window and have successfully executed a batch ray trace. I’m working on something that could benefit from using an interactive environment, so I am trying to use a Jupyter notebook or interactive cells in VS code.When I try to run <import zosapi> the kernel dies immediately. One of the errors thrown is“Unhandled Exeption: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly ‘ZOSAPI_Interfaces, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=null’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified”Am I missing a ZOSAPI_Interfaces file? Has anyone encountered this error before?Thanks,Jaren

Hi , I am currently trying to use python (Spyder) to connect with Zemax. But I am getting the errors below (shown in the picture below) . I can’t find any solution. I tried to use another python version - 3.7.0 , but still same error. Both standalone application and interactive extension result in same error messages. Appreciate if anyone could give me some guidance. Thank you      

Hi, I have a question of how to extract the reference height or distortion in percentage with ZPL? I was using RAYY to get the real height but I’d like to extract the other two col data as well. Thanks! 

Hi,I want to save data from 100 detectors (ZRD file) to .DAT or .SDF files using ZPL macro or something similar.  Can anyone help with a code?  It is tedious to manually save one by one.  Thank you very much!

Hi all,I have been using ZOS-API Pythonnet to perform a ray trace and save the ray trace data as text files. The following program snippet worked perfectly fine up until a few months ago. Now, when I run the same code, it does the ray trace and saves the text file without changing any of the settings.import ZOSAPI;TheSystem = TheApplication.PrimarySystem;teleFile=('T_file.zmx')TheSystem.LoadFile(teleFile,False);Systemdata=TheSystem.SystemDataTheAnalyses=TheSystem.Analyses;X, Y = np.round(np.mgrid[(-1):(1):100j, (-1):(1):100j],3)positions = np.vstack([X.ravel(), Y.ravel()])pos=np.transpose(positions)px=pos[:,0]py=pos[:,1]max_rays=len(px)newWin=TheAnalyses.New_Analysis(ZOSAPI.Analysis.AnalysisIDM.RayTrace);newWin_Settings=newWin.GetSettings();Field_1 = Systemdata.Fields.GetField(1)Field_1.X=0Field_1.Y=0path='\RT_trial'for i in range(max_rays):    newWin_Settings.Px=px[i];    newWin_Settings.Py=py[i];    #newWin_Settings.Wavelength.SetWavelengthNumber(1);    #newWin_Settings.Field.SetFiel

Hi,I would like to know how to use the OCOD and OPEV operands with multi configuration files: In case the same operand is present more than once (for example for different configurations) how to read the right one?Also, I want to know if it is possible to use OCOD with mathematical operands, like MINN, or MAXX, and same question, what if there is more than one in the Merit Function?Otherwise, is there a simpler way to read one value from any line in the MF?Thanks, Cristina.

 Just a very simple ZPL solve to set the incident angle of a transmissive diffraction grating to the Littrow angle for order m = -1. #Define pipi = 2*ACOS(0)x = SOSO(0) #get preceeding coord break surface numberL = WAVL(PWAV()) #get primary wavelengthG = PARM(1,x+1) #return Lines/um from grating (pg 319)Litt = asin(L*G/2)*180/pi #Calculate Littrow anglesolvereturn Litt Just thought I’d share it to potentially save others a little time.It could be expanded for additional orders.

Greetings,I am attempting to model mie scattering for a single water droplet illuminated by a laser beam (monochromatic, collimated, and planar) and see the 'rings' on the detector varying with particle size. There is already a similar post: but no solution was reached.My current setup features a 'source ellipse' as the light source and a single 'Sphere' object as the water droplet with DLL Defined Scattering enabled under the Volume Physics tab. This much I have learned from the Zemax knowledgebase article entitled 'How to simulate atmospheric scattering using a Mie model'. My question now is what values for density and mean path should I enter in the MIE.DLL section under the Volume Physics tab?Suppose I start with a 10 micron diameter water droplet and I place the detector 500um (0.5mm) away from it, what density and mean path values correspond? Or is there a better approach?Thank you in advance.

Error in converting from CodeV file to Zemax. Maximum length for a string variable is exceeded.  Please shorten string and try again    SEQ Command: VUX   0.2862643455614489e-9 -0.002507618428442271 -0.01007430775580165 -0.02275146039691922 -0.04038529897597765 -0.06242137400922543 -0.08826487454143517 -0.1181757056085635 -0.1349076575530941 -0.152878222887056 -0.1719304103266932 -0.1914365142446497 -0.2096016968531782 -0.2187861418214183 -0.2257120003786426   How to debug this. Please let me know

Hi All,I am looking for a template to create a user-defined surface dll in c#.Can someone provide me with this. I'm new to C# and UD surfaces.Many Thanks!Hans-Jürgen [Mod note: moved to the DLL subforum] 

I am wanting to use a macro to automatically run and store image simulations using a ZPL Macro. Does anyone have example code? 

Suppose I have a source (surface 1) and a detector (surface 2) in NSC mode. I’m trying to make a macro that shifts the detector along Z-axis using the command SETNSCPOSITION but it doesn't seems to work.The syntax is SETNSCPOSITION surface, object, code, valueCan someone please explains each keyword and how to use it?   The surface is the detector surface - 2 ?   What is the object?   code = 3 for Z   Value is the new position?\ THANKS 

Hi,I’m using ZOS-API in python to analyse PSFs using the Huygens and FFT methods. Is there a way to extract the airy radius and return it to Python? 

This example is a Python script to convert Zemax coatings to Speos coatings. The script is available here.https://github.com/ansys/optical-automation/blob/main/ansys_optical_automation/application/example_convert_coating_zemax_to_speos.pyThe user inputs are:For each coating + substrate, the software will create a Speos coating. Then the script will combine the two Speos coatings into a .bsdf180 file. The script is using the Transmission vs Angle analysis from OpticStudio. For more information about Ansys optical_automation, click here.

I’m still new to the API and having trouble getting and setting the “Ignore this surface” via the API.I’m working in Matlab and trying:TheLDE.GetSurfaceAt(4).GetSurfaceTypeSettings(ZOSAPI.Editors.LDE.ILDETypeData.IgnoreSurface)but get the error:The property 'IgnoreSurface' in class 'ZOSAPI.Editors.LDE.ILDETypeData' must be accessed from a class instance because it is not a Constant property. Can someone point me in the right direction?Thank you,John

We can get and set the folders in Project Preferences in OpticStudio using ZOS API.Save the Project Preferences Configuration(.CFG) file in Zemax LLC\Documents\Zemax\Configs or you can use default Project Prefrences configuration file OpticStudio Save Project Prefrences Configuration file  Add the following code for connecting saved configuration file                                 Python Code                                                               print('\n===PreferencesFile===\n') cfgFile = r"ZemaxLLC\Documents\Zemax\Configs\Project_Prefferences_test.CFG" print(os.path.exists(cfgFile))         if (cfgFile):             self.TheConnection.PreferencesFile = cfgFile         else:             print('Default OpticStudio.CFG preferences used\n')                           MATLAB Code:                                                                                                             fprintf('\n===PreferencesFile===\n')  cfgFile = 'C:\Users\Documents\Zemax\Configs\Project_Pre

Hello,          Is there a way to query the LDE in NS mode to get the column ints, doubles, or strings?  Additionally, query the column name of the row number? [Mod note: moved to more appropriate forum for ZPL-related discussions.] 

The NSC Surface Sag (available in Ansys Zemax OpticStudio 2023 R1 and OpticStudio 23.1) is fully implemented in ZOS-API. It means that you can open that analysis, define the settings and get the results. It makes it easy to convert an object face into a Grid Sag Surface.Here is an example of a Matlab code:TheSystem=TheApplication.PrimarySystem;MyNSCSag = TheSystem.Analyses.New_Analysis(ZOSAPI.Analysis.AnalysisIDM.NSCSurfaceSag)MyNSCSag.HasAnalysisSpecificSettingsreturns TrueThe settings are:MyNSCSag.ApplyAndWaitForCompletionMyNSCSag_results = MyNSCSag.GetResultsreturns a DataGrid containing the sag pointsSag = MyNSCSag_results.GetDataGrid(0).Values.double; 

How do I retrieve coordinate break value (Tilt About X) from a particular surface number using GETVARDATA operand in a ZPL macro?

Hi,  I'm quite new to Zemax and was wondering if someone could assist me with processing some volume detector data.   I'm currently trying to reconstruct some data from the volume detector and display it in 3D using the Voxel Maker macro. However, the process tends to be quite slow and often crashes with large models.   I've written a Matlab script that will pass a binary array and compute the 3D voxelization. However, I need a way of exporting all of the detector cross-sections from Zemax, so that they can be passed by the script.   Does anyone know of a way I can do this? I know I can save the individual images seperately within the detector viewer, however, these images will contain the legend and axis titles. It will also be very time-consuming doing this for 100+ cross-sections.   Any help would be greatly appreciated!   Regards,  Callum   Here's the link to the macro I was using for reference:    How to show Detector Volume data in 3-D · MyZemax    

I am new to DLL programming for Zemax. I have an older file using the Fixed-Data 3 standard. This should support 201 parameters. Unfortuneatly in the LDE editor a maximum of 12 Parameter columns are generated even if i define more. Is there a cap of how many parameters can be displayes as input in the LDE? 

Can I judge that the ray coordinates of EXIT PUPIL from the Ray Tracing command in Zemax have all three information: Lens DistorStion, Ralative Illumination, and PSF?

Hello,Is there a way to choose which source I want to raytrace in ZOS-API?In ZPL I’m familiar with the NSTR property but didn’t see similar property in the INSCRayTrace Tool. Thanks,Oran

These two User-defined surfaces DLL creates an array of hexagonal arranged lenses and an array of staggered lenses. The code is based on us_array.c.us_array_hex.dll has 4 parameters: the number of lenses in X and Y direction and the width and height of each lens.us_array_staggered.dll has 3 parameters: the number of lenses in X and Y direction and the width of the lens.Language: CppLocation: \Documents\Zemax\DLL\Surfaces\ [MOD: added the folder location for the DLL]   Click here to download Date Version OpticStudio Version Comment 2018/01/06 1.0 - Creation