The latest major release of the Zemax suite of products is now live! The newest versions of OpticStudio, OpticsBuilder, and OpticsViewer are available to download as of the September 21st. Check out the company blog for highlights, or read the release notes below for full details:
Here at Zemax, we are excited about the ability to change the position and angle of any optical object with the classification type of Compound or Boolean in OpticsBuilder. We’ve spoken with
*Flurin Herren joined Zemax this year as the Optomechanical Engineer for the European Customer Success Team and specializes in CAD and CAM. He handles questions on OpticStudio and all things about the STAR Module and OpticsBuilder. Connect with Flurin on his introduction post here: Hello World! | Zemax Community.
What’s a new feature in the 21.3 release that you’re excited about?
As a member of the Optomechanical guild, I have to mention a new feature of OpticsBuilder. I am particularly excited about the fact that in the new OpticsBuilder release you are able to change the positioning and angles of Compound and Boolean Objects. I think this will open new doors regarding retaining brackets for mirrors and general mechanical retaining components for optics.
Have any customers you worked with in the past requested something like this?
A case which immediately jumps to my mind would be a conversation which I had with an OpticsBuilder customer from Austria. She was working on an optical system and defined one of the lenses as a Compound Lens Object in the Non-Sequential Mode in OpticStudio. As she imported the optical system with a ZBD file into OpticsBuilder, the question was raised if she would be able to make changes to all of the optical components. With the old release if she wanted to make any changes to the Compound Lens, she would have had to export the design back into OpticStudio but now she wouldn’t have to.
Do you wish you had had this feature in any of your previous work? Be it at Zemax, in industry, or at university?
Yes definitely! When creating an optomechanical design you nearly always encounter some tight space constraints, and the fact that I will be able to change the positioning of a mirror object (which mostly converts to a Boolean Lens) is something that I wish I had for a long time.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I just want to add how great it is to see how the Zemax Community gets their hands on these new features and new products and gives us their honest and direct feedback. I feel that this direct interaction with a very lively community is one of the foundations of the current success of Zemax.
