Some time ago, one of our engineers used the ZPL to create a ZPLM for analyzing TMA systems. A ReadMe doc and example file are attached below. Here is a summary of how the ZPLM works:The ZPL actually checks that a surface does not vignette a ray in sequential mode. In sequential mode, a ray only knows about the next (n+1) surface that it's travelling to...the ray doesn't know about previous surfaces or surfaces beyond the next surface. Therefore, you can have surfaces other than n+1 which can clip the ray in real life but SEQ won't detect that.  The macro traces a specific marginal ray (±x or ±y) and targets the Mechanical Semi-Diameter of a specific surface. The ZPLM then forces a minimum clearance distance between between the edge of the mirror and the specified marginal ray.   Note: The ZPLM has been written with circular apertures in mind. For systems with other aperture types, the code will need to be updated. Additional note: This macro has not been rigorously tested, which is wh

 Hi, What is the correct way to save the whole .txt file in the POP Analysis?I am using and UDOC running a Csharp UserOperandApplication containing the following code:...POPDef.ApplyAndWaitForCompletion();                                  POPDef.ToFile("C:/Users/file.txt");…some calculations... It works for a single call from OpticStudio, but it gives problems when doing tolerancing. Somehow the file saving command is not synchronous and cannot keep up.Is there other command for saving the whole .txt file?-or maybe a way to make the rest of code wait for POPDef.ToFile?Regards,Jose

I am gaining a lot of functionality from using direct NSC raytraces via the ZOSAPI from python. However, this method appears to be limited to only the 12 available system wavelengths.The limiting interface seems to be ZOSAPI.Tools.RayTrace.IRayTraceNSCData, which takes a wavelength index (referring to a system wavelength) as an input. I can in principle define 12 system wavelengths, do a trace, clear the wavelengths, assing 12 new ones, do a trace, aso -- and append the results to a complete result for higher spectral sampling. However, this appears mightly clumsy.Knowing that NSC source traces can cover non-system wavelengths (if the source is setup respectively): is there a way to do the equivalent in direct raytraces (i.e. detached from NSC source objects)? Or if not, could this capability be added? It would give a lot more freedom to custom spectral raytraces via the ZOSAPI.--S

Does anyone share the Zos-api code for export Zemax file to STEP file?

This Matlab code shows the possibility of simulating a pulsed laser by using ZOS-API. In this example, amplitude of the pulsed laser varied over time, and the irradiance in the detector being recorded. The final results being exported as a video.  Language: Matlab  Click here to download Date Version OpticStudio Version Comment 2021/07/23 1.0 - Creation 2021/08/13     Added a Python script

We can use the below code to close the current analysis result and analyze the new filed. The setting file must be created by clicking the Save button.Stngs$="C:\Users\yuan.chen\Documents\Zemax\Configs\TFM.CFG"CLOSEWINDOW WINL()MODIFYSETTINGS Stngs$,TFM_FIELD,3,"TFM"Openanalysiswindow "tfm",Stngs$ 

For data that require only one parameter, we can use SYPR(). To extract field data, the solution is to use the numeric functions and a loop to extract data. Here are related numeric functions.To read the number of fields or the maximum value, you can use the below funcions to read them:

 This is a User Defined Object DLL, which allows users defining a polygon plate with 8 x and y points data and thickness. The polygon is linked in order of the points defined in parameters. If a point is set with (0,0), it’s ignored. To consider a point at (0,0), users need to use a smaller but non-zero number, like 1e-8 to replace the 0. All the value of x, y will be multiplied by the parameter “Scale”. If “Scale” is zero, then it’s converted to 1.0 internally. If the parameter “Z Center mode” is 0, then the local origin (0,0,0) is located on Face 1. If “Z Center mode” = 1, the local origin is shifted in z direction by -Thickness/2 so it’s centered between Face 1 and Face 2. If “Z Center mode” = 2, the shift is -Thickness so the local coordinate origin is at face 2. If “Diffract back Face” is non-zero, the grating is on Face 2 instead of Face 1.Language: Cpp   Click here to download Date Version OpticStudio Version Comment 2020/12/04 1.0 20.3.2 Creation 2021/01/13

There is no direct way to run a macro via ZOSAPI. A workaround of this is to create a ZPLM macro and call this from the merit function. You can find more about ZPLM in this article:Optimization using a ZPL Macro: the ZPLM operand https://support.zemax.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500005490881-Optimization-using-a-ZPL-Macro-the-ZPLM-operandTo run this ZPLM, there are four methods:Use GetOperandValue() to calculate the ZPLM valueA = TheSystem.MFE.GetOperandValue（ZOSAPI.Editors.MFE.MeritOperandType.ZPLM, 25, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0);Manually add the ZPLM in the merit function and use ZOSAPI to update the operand value. This can be achieved by CalculateMeritFunction( Manually save the merit function that contains the ZPLM and load the merit functionHere is the most related codes:mf='C:\Users\yuan.chen\Documents\Zemax\MeritFunction\ZPLM25.MF';TheMFE = TheSystem.MFE;TheMFE.LoadMeritFunction(mf);TheMFE.CalculateMeritFunction ();Insert the operand directly using: InsertNewOperandAt() showed in Example 3

Hi! Is there a way to run a macro from ZOS-API? I have a macro that does some calculation on the currently opened Zemax model and outputs some data. In a Python script I want to make some modifications to the Zemax model using the ZOS-API and then run my macro. Is that possible? Best, Erik

A user-defined surface DLL will retrieve information from OpticStudio via the FIXED_DATA5 structure defined in the header file. An example of the header file can be found under '\Zemax\DLL\Surfaces\usersurf.h'. To access the surface parameters, the DLL reads the variable param in the FIXED_DATA5 structure: If we need to pass more parameters to the DLL, one way can be to use the datasurf_numvalues and datasurf_values. To use this, a 'Data' surface has to be used. Below I have taken a screenshot when debugging a user-defined surface: I hope this helps but do not hesitate to share your comments. Sandrine

Hi, I was reading Michael Cheng's article 'OpticStudio grating tools beta function update history' and have some questions. This article mentioned 'download link' many times, but I did not see these corresponding links. And I did not see some DLLs mentioned in this article in OpticStudio 21.2.1, for example: 'Polygon grating DLL', 'A new DLL is created for reading pre-calculated efficiency data for 1D/2D gratings'.  I want to know where I can find these DLLs and their usage.  Thanks & Regards,  Dongdong 

Hi,   I am trying to calculate peak to valley value showing on 'analysis-interferogram' window by ZPL, and use it in the merit function editor with ZPLM operand. But I have no idea how to directly get the peak to valley value using any kinds of pre-defind functions or else, so currently what I am doing is to save the text file of interferogram analysis result, then read back in, and extract the peak to valley value, then pass it using OPTRETURN. This process seems require a lot of time to calculate system by system during the optimization, so I want to find a quick method to obtain the peak to valley value, instead of what I am doing now.   Thank you in advance.  And I hope there is a clever way to do this.

I am running a sample file for a Python Standalone Application, 'PythonStandalone_01_new_file_and_quickfocus.py' and the developer environment (Visual Studio Code) flags up 2 problems: Unable to import 'ZOSAPI-NetHelper' Unable to import 'ZOSAPI' The relevant lines of code in the sample file are:         aKey = winreg.OpenKey(winreg.ConnectRegistry(None, winreg.HKEY_CURRENT_USER), r'Software\Zemax', 0, winreg.KEY_READ)         zemaxData = winreg.QueryValueEx(aKey, 'ZemaxRoot')         NetHelper = os.path.join(os.sep, zemaxData[0], r'ZOS-API\Libraries\ZOSAPI_NetHelper.dll')         winreg.CloseKey(aKey)         clr.AddReference(NetHelper)         import ZOSAPI_NetHelper         import ZOSAPI I can see that the dll files are present at the filepath location.  The code does run a

This User Analysis runs the Ghost Focus Generator in Double Bounce and sorts the combination of surfaces that contribute to the worst Pupil and Image Ghosts.Language: CS    Click here to download Date Version OpticStudio Version Comment 2019/11/27 1.0 19.8 Creation 2022/03/30 2.0 22.1.2 Change the iteration of surfaces as some combinations where missed. All combinations are now checked and if pupil ghost or image ghost = 0 the data is removed.

 This ZPL macro generates a file under "\Zemax\Miscellaneous\RAYLIST.TXT" to represent the envelope of a Gaussian beam. There are 3 user inputs: the Waist Size w0, Surf 1 to Waist and the M2 Factor. The macro generates a list of 16 rays based on Paul Colbourne's skew rays: Using skew rays to model Gaussian beams. These rays can be displayed in the 3D layout or Shaded Model by selecting under the settings Pattern...List.Language: ZPL    Click here to download Date Version OpticStudio Version Comment 2021/07/23 2.0 - Added the definable variables as input 2021/04/01 1.0 - Creation

This macro applies incremental changes to a compensator in Monte Carlo files, then reports the updated criterion. It will cycle through Monte Carlo files and apply a discretely-valued compensator to a particular surface. Then, the criterion will be analyzed and reported. (Note, the report could use some formatting updates). This code may be used to represent step-wise compensation tools. For example, a mirror's tilt may be applied as a compensator to a change in the system. However, it may be the case that the mirror's housing makes it so that the mirror is only allowed to tilt in increments of 2 degrees. This macro will cycle through the MC files, apply the incremented compensation up to a particular boundary, and will report the result. The changes to each file are NOT saved.Language: ZPL  Click here to download Date Version OpticStudio Version Comment 2020/02/07 1.0 20.1 Creation

How i can  connect to microsoft excel with zemax?

I'm having trouble to read detector pixels using a ZPL. The syntax should be NSCDetectorData,surface,object,pixel,data However, I get error message and do not know how to solve. Can somebody provide me with a example of a piece of ZPL code to get the job done. Ideally reading the detector into a 2D array But I'm already happy with a single statement reading out say the 6th pixel iof the 5th row Hope somebody can help me Pascal 

Hello, we're currently working on parallelizing a raytracing program in Python that uses the ZOS-API for a connection to Zemax. We didn't write the code, we're tasked with bugfixing and optimisation, so we don't fully understand the code. The problem we identified is that the code needs to do a 2nd Trace. By default, the OPD gets normed to a centroid of some sort, because of this we need to retrace every ray to get rid of this norm as the purpose of the code is to simulate interferometry, which is why we need the OPD values unnormed. Is there any way to stop Zemax from norming these values (perhap some get merit function?)? A different approach might be do incorporate Python multiprocessing, whoever we are unsure how to incorporate the bellow OPD function into Python multiprocessing. Below is the snippet of the code that creates the major slowdown, the OpdItr=... part takes up approx. 80%+ of the Runtime (which is bad, total code runtime for a full detector simulation

Hi, I made a ZPL macro that uses GETPSF to retrieve a PSF to a vector and then saves the vector to a file with a FOR loop on the vector elements. The saving part is extremely low! Is there a better way to save the results? I tried doing the same thing with GETTEXTFILE but the speed is similar, and I lose control on file format and can't seem to find a file to set the parameters such as sampling size. Any help really appreciated! Thanks, Paolo

I tried to change surface setting in spot diagram by ZOSAPI MATLAB and get spot position info by the following commands in MATLAB:  spot.ApplyAndWaitForCompletion();  spot_results = spot.GetResults();   spot_results.SpotData.GetReferenceCoordinate_X_For (2,1) spot_results.SpotData.GetReferenceCoordinate_Y_For (2,1) Which command should I use to fulfil this task??   

Hi, I am writing a macro to modify some surface properties and I can't figure out how to define a pickup... Here is what I am trying to do: SRFn (actually a coordinate break) : I use SETVAR to set the parameter #1 to variable SRFn+3 (I want to make it a coordinate break return): I would like to set parameter #1 of this srf by pickup the one of SRFn but I can't find the right ZPL keyword to do that.   Any help is welcome.

Currently I use a Macro in optic studio where I read through a Ray Database Viewer window, where I tick 'Expand Into Branches'. I want now to achieve the same funtionality using the ZOS-API with Python. I started by looking at example 5 'PythonStandalone_05_Read_ZRD_File.py' where we loop over the segments of each ray. How can I instead turn on  'Expand Into Branches'  and easily loop over each branch per ray individually?

Hi,  Something strange has happened. I had previously a code that worked and now it doesn't (I have updated ZEMAX since then).  The code I am having issues with, is changing an angle to 'Ray Rotator' in Par 3 or Par 4 (column 3 or 4 from Material on the editor list), which in this case is the angle of the rotationZ and rotationY. The problem is that I am getting error message:  Unable to use a value of type ZOSAPI.Editors.NCE.ObjectColumn as an index. Error in GetAngle_Cond3_v2>writeTiltAboutY (line 142)         NCEObj.GetObjectCell(ZOSAPI.Editors.NCE.ObjectColumn.Par4).DoubleValue = y; Error in GetAngle_Cond3_v2>BeginApplication (line 70)         writeTiltAboutY(o23, angleY); Error in GetAngle_Cond3_v2 (line 14)         r = BeginApplication(TheApplication, args);  My code is:    o23 = TheNCE.GetObjectAt(14);         % Set the Tilt An