Creating an optical system

Creating an optical system#

The OpticStudioSystem object oss that has been created in Connecting to OpticStudio can be used to control the connected OpticStudio instance from Python. This object exposes the ZOS-API namespaces as attributes. Documenting these namespaces is not the intention of this documentation, because they are already well-documented in the OpticStudio help files.

To create and modify a sequential optical system, the Lens Data Editor can be accessed through the oss.LDE attribute.

Example#

import zospy as zp

# Connect to OpticStudio
zos = zp.ZOS()
oss = zos.connect()

# Create a new, empty system
oss.new()

# Insert a new surface at index 1 and adjust its radius and thickness
surface_1 = oss.LDE.InsertNewSurfaceAt(1)
surface_1.Radius = 10
surface_1.Thickness = 5

# Get the STOP surface and adjust its semi-diameter
surface_stop = oss.LDE.GetSurfaceAt(oss.LDE.StopSurface)
surface_stop.SemiDiameter = 2

Using solvers#

OpticStudio allows to dynamically set surface properties using solvers. ZOSPy exposes these solvers through the zospy.solvers module. The below example shows how to use the position solver to set the thickness of a surface, and the material_model solver to set the refractive index of a material.

import zospy as zp

# Connect to OpticStudio
zos = zp.ZOS()
oss = zos.connect()

surface = oss.LDE.GetSurfaceAt(2)
zp.solvers.position(surface.ThicknessCell, from_surface=oss.LDE.GetSurfaceAt(1), length=10)
zp.solvers.material_model(surface.MaterialCell, refractive_index=1.5)

Contributing solvers#

OpticStudio has many solvers, and not all of them are implemented in ZOSPy (yet). If you want to use a solver that is not implemented, consider contributing it to ZOSPy. All solvers follow the same structure, and writing a new one is straightforward. Here is an example for a solver that sets the power of an element:

def element_power(radius_cell: _ZOSAPI.Editors.IEditorCell, power: float) -> _ZOSAPI.Editors.ISolveElementPower:
    """Solver for element power.

    Adjusts the value of `radius_cell` to create an element with the specified `power`. This solver should be set on
    the last surface of the element.

    Parameters
    ----------
    radius_cell : ZOSAPI.Editors.IEditorCell
        Radius cell of the last element surface
    power : float
        Element power in diopters

    Returns
    -------
    solve_data : ZOSAPI.Editors.ISolveElementPower
        The solve data for the element power
    """
    
    # Create an OpticStudio solve data object
    solve_data = radius_cell.CreateSolveType(zp.constants.Editors.SolveType.ElementPower)._S_ElementPower

    # Apply the settings to the solve data
    solve_data.Power = power

    # Add the solve data to the Lens Data Editor cell
    radius_cell.SetSolveData(solve_data)

    return solve_data
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