Hi Hans, 

There is not a 100% equivalent method with the simplicity of RAYTRACE in the ZPL.  The closest method is the SingleRayNormUnpol under the IOpticalSystemTools interface.  The 2 biggest differences is:

1. SingleRayNormUnpol will only trace to a single surface, so if you want all the surfaces you’ll need to call this method inside a for loop
2. All results are in local coordinates, so if you want something like RAG*, then you’ll need to get the Global Rotation Matrix for the given surface.

Some pseudo code would look like the following:

// open batch ray trace
var tool = TheSystem.Tools.OpenBatchRayTrace();

// run raytrace across all surfaces
for (int surf = 1; surf < TheSystem.LDE.NumberOfSurfaces; surf++)
{
	// run the actual raytrace
		var raytrace = tool.SingleRayNormUnpol(RaysType.Real, surf, wavenumber, hx, hy, px, py, true,
			out int errorCode, out int vignetteCode,
			out double x, out double y, out double z,
			out double l, out double m, out double n,
			out double nx, out double ny, out double nz,
			out double opd, out double intensity);

	// convert to global corrdinates
	if (useGlobal){
		TheSystem.LDE.GetGlobalMatrix(surf,
			out double r11, out double r12, out double r13,
			out double r21, out double r22, out double r23,
			out double r31, out double r32, out double r33,
			out double xo, out double yo, out double zo);

		double xg = xo + r11 * x + r12 * y + r13 * z;
		double yg = yo + r21 * x + r22 * y + r23 * z;
		double zg = zo + r31 * x + r32 * y + r33 * z;

		x = xg;
		y = yg;
		z = zg;
	}
}

// always close your tool
tool.Close();

Hi Michael,

thanks, I do as I use ZOS API.

But I can't believe this is an "internal" solution.

For n surfaces, n rays must be tracesd!?
If we trace a ray to the image (like in ZPL) all information must be available on ALL surfaces.

A huge advantage of BatchRayTrace is missed.

All the Best

Hans

@Hans-Jürgen Feige

In addition to what @MichaelH suggested, I can see two other potential solutions:

1. Convert your file to Non-Sequential and use the Non-Sequential Batch Raytrace, which returns the rays by segments (one should be careful as the rays might not travel sequentially anymore).
2. Put RAYTRACE in a ZPLM and manipulate the Merit Function with the ZOS-API.

I haven’t fully tested 2. but here’s what I had in mind. Make a macro ZPL05.ZPL like so:

RAYTRACE PVHX(), PVHY(), PVPX(), PVPY()

FOR ii, 1, NSUR(), 1
	OPTRETURN ii-1, RAYY(ii)
NEXT

I’m using RAYY for this example. In my dummy lens, the Merit Function looks like so:

Remember that with ZPLM, the operand is executed only once and returns all the possible Data values at once. In ZOS-API you can create these operands, run the Merit Function and retrieve the operands Value.

I hope this helps and take care,

David

Hi David,

thanks, and yes I am currently doing that too, without!! changes in system and editors.

An indSUR loop with

… zosMFE.GetOperandValue(MeritOperandType_REAR, indSUR, ...
… zosMFE.GetOperandValue(MeritOperandType_RAID, indSUR, ...
… zosMFE.GetOperandValue(MeritOperandType_RAED, indSUR, …
and so on.

But it is a pity about the BatchRayTrace tool advantage!

BR Hans

@Hans-Jürgen Feige

If you use individual operands such as REAR, RAID, and RAED with GetOperandValue(), you still need one operand per surface. You might see a performance improvement by using the ZPLM approach, even though there’s a small overhead for the call of the first ZPLM operand, all other ZPLM operands with the same Mac# are calculated simultaneously, i.e. you get all surfaces in one call.

Take care,

David

Hi David,

ok, got it. thanks.

I’ll check and try ...

BR

Hi All,

we are still surprised about all this (ZOS API not as convenient as ZPL), especially since we know that ZPL is no longer the focus of developments at ZEMAX.

Hopefully, zemax's core code works differently.

BR

… The best solution would be to pass arrays to .ReadNextResult() and get the values ...

@Hans-Jürgen Feige 

ZOS-API and ZPL have different applications. I wouldn’t say one is more convenient than the other, they are just different. While I agree it would be nice to have a similar functionality in ZOS-API, it is also a matter of priority. At least for this issue you have several workarounds already. In the past you could contact Zemax to make a feature request for such functionality, and it would be implemented based on popularity, existence of workarounds, etc. Perhaps you can try to do that?

Take care,

David