Hi Josh,

I’m affraid I haven’t programmed with MATLAB in a long time, and I do not own a licence at the moment. But, this definitely sounds like something MATLAB should be able to do. I noticed a couple of odd things in your code.

First, in your loop, you always write Heliostat(1), meaning in every iteration you will just override the value of Heliostat(1) by the latest object. Second, you use the method GetObjectAt(h+1). However, if h is from 1 to 5, h+1 is from 2 to 6. If your system doesn’t have a line 6 (remember objects start from 1 in OS as well) it will probably throw an error.

I don’t know if this helps, but I’ve made the Python equivalent for your to check:

TheNCE = TheSystem.NCE

number_of_objects = TheNCE.NumberOfObjects

ns_objects_list = p]

# Populate the <ns_objects_list> variable with the non-sequential objects
for ns_object_index in range(1, number_of_objects+1):
    ns_objects_list.append(TheNCE.GetObjectAt(ns_object_index))
    
# Verify by printing the comment cell of each object
for ns_object in ns_objects_list:
    print(ns_object.Comment)

I hope the code is self-explanatory. If my NCE looks like below:

Then the code returns:

Let me know if this is what you wanted and whether you were able to fix your issue.

Take care,

David

Thanks David,

that helps! Matlab has a peculiarity/deficiency that it doesn’t allow arrays or indexing with .NET objects. If I skip importing the objects as a whole, and just read and write the 6 or so individual object parameters that are needed (x, y, z positions and tilts), then the problem goes away since I can index the h in “GetObjectAt(h).parameter”.

Good catch on the “Heliostat(1)” above. That should be “Heliostat(h)”. I had just put something simple down to illustrate the problem, rather than my actual code. 

And h+1 is correct since the Object #1 in OpticsStudio is the Sun / Source and the following objects are the heliostats. 

Thanks again for the help getting me over the obstacle!

Josh

Hi Josh,

I’m glad it helps. This limitation seems important to know for MATLAB users, I definitely didn’t know about it. I guess you could make your own MATLAB import function that would instantiate a custom MATLAB object (I don’t remember if there are classes in MATLAB).

I see, my intuition that it could have been an array index issue was wrong then. Fortunately, it seems like you have a workaround for now. Good job.

Take care,

David

Hi Josh,

In Matlab you can index surfaces and/or objects by using a cell array.  Here’s an example using surfaces in a sequential model (and I assume objects in an NSC model work the same way):

TheApplication = MATLABZOSConnection(1);
TheSystem = TheApplication.PrimarySystem;
TheLDE = TheSystem.LDE;

N = 3;  % number of surfaces
surfs = cell(1,N);  % initialize cell array

% loop through the surfaces
for i = 1:N
    surfs{i} = TheSystem.LDE.GetSurfaceAt(i);
end

To subsequently access the surfaces/objects, simply refer to them by index number:

Specific parameter values for any of the surfaces are also easily accessed:

Regards,

Jeff

Thanks @Jeff.Wilde !

Looks like it works in Matlab as long as you don’t use an array. 

In addition to a cell, I’m guessing a table might work too.

Thanks again,

Josh