Is it possilbe to use target values from a merit function in a zpl macro.For example, there are some defined constraints in the optical path length (OPTH) for e.g. 5 different ray deflections (different Hx or Hy) of an imaging system. Can I use these fixed values in the ZPL macro for further optimization?

I use Detectorviewers in text mode to export the results of my simulations to disk.Futher processing is done via python, where the plain textfile gets parsed.I prefer to not using  the ZOS API as this limits me in the python verison i use. Problem is: The Detector Viewer numbers are really error-prone as sometimes i close a window and open another one and the numbers i have to put into SAVEWINDOW keyword are just wrong by then.I would prefer using the detector number instead using SAVEDETECTOR keyword. But this saves in some binary format i did not find any specs upon for reading that in. Is there any description on the DDR/DDx file format?Is there any way to obtaining the detector data into python? Best regardsOlli 

I would like to write the Macro script of ZPL about how to optimize the POP by merit function like as “POPD” optimized operand1.Set the one surface of Thickness or parameter 1,2,3… as the value of  0.5mm, 0.6mm , 0.7mm to run a loop2.Set the someone surface “Thickness or parameter 1,2,3…..” as variable factor. 3.Execute to optimize the MF as POPD to run 10,15 circles as you want 4.In the end, shows the final optimized value to 1st step different cases you setEx. Surface 3 thickness as 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.7mmOptimized the surface 7 of thickness as variable factor by using POPD MFto get value under surface 3 as 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.7mm respectively.  

I am looking for ZPL command which change NSQ parameter solve from pickup to fixed(off).There is command SOLVETYPE and code PF_p to remove pickup for sequential but this option not available for NSQ parameter pick up. Any suggestion how to do so?

I want to use macro do automatic tolerance analysis, could i modify the tolerance script code in macro code. how to do it if could. thanks!

Hi all,I’m facing a problem of applying ‘Chief ray solve’ for multiple configurations inside the multi-configuration editor. I was trying to use ‘Chief ray solve’ for Decenter and Tilt to one configuration and let other configurations ‘pick up’ the value of the first one. However, the ‘Chief ray solve’ for Decenter and Tilt in multi-configuration is grayed out. So I was wondering whether it is possible to create a ZPLM solve that is identical to the ‘Chief ray solve’ used in the lens data editor and applies it into the multi-configruaton editor? If this is possible, can anyone shares the logic behind the implementation of  ‘Chief ray solve’ for decenter and tilt? ThanksBest wishes and Happy new year! Daoming

Question1: I use ZPLM+MACRO to calculation edge spread size, and tolerance script to get tolerance result for edge spread size variation. But CPU only use 10%, so the computation time is very long. Even I choose the max core in tolerance analysis. Is there any setting I miss for macro operation to make better use of CPU? Question2: When I open Zemax file, it become very slow and need to waiting a long time to see it full open already. Why this issue happen? It was open fast before, and I use the same Zemax file on same computer.

Hi!When using a ZPL macro, is there the possibility of using a keyword that function like quickadjust? There is the keyword QUICKFOCUS but it works only on the last surface thickness

Hi,In a ZPL macro one can get the object number that’s calling the macro as solve with SOSO(1), but how do I get which column that’s calling the ZPL macro?I want to use the same macro for solving both the Z and the Y position of an object so I don’t need maintain two separate macros.Regards,Hans

Hello,I have a system with a non-circular aperture and therefore try to calculate its effective f number using the operand EFNO(effective f number). However, I get different results when using the operand EFNO, in comparison to the result given in the relative illumination analysis, despite the same setting is applied on both calculation. (wavelength 3 is 0.555µm, and field 1 corresponds to 0 y field)     As can be seen above, one gives a value of 4.13(EFNO), while the other gives a value of 3.85. I think the latter one should be correct, but the question is why does one get different results here, do these two use different algorithms for calculation? How can I calculate this value in a Zemax macro conveniently if the result provided by EFNO is not trustworthy….  Thanks a lot in advance! 

In Non-Sequential mode, is there a way to change the refractive index value of a model glass whithin ZPL? It seems that SETNSCPROPERTY doesn’t allow this, but only to change a glass chosing from the library. Thank youIari

Hi all,I’m trying to use ssag operand to obtain the surface sag in sequential mode. I’m ok with using it in the merit function editor, however, as I have a lot of sampling points, manually inserting ssag function is a real pain. Is there any method to use SSAG in the ZPL Marco where I can write my own loop? Best wishesDaoming

HiI am trying to calculate the RMS slope of a surface with the DSLP operand in a macro.The surface is Zernike Standard Sag (generated from tolerance analysis) and the rms slope of this surface computed in the MF editor is like below I wrote the following to calculate the same value in a macro:>   print OPEV(OCOD("DSLP"),1,1,2,0,0,1)but this is obviously not correct as the output is 3.4456 (I was excpecting 4.913e-5).I can’t find the error, can you? :-)Thank you

Hello Community, I am working on making a macro and would like to know how I can set the object type, for example, Source Two Angle.There is only one example that Standard Lens to be described as “NSC_SLEN” in the ZEMAX Manual and I cannot find the information for other objects.Your support would be greatly appreciated.Thank you. Kind  regards,Ryo

How does one do a bulk raytrace in ZPL, similar to pressing the “Ray Trace” button in regular, non-sequential mode. From the help files, it looks like RAYTRACE and RAYTRACEX only traces one particular ray, which is not useful for determining the total illumination on a detector. Thanks!

I am trying to tilt a surface by ZPL command 'SURP 10, 63, 5' to tilt the lens by 5 degree (10 is the surface number). But the lens is not tilted. Could anyone give me the clue why? Thanks!

Hi All, how can I read the Centroid-X/Centroid-Y value from the Detectorviewer in ZPL?Thanks in advanceJannis

Sometimes, we may design the system starting from the 'image' back to the 'object'. For example, this is often the case for those systems that are designed to be viewed by eye, like AR/VR, HUD. In this case, normally, if we want to check the relative illumination, we need to reverse the system to check because the tool 'Relative Illumination' only calculates that on last surface in the system.Here we will provide another way to calculate it using a macro so that you don't need to reverse the system.Note here we at the same time is also demoing how you can verify the calculation theory of the RI. RI is actually much easier to calculate if the system is reversely designed! First, by reading the following forum post, we know that relative illumination at each field is exactly linearly dependent to the area of the beam in cosine space in image space.So, here is the plan. We want to write a macro to calculate the beam area in cosine space for each field, normalize it, and then get the the R

Regarding the SETVAR ZLP keyword, want to use a variable to define the ‘Pn for parameter n’. I need to concatenate “P” with my index variable i. How do I accomplish this?Thank you,John 

All,What is the ZPL command to execute the ‘Convert to NSC Group’ function available via the GUI? I want to convert and save many (Monte Carlo) files in a loop.

We can use the below code to close the current analysis result and analyze the new filed. The setting file must be created by clicking the Save button.Stngs$="C:\Users\yuan.chen\Documents\Zemax\Configs\TFM.CFG"CLOSEWINDOW WINL()MODIFYSETTINGS Stngs$,TFM_FIELD,3,"TFM"Openanalysiswindow "tfm",Stngs$ 

For data that require only one parameter, we can use SYPR(). To extract field data, the solution is to use the numeric functions and a loop to extract data. Here are related numeric functions.To read the number of fields or the maximum value, you can use the below funcions to read them:

Hi,   I am trying to calculate peak to valley value showing on 'analysis-interferogram' window by ZPL, and use it in the merit function editor with ZPLM operand. But I have no idea how to directly get the peak to valley value using any kinds of pre-defind functions or else, so currently what I am doing is to save the text file of interferogram analysis result, then read back in, and extract the peak to valley value, then pass it using OPTRETURN. This process seems require a lot of time to calculate system by system during the optimization, so I want to find a quick method to obtain the peak to valley value, instead of what I am doing now.   Thank you in advance.  And I hope there is a clever way to do this.

I'm having trouble to read detector pixels using a ZPL. The syntax should be NSCDetectorData,surface,object,pixel,data However, I get error message and do not know how to solve. Can somebody provide me with a example of a piece of ZPL code to get the job done. Ideally reading the detector into a 2D array But I'm already happy with a single statement reading out say the 6th pixel iof the 5th row Hope somebody can help me Pascal 

Hi, I made a ZPL macro that uses GETPSF to retrieve a PSF to a vector and then saves the vector to a file with a FOR loop on the vector elements. The saving part is extremely low! Is there a better way to save the results? I tried doing the same thing with GETTEXTFILE but the speed is similar, and I lose control on file format and can't seem to find a file to set the parameters such as sampling size. Any help really appreciated! Thanks, Paolo