Hi Vincent,

Before I get to answer your questions. I’d like to mention that depending how complex you want the macro to be, it might be worth considering the ZOS-API, which should give you more flexibility.

These are my answers to your questions:

1. Changing a surface Thickness and Parameter 1 in a loop. You can use the SETSURFACEPROPERTY or SURP keyword to modify the Thickness and Parameter 1 of a surface. I’m showing how to do so in a loop below:

# Surface to be modified

surface_number = 1



# Codes for the SURP keyword (check Help File for more details)

thickness_code = 3

parameter_code = 10 # This is the code for the parameters

parameter_number_code = 1 # This is the code for Parameter 1



# Loop

FOR index, 0, 10, 1

    # Calculate new thickness and Parameter 1

    new_thickness = index

    new_parameter = index

    

    # Update the lens data with the new values

    SURP surface_number, thickness_code, new_thickness

    SURP surface_number, parameter_code, new_parameter, parameter_number_code

NEXT

2. Setting a variable surface parameter. This is doen with the SOLVETYPE keyword. I let you read the Help File (F1) to understand what codes you need. For Thickness and Parameter 1 you need the following lines (assuming surface_number has been defined like above):

SOLVETYPE surface_number, TV

SOLVETYPE surface_number, PV_1

2. If you need to remove the variable solve for the Thickness and Parameter 1 you need the following lines:

SOLVETYPE surface_number, TF

SOLVETYPE surface_number, PF_1

3. Running an optimization. To run an optimization, you need the OPTIMIZE keyword and you can specify the number of cycles like so:

OPTIMIZE number_of_cylces

3. Adding an operand. In case you’d want to setup POPD through ZPL (assuming your POP analysis settings have been saved properly, check the Help File about POPD). I would do it like so:

# Row at which the operand is inserted

row_number = 1



# New operand

INSERTMFO row_number



# New operand settings

popd_surface = 1

popd_wave = 1

popd_field = 1

popd_data = 0

popd_target = 0.5

popd_weight = 1.0



# Set new operand

SETOPERAND row_number, 11, "POPD"

SETOPERAND row_number, 2, popd_surface

SETOPERAND row_number, 3, popd_wave

SETOPERAND row_number, 4, popd_field

SETOPERAND row_number, 5, popd_data

SETOPERAND row_number, 8, popd_target

SETOPERAND row_number, 9, popd_weight

I believe you have everything to get started with your macro, let me know if you have any other question and if everything makes sense.

Take care,

David