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Optical Design Program User's Guide
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INTRODUCTION
About this document
ZEMAX is available in two different editions: ZEMAX-SE (Standard Edition) and ZEMAX-EE (Engineering
Edition). This manual covers both editions, however certain features are unique to ZEMAX-EE, as noted in the
text. If a feature is available in ZEMAX-EE, but not ZEMAX-SE, the following message will usually be shown in
the manual where the feature is described
What does ZEMAX do?
ZEMAX is a program which can model, analyze, and assist in the design of optical systems. The interface to
ZEMAX has been designed to be easy to use, and with a little practice it can allow very rapid interactive design.
Most ZEMAX features are accessed by selecting options from either dialog boxes or pull-down menus. Keyboard
shortcuts are provided for quickly navigating or bypassing the menu structure. This manual provides explanations
of the conventions used in ZEMAX, descriptions of procedures, and a description of available features.
What doesn't ZEMAX do?
Neither the ZEMAX program nor the ZEMAX documentation will teach you how to design lenses or optical
systems. Although the program will do many things to assist you in designing and analyzing optical systems, you
are still the designer. The ZEMAX documentation is not a tutorial on optical design, terminology, or methodology.
Technical support available to ZEMAX users includes assistance in using the program, but does not include
tutoring on fundamental optical design principles. If you have little or no experience in optical design, you may
want to read up on any of the many good books available on the subject. The following table lists some (but by
no means all) of the books which will aid in your education.
System requirements
ZEMAX requires the current version of the Windows operating system, 200 Mb (or more) of available hard disk
space, a minimum display resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, and Internet and e-mail access for program installation,
program updates, and technical support. A USB port is required for the key (see below).
The amount of RAM ZEMAX requires varies substantially depending upon the nature of the optical system
being modeled and the type of analysis being done. For conventional imaging systems, 256 Mb of RAM is
adequate and should be considered a minimum requirement. For modeling of very complex objects, extensive
physical optics, or scattering and illumination analysis, substantially more memory may be required for optimal
performance. For these types of analysis, 512 Mb of RAM should be considered the minimum, and better
performance will be achieved with 1 Gb or more of RAM. It is possible to perform physical optics analysis with
ZEMAX using very large arrays that require substantially more RAM than this, see “Memory requirements” on
page 579 for details.
Policy on bug fixes
All non-trivial computer programs have bugs. Every effort is made to find and fix all bugs before a new version
is released. However, the program is sufficiently complex such that even a talented team of pre-release program
testers will not find every bug. ZEMAX Development Corporation therefore may provide periodic bug fix releases.
If you find an apparent bug, please report it to us. Try to isolate the exact actions which cause or lead up to
the bug. Try to see if the error is unique to the lens file you are working with. Bugs are usually easier to find if they
also appear on the example files provided with the program.
If you find a bug which causes significant degradation of program performance while you have support, the
bug fix will be provided free of charge. ZEMAX Development Corporation reserves the right to determine what
bugs constitute significant degradation. If you do not have support, you may be required to renew your support
before receiving the bug fix; in this case you will receive the latest program version.
Bug fixes may not be provided if the problem is traced to incompatible, non-standard, or insufficient hardware,
or if you are using an outdated version of the operating system.
Types of windows
ZEMAX has different types of windows, each of which serves a different purpose. The types of windows are:
The main window: This window has a large blank area, with a title bar, menu bar, and toolbar at the top. The
commands available on this menu bar apply in general to the current optical system as a whole.
Editor windows: There are six different editors: the Lens Data Editor, the Merit Function Editor, the Multi-
Configuration Editor, the Tolerance Data editor, and in ZEMAX-EE only, the Extra Data Editor and the Non-
Sequential Components Editor.
Graphic windows: These windows are used to display graphic data such as layouts, ray fans, and MTF plots.
Text windows: Text windows are used to display text data such as prescription data, aberration coefficients,
and numerical data.
Dialogs. Dialogs are pop-up windows which cannot be resized. Dialogs are used to change options or data
such as field angles, wavelengths, apertures, and surface types. They are also used extensively to change
options on graphic and text windows, such as for changing the number of rays on a layout plot.
All windows can be moved or resized (except dialogs) using the standard mouse or keyboard commands. If
you are not familiar with these procedures, see any good book on using Windows or the Windows documentation.
Editor windows operations
The editor windows are used primarily for entering lens and merit function data. Each editor is similar to a
spreadsheet, with rows and columns. The intersection of a row and a column forms a cell. If the editor is the active
window (the one with a highlighted title bar) then one cell will be shown highlighted or in reverse colors. This cell
is called the active cell, and it has what is called the input "focus". The inverted color of the cell is called the cursor,
although it is not a cursor in the usual sense.
Having the input focus means that any data typed on the keyboard will be sent to the active cell. The exceptions
are control commands such as cursor keys or control key combinations, which are sent directly to the main
window. To modify the data in the active cell, type in the new data and press the Enter key when finished.
To add an incremental value to a cell, type a plus sign and then the increment, then Enter. For example, to
change a 12 to 17, type "+5" and Enter. The "*" multiply and "/" divide symbols also work. To subtract a value,
type a minus sign and a space followed by the value to subtract. The space is required to distinguish between
subtraction and entering a negative number.
To modify a portion of the contents of a cell without retyping the entire value, first highlight the cell, then press
the back space or the F2 function key. The left cursor, right cursor, home, and end keys can then be used to
navigate within the cell for editing. The mouse may also be used to select and replace portions of text. Once
changes have been made to the data in the cell, pressing Enter will complete editing and leave the cursor on that
cell. Pressing up or down cursors will also complete editing, and move the cursor accordingly. Pressing Tab or
Shift-Tab will complete editing and move the cursor right or left.
Aborting long computations
Certain ZEMAX tools may require relatively long computation times. For example, the optimization, global
optimization, and tolerancing tools may run from several seconds to many days. To terminate the execution of
these tools, there is a "Terminate" button displayed which can be clicked. After the terminate button is clicked,
ZEMAX gracefully exits the computation and returns control to the main program. Usually, the results of the
computation are not available, and are not displayed.
Some analysis features, such as MTF and the image analysis feature, will run for long periods of time in some
circumstances. For example, large MTF grids or large image analysis ray densities require longer computation
times. However, analysis features do not display a status box or terminate button, because analysis features
display their output directly in a window. For this reason, the keyboard command "Escape" is used to terminate
lengthy analysis computations. There is no mouse equivalent for this feature; only the Escape key is used.