Hello. I guess my question is fairly straight forward. However, I am not very used to any optimization procedures, so any help will be appreciated. Assuming I have a source and a detector, and some surfaces inbetween in a non-sequential setting. I need to write a merit funtion that maximizes flux on the detector - but only for rays hitting a specific surface in between source and detector. While this is easily done by filter strings in a simple detector view, I was unsure on how to implement this in the optimization. Therefore Zemax provided some help a while ago in form of this ZPLM operand detector = PVHX() clear = NSDD(1,0,0,0) NSTR 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 'Test.ZRD', 'H4' ZRDPLAYBACK 'Test.ZRD', 1, detector, 1 X = NSDD(1, detector, -3, 0) OPTRETURN 0, X So I specify my detector in H(x) and then clear all detectors, run a raytrace with the filter string applied (in this case hit surface 4) and point it back to the detector

Dear Zemax team,    Could you please help me put the legends showing the color of each line right next to the regarding legend or is there a way to do this with labels? As you can see, the labels do not show the colored line near them. So, it is hard to distinguish which one belongs to which data line. Next graph below is from an article on your webpage about diffractive optics macro and it does not have this problem. Attached in my macro. At the end of my macro , you can see how I call all the plots in a SUB routine. Your urgent help on this would be appreciated!

I applied a solve on position z by 'SOLVETYPE'. Then I need to refer to the result of solve, i.e. the position os z.  I am trying to using 'GETNSCPOSITION'. According to the EXTENSION DATA ITEMS, this should return the object position and angle and material. However, the viewer shows 'Unknown symbol GETNSCPOSITION.' The similar command 'SETNSCPOSITION' works fine. But not the GETNSCPOSITION. It seems in the editor, it does not recoganize it as a legal command Can anyone help something is wrong? Thanks.

I am running Zemax OpticStudio 19.4 SP2 on Windows 10. When I run the following line in a loop in a macro, randomly, some of the files are empty. The non-empty files are correct.  GETTEXTFILE OUTPUT_PSF_FILE$, Hps, CFG_FILENAME$, 1 Please help!   Thanks,     Qiang

Dear support team, I have problems understanding the behaviour of the PDL statement GETTEXTFILE in combination with the settingsfile: I am using GETTEXTFILE for Huygens PSF simulations. My questions: 1. Which settings are used if no settingsfile is given at all? It seems that in this case the settings that are saved with the 'save' button in the 'Huygns PSF' window are used. Is this correct and always the case? Does it additionaly depend on the 'flag' setting? 2. With flag=2 the settings box for the requested feature should be displayed. This doesn't seem to happen. No setting box appears. Or is this only the case in combination with an explicit  settingsfile? I tryed w/o settingsfile. 3. How can I make sure that the current  settings in the 'Huygns PSF' window are used for the simulation? Thank you and best regards, Christof. -- DR. CHRISTOF BODENDORF M

I have a lens file open, with some analysis windows open.  Using ZPL, I want to loop through and change the .CFG file (this is for a detector window in non-sequential.).   I haven't done it yet, but I think this will change the settings:           ModifySettings (filename,DVW_FILTER, ‘new_filter_string”, ‘DVR’) , or something like that, once I get the quotes straightened out.     However, my question is:  How do I force the open analysis window to update with the new .cfg file? In ZPL Macro, there does not seem to be any command like:  LoadNewConfig(Filename, WindowNumber).    I know I might be able to open a new analysis window, but for reasons of being able to see what is going on, I'll save that for Option B. thanks for your time.    John

Hello, I'm looking for a way to write to a .csv file.  I found the keywords for OPEN and READ to work with a data file, but did not find how WRITE to a csv file.  Can someone help please? Raphael Levy

I am plotting multiple plots with the zpl macro. I have each plot a separate color but would like to label them in a legend. So far I have not found a method in the help menu. Anyone know if there is a method to do this? Thanks

I found a NSC polygon object 'prism_array.pob' that does ALMOST what I want (put a linear array of microprisms on a 'slab' of material), but I would like to generate (micro-)prisms having different angles, spacing, scale, and different thickness 'slabs.' Editing the .POB file shows that it starts as follows with the comment that it was created by a ZPL macro 'prism_array.zpl': '! This polygon object was created by the prism_array.zpl macro ! V 1  82.50000000  50.00000000  0 V 2  82.50000000 -50.00000000  0 V 3 -82.50000000 -50.00000000  0 V 4 -82.50000000  50.00000000  0 R 1 2 3 4 0 0 V 5  82.50000000  50.00000000  10.00000000 ...' But I can't find the prism_array.zpl macro to edit it, see what can be varied, or to use it to generate new prism array .POBs. Can anybody provide a copy of prism_array.zpl, or point me to where to find it?  I have the late

Good day. Where is the ZMX File Specification to be found? I used it last year, but now can't remember where I saw it.  

I have some data (such as the text output from a Surface Sag or Surface Phase window). I would like to save this data, but with a different representation of the significant digits. Is there any way to accomplish this?

Hi I want to create zpl macro that  print TFR (throogh focus MTF) data to text file. In order to get relevant information I need to change the settings. I tried to do this by 'MODIFYSETTINGS' but then I got error massage that said 'cannot open setting file'. I did not find any explanation in Zemax manual where this setting file located and I can create it  such that it can be open. I would like if you can give me some information about this file type and how I can access into it. Thanks!   image of ZPL file:  

Operands may be used as dependent variables in Universal Plots. However, there are some cases where I use a ZPLM and the plot shows a straight line of constant value, instead of the curve I expect to see. 

There are times when we run an old ZPL Macro and it may not work in the newest version of OpticStudio. This happens because FUNCTIONS and KEYWORDS are obsolete, even though Zemax/OpticStudio have not made any KEYWORDS obsolete since before 2006, and only 1 function obsolete in the past 5 years.The table below is for mapping the FUNCTIONS/KEYWORDS. If you have a macro that doesn't work and are forced to use Zemax 13 or earlier, perhaps you can check the table below and lookup what the old code is to manually map it and make it work in the newest version of OpticStudio.Feel free to add any we've missed in the comments section, and I'll update the main post.   Type   Old   New   Comment   Function   FVAN(x)  

Saving Image Simulation images in a ZPL macroTo output an image file from the Image Simulation tool in a macro, one needs to create a configuration file. This has to be done once manually by pressing Save from the settings menu of the analysis window (Fig. 1).Figure 1 - Creation of a configuration file (*.CFG) from the settings menu of the Image Simulation window.If an Output File is specified, the next time Image Simulation is called from a macro, a file will be saved in the image folder of OpticStudio, typically: User.Name\Documents\Zemax\IMAFiles\, with the corresponding name. The Image Simulation analysis can be called in a macro with the command line:  OPENANALYSISWINDOW "Sim"If the Output File