Hi, I am using Matlab to run zemax simulation. could you tell me how to set up the intensity threshold when I am using the “RayTrace.SplitNSCRays = true”. Thanks a lot. 

Hi,I’m using the Path Analysis feature (run from Matlab) to analyze how the light is going through a system. Path Analysis is a great feature!What I’m noticing is that if I add up the number of rays in the path analysis rows, they equal to the number of rays in the ray trace / and in the layout. However, if I add up the powers in the rows, there is a total loss of about 1.8%. I currently do not have any coatings set on the various components (struggling to get that to work for some unknown reason or the other). Just mirror/reflector and absorbers.Is there an atmospheric loss built into Zemax due to the air the light passes through? I tried setting the air pressure to zero in the System Explorer/Environment to try and simulate a vacuum, and it didn’t change anything. And, if there are air losses, I’d like to control them or set them to zero and calculate the losses numerically. Thanks!

Hello,I’m trying to simulate a PTFE Integrating Sphere using the predefined macro that we can find in sample files ...\Zemax\Samples\Non-sequentional\Miscellaneous\Integrating Sphere.zmxI was able to change dimension of sphere and port but im finding the following problem:1. How can I change the material MIRROR in PTFE?2. Can I inserti a material inside the sphere?3. How Can I calculate the number of refraction inside the sphere and the number of photons that reach the detector?4. How Can I simulate the Homogeity inside the Sphere?5. The detector viewer doesnt work, how me always the same results….Why?A guide about simulating an integrating sphere can help me so much...Thanks for the support.The code is as attachments.Best Regards.

Hi,I am using the ZOS-API interface with Python (pythonnet 2.5.2.) to set the coefficients for a Zernike Standard Sag surface, one at a time. It takes several seconds!! Is there any faster way, or a way to set all parameters at once?I’d like to run a Monte Carlo analysis with thousands of istances of zernike surfaces, so a faster way would be really beneficial.%timeit M1_surf.GetCellAt(30).DoubleValue = 6.46449601150208e-06386 ms ± 28.1 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each)%timeit M1_surf.SurfaceData.SetNthZernikeCoefficient(4, 6.46449601150208e-06)354 ms ± 27.5 ms per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1 loop each) As a comparison, reading a value is three orders of magnitude faster:%timeit M1_surf.GetCellAt(30).DoubleValue513 µs ± 78.3 µs per loop (mean ± std. dev. of 7 runs, 1000 loops each) The LDE is the only open window, so there are

Hi, Having started with the default python Interactive Extension template generated by OpticStudio, I added the following code:# Insert Code Herehuygens_psf = TheSystem.Analyses.New_HuygensPsf()huygens_psf.ApplyAndWaitForCompletion()success = huygens_psf.GetResults().GetTextFile("textdump.txt")print(success)When running this as an interactive extension, the following gets printed to my terminal emulator:Found OpticStudio at: %sc:\program files\zemax opticstudio Connected to OpticStudio Serial #: L118546

So my problem is roughly that I want to do my own tolerance analysis and retrieve the RMS Spot Radius value as my criterion. But after changing certain values, as the Thickness and Tilt X, the programme does not seem to register this. The Value is not changing and i just get the same value over and over again. Can someone explain how to effectively change these parameters in Optic Studio, so I can retrieve the actual RMS Spot Radius Value?I’m just assigning these parameters to my own values (f.e. from -10 to 10 with step 0.2) in a loop. Here a snippet of it:surf36 = TheSystem.LDE.GetSurfaceAt(36)mir1_thickness = surf36.ThicknessCell.DoubleValuemir1_tiltX = surf36.GetCellAt(14).DoubleValuefor indexTilt, stepTilt in enumerate(np.arange(-10, 10, 5)): mir1_tiltX = round(stepTilt, 2) spotdata_analysis = TheSystem.Analyses.New_Analysis(ZOSAPI.Analysis.AnalysisIDM.StandardSpot) spot_settings =

Hello Everyone,I want to use python standardalone to open a analyse window of huuygens PSF ,but i find that doesn’t work. althought the windows is opened, but settings has not been set correctly. the code like this, I want to set SampleSize as 64 ,but when I open the file, that still the default setting of 128:TheAnalyses = TheSystem.AnalysesnewWin = TheAnalyses.New_HuygensPsf()print("HuygensPsf has analysis specific settings? ", newWin.HasAnalysisSpecificSettings) newWin_setting = newWin.GetSettings()newWin_setting.PupilSampleSize = ZOSAPI.Analysis.SampleSizes.S_64x64 print(ZOSAPI.Analysis.SampleSizes.S_64x64)newWin_setting.ImageSampleSize = ZOSAPI.Analysis.SampleSizes.S_64x64 print(ZOSAPI.Analysis.SampleSizes.S_128x128)newWin_setting.HuygensPsfTypes = ZOSAPI.Analysis.Settings.HuygensPsfTypes.Phase newWin.ApplyAndWaitForCompletion()

Pythonnet is a package that gives Python programmers an integration with the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR).Our ZOS-API is a .NET 4.8-based library. So the Pythonnet version should support .NET 4.8 to be used with ZOS-API.We had some reports that pythonnet 3.0 didn’t work with ZOS-API. I also did a couple of tests last week and encountered issues. So the recommendation for now is not to use pythonnet 3.0 with ZOS-API.I personally use pythonnet 2.5.2.  

Hello everyone out there,I use a python script and successfully execute some commands:open a zmx file in the back ground, add/change operands in the merit function, (local) optimization and finally i save the zmx file. When I manually open that file after the python script was run, I can see that everything was executed as intened.But I fail to use a python script to: load a merit function that simply runs a zplm to export jpg, the exported file are 0 kB “empty”.Here is the corresponding python script:TheMFE = TheSystem.MFETheSystem = zosapi.TheSystem## not shown here, but working perfectly fine:# open zmx file, adding/changing operands in merit function, # changign values in the lensdata editor, [...]# running optimization and saving file# Now I just want to save the focal shift window and spot diagram to jpg FocalShift = TheSystem.Analyses.Ne

Hello all,How to extract the diffraction limited spatial frequency values in tangential/sagittal planes for FFT-MTF?I am unable to find a reference to this in the ZOS-API interface documentation. Additionally, how to do the same in a ZPL?Cheers 

I have a rectangular object that I want to have a variable coating on one of its faces. The coating should be a dichroic coating on part of the face (say 2/3 of one rectangle) and no coating at all on the remaining 1/3.I would also need to update this coating (e.g., change the coated area and coating parameters) and object through ZOS-API, so a dynamic solution would be appreciated.Thanks!

Hi All,I’ve been trying to write a Python Interactive Extension with the ZOS-API. Having started with the boilerplate generated through the GUI at Programming > Python > Interactive Extension, I appended the following code at the end of the generated file:# Insert Code Hereimport typingpsfWindow = TheSystem.Analyses.New_HuygensPsf()settings = typing.cast(psfWindow.GetSettings(),ZOSAPI.Analysis.Settings.Psf.IAS_HuygensPsf)field = settings.Fieldfield = typing.cast(field, ZOSAPI.Analysis.Settings.IAS_Field)print(str(field.GetFieldNumber())) When I run this (having clicked on the Interactive Extension button as per the documentation), the following gets printed:Found OpticStudio at:   %sc:\program files\zemax opticstudio                       Connected to OpticStudio                                                          Serial #:  L118546   

Is it possible to do a ZOS-API Interactive Extension with Excel VBA?I’ve been able to do a standalone with examples from this forum.  This works:    Set TheApplication = TheConnection.CreateNewApplication()    Set TheSystem = TheApplication.CreateNewSystem(SystemType_Sequential)This does not work (get the VBA error message “Object variable or With block variable not set” for the second line which seems to say that TheApplication is not being Set properly):    Set TheApplication = TheConnection.ConnectAsExtension(0)    Set TheSystem = TheApplication.PrimarySystemI’ve also been able to do an Interactive Extension with MATLAB from the boiler plate code (similar to above) generated by OpticStudio … just can’t seem to get it to work in Excel.Thanks.

Hi,Does anyone know how to pull the point space information under surface sag → text (using Matlab)? I can successfully pull SagResults.GetTextFile but couldn’t find the point space info under that, I appreciate the help in advance.  

Does anyone have an example of setting pickups via the ZOS api in NSC mode?for i in obj_list:    obj = NCE.GetObjectAt(i)    obj.Xposition.SetPickupfromObject(1) ??? something like this I have over 100 lines in the editor I’d like to set to pickup a position off of an existing object, and manually clicking all of them is tedious. Thank you,Jason

Hello, I have some old DDE code and currently Zos api is used as a dynamic link. But for older version of Zemax, do we only need to use DDE or Zos api can be used regardless of the version of Zemax we use?

Hi! I’m calculating the energy inside a surface with LEDS with different detectors: volume detector, sphere as detector, volume pipe as detector… but I can’t get the same values across them… I don’t know why if I hace the same system…From objects as a detector I get total power, but from volume detector total flux (all of them in mW); is this the same?When I take a value from the matrix in volume detector, what is this? flux, power¿?This is my file, I calculate the three detectors individuallyThanks in advance,Carmen

Hi! I desgined a great 3D matrix of spheres as a detector.I would like to know how to export the total power value of each detector in a single file (all the values) with a ZPL macro. Thanks, Carmen

Hey Community,I’m starting this thread as a place to document some of the “pitfalls” of the ZPL language.  The ZPL is extremely powerful but since OpticStudio is trying to create a new language, the parsing is sometimes problematic.Variable NamesYou can actually assign a value to a number (the ZPL treats the number as a variable name).  So while OpticStudio won’t throw an error, you should be very careful when picking variable names:PRINT 1 + 2 # answer is 31 = 2PRINT 1 + 2 # answer is 4FOR LoopsThere is always round-off when dealing with decimals and this becomes especially true when trying to use a decimal step size in a FOR loop.  Rather than using decimals as either the start, end or step size, you should keep these as integers and convert to decimals inside the FOR loop:RecommendedFOR i = 0, 10, 1 px = i / 10NEXT

Hello!Long time fan of, and short time developer using the Raytrace.dll for fast batch ray traces in sequential mode. I have not tested it yet, but was wondering if the BatchRayTrace ray data returned accurate ray data for sequential systems that employ a non-sequential component? The application that I am thinking of is for a non-sequential group with a single segmented mirror, and it is convenient to set up the segmentation in a non-sequential group to alter individual mirror segment positions without using a very large number of multi-configurations. Thanks!Jaren

Hi,I am confused about Step 4 for the RCWA visualization tool. How can I add wavelengths/angles for plot? It seems I can only change the value instead of adding another slot. Thank you. 

I am running dozens of non-sequential ray traces in a row, and I'd like to know of any tips for optimizing speed. My current process: Calculate a path for a moving source/detector. For each point in the path, move the source/detector a few mm (currently either a rectangle or STL detector) and run a ray trace. Aggregate the results at the end. I saw that you were considering using GPUs (in particular RTX cards) for ray tracing. Any progress on that? ETA? Maybe a beta build of OpticStudio that I can use? It would take a while to run 56 traces at 500k rays each on an 8k triangle STL. 🙂 Maybe I'm missing a simple way that this can be 10x faster.

I am trying to take a known set of Fringe Zernike Coefficients, and insert them into a zemax optical system model as a Zernike Fringe Phase surface. I’ve gotten as far as being able to insert the surface and set it as a Zernike Fringe Phase type, but I haven’t had any success with entering coefficient values into the LDE. I’ve tried LDE.GetSurfaceAt(28).GetCellAt(14).DoubleValue = valuewhere value is a float, but it throws an exception saying that a Double was expected and it got a string. I’ve also tried to just return a value that I’ve typed in manually, but had no success that way either. Can anyone point me in the right direction here? It seems like it should be simple with entering numbers into the LDE, but nothing has seemed to work so far.  Thanks

This Mathematica code reads and writes binary .ZBF files, for use in Physical Optics Propagation (POP).  We generate data for a Gaussian beam, write the data to a .ZBF file, and read the .ZBF file back in.  Users can use this code to create their own beams to launch in POP.  Users may also modify this code if they have beam data that they've measured in the lab, and want to launch the measured beam in POP.  For more details, see the ReadWriteZBFs_12.PDF file included in the .ZIP file at the link below.Functions contained in the .nb file include:  beaminfotable - Displays a table of important values for defining a Guassian beam. generategaussiandata - Creates beam data for a Guassian beam. WriteZBF - Writes a binary ZBF file. ReadZBF - Reads a binary ZBF file. findamplitueandphase - Converts the real and imaginary arrays in the ZBF file into amplitude and phase. 

Is it possible to set user-defined concentric planes of the grating in the features of a blazed DOE imaging lens?