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Welcome

Welcome to the February edition of the Zemax’s Community newsletter! 

This newsletter provides updates for you, the user, on technical content you might find interesting or helpful. This newsletter features content that has been posted or was popular during the last month! Check out what we have for you below:

Is this newsletter missing something you think others should know about? Or is there something you learned here that you didn’t know before? Let us know in the comments below!

 

The Community in Review

Featured Community Posts

Each month we are excited to see the community coming together to solve problems and discuss how to use the software. This month is no different! Check out some of the most helpful posts from the last month:

 

  • In this post, Ansys ACE team member @Christophe.Weisse explains how 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. 

  • Learn how to simulate different resonance modes of fibers from this discussion between @Jeff.Wilde and @Plancoulaine 

  • Looking for more information on how polarization is handled in Ansys Zemax OpticStudio’s Non-Sequential Mode? Take a look at the discussion offered by power-user @Jeff.Wilde 

  • Filter strings are a powerful tool for performing stray light analysis in Ansys Zemax OpticStudio’s Non-Sequential Mode. In the post above, @MichaelH and @Jeff.Wilde provide some tips on how to analyze your system for ghost rays

 

Ask An Engineer

Ask An Engineer is back with a new format. Our Ansys ACE team is now on the lookout for questions we can answer in a quick video. In general, we are searching for lingering un-answered questions, but may also respond to questions we deem as good “FAQs”. If you have a question you think we should take a look at, let us know in the comments below. For now, see this month’s response:

 

Code Exchange Latest Additions

  • @James.Good has written a ZPL solve to set the incident angle of a transmissive diffraction grating to the Littrow angle for order m = -1.

     

  • This Python script converts a Zemax BSDF in a Speos BSDF. This is a work in progress but feel free to try and leave a comment.

     

Chinese Forum: Popular Topics

 

Japanese Forum: Popular Topics

 

Knowledgebase Updates 

  • Street Light Reflector Design using OpticStudio Dynamic Link by @Francesco.Aldegheri 

    One of our consultants has written an article on a reflector for street light applications. The article explains the design principles and tolerancing using the road lighting regulations levels. It uses the CAD Dynamic Link

     

  • How to use OPTOTUNE focus-tunable liquid lenses in OpticStudio by Michael Büeler
    The OPTOTUNE lenses are now available as a catalog in OpticStudio and includes models of five different lens types that vary in focal power range and clear aperture diameter. Learn how the OPTOTUNE focus-tunable liquid lenses are modelled in OpticStudio. 
     
     

     

  • How to load grating data from Lumerical into OpticStudio by @Michael Cheng 
    In this article, a static workflow using Ansys Zemax OpticStudio and Lumerical RCWA for accurately simulating 1D/2D gratings in a whole optical system is introduced. The methodology will be first briefly introduced. Then details about how to set up the system will be explained.
     

     

 

Ansys Optics Application Gallery

Did you know Zemax is now a part of the Ansys Optics Application Gallery? Since our acquisition by Ansys in 2021, our engineers have been working together to begin integrating our software with other Ansys optical toolsets. Our technical team is working hard to create examples and workflows that are relevant to you. We have begun publishing some of the workflows on the Ansys Optics homepage. Take a look here: Ansys Optics

 

Zemax-er Spotlight: Francesco Aldegheri

This month, we are featuring @Francesco.Aldegheri. Francesco is an Optical & Lighting Consultant based in Italy. This month, he wrote a Knowledgebase article where he shares his expertise in lighting. Scroll up to find the article in the Knowledgebase Updates section above.

To learn more about Francesco’s background and experience in the industry, click Show content below.

 

→ Tell us about yourself

Now I'm a free consultant specialized in optical and lighting design.

I worked for years in the R&D offices of some lighting italian companies (Khatod, Arianna led, GMR ENlights, Viabizzuno). I studied different type of lighting systems (streetlight lamps, colour mixing systems for surgery room lamps, etc.)

 

→ What industry trends are you excited about? Or what excites you about the optics industry in general?

I think that in the next years the lighting industry will increase the offer about adaptive optics systems; the market is going to the direction to give more complex lighting control systems to match the customers’ requests.

 

→ If you could offer one piece of advice to someone using OpticStudio, what would it be?

...the software is always right...!

Many times I thought which the software calculations were wrong but every time when I return to check starting settings I discover that something was set wrong.

 

→ Are there any contributions you've made to Zemax in the past that others should know about?

Read the article "Street Light Reflector design using OpticStudio Dynamic Link"

The article which I wrote is on the design of an optics for streetlight applications and the use of tolerance analysis in OpticStudio to give the correct tolerance dimension ranges to the suppliers.

 

→ What do you enjoy most about the Zemax Community/forums?

The knowledge level of people on the forum is very high. It's possible find many arguments and many possible solutions to the correct use of the software.

 

 

 

That’s a really super newsletter, thank you!


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