Hey Everyone,

I think there are 2 separate topics in this thread.

Comparing Surfaces

For comparing surfaces, ​@Luc.van Vught is right about the difficulty of checking 2 surfaces because not only do you need to consider the actual cells in the LDE, you’d also need to check everything in the ILDERow interface.  This includes:

• TypeData
• DrawData
• ApertureData
• ScatteringData
• TiltDecenterData
• PhysicalOpticsData
• CoatingData
• ImportData
• CompositeData

Normally, you could write a few line recursive algorithm that would “crawl” through all the properties and populate a dictionary with all the values (similar to how you would list all the files in a folder & sub-folders).  In C# (and therefore in Python with pythonnet), you can use System.Reflection to get all the properties.  However, when I quickly tried to mock something up, I realized that you get into an infinite loop real quick because LDE.GetSurfaceAt(n) returns ILDERow but then when you get 1 level down with LDE.GetSurfaceAt(n).SurfaceData, you also get a property that return ILDERow.  So more logic would need to be applied to filter out existing entries to prevent an infinite loop.  I have added my first draft of Python code in case this helps in your effort (note this is failing at Line 21)

import clr
import System.Reflection

def GetPropValue(src, propName):
    return src.GetType().GetProperty(propName).GetValue(src, None)


def GetSurfaceData(obj, properties, output):
    # loop through all the reflected properties
    for property in properties:
        value = GetPropValue(obj, property.Name)

        # if the value is a primative, add it to the dictionary...if it's an interface, loop through child properties
        if isinstance(value, (int, str, bool, float)):
            output.update({property.Name: value})
        else:
            # get the children properties
            child_properties = list(value.GetType().GetProperties())
            if len(child_properties) > 0:
                # NEED TO ADD LOGIC TO CHECK IF PROPERTY IS ALREADY IN DICTIONARY BEFORE CALLING
                GetSurfaceData(value, child_properties, output)
    return output

# initialize the values (deep scan of Surface 1)
obj = TheSystem.LDE.GetSurfaceAt(1)
properties = list(obj.GetType().GetProperties())
output = {}

# call recursive function
GetSurfaceData(obj, properties, output)

Copying Surfaces

For copying surfaces, you can use the TheSystem.LDE.CopySurfacesFrom() method.  This actually allows you to do a deep copy of a surface, even from another file loaded into a second IOpticalSystem.  The first parameter asks for the ILensDataEditor you want to copy from so if you have 2 IOpticalSystem loaded into the script, you can do something like the following to copy the surface:

# use the primary system attached to the connection class
TheSystem.LoadFile(r'myfile.zmx', False)

# create a secondary system
TheSystem2 = TheSystem.TheApplication.CreateNewSystem(ZOSAPI.SystemType.Sequential)
TheSystem2.LoadFile(r'myfile2.zmx', False)

# copy S1 from System2 and insert at S2 in System1
TheSystem.LDE.CopySurfaces(TheSystem2.LDE, 1, 1, 2)

I believe this deep copy implements the same idea of using System.Reflection, but I think the ZOS-API code is a lot more robust than a quick 30 line algorithm.