This article explains:

• What the ZEMAX Programming Language (ZPL) is
• What ZPL is used for
• The differences between functions and keywords within ZPL

This article is also available in Japanese.

This article explains how to call a macro from within another macro, and how data are passed back and forth between macros.

Although only 12 field points can be defined in the Field dialog, the FMDO optimization operand allows these points to be re-defined on the fly during optimization. This means that any operand that uses a field number as an argument can be computed anywhere in the field of view. This article explains how to use this powerful capability.

The ZEMAX Programming Language (ZPL) supports a comprehensive PLOT keyword for making graphs of data arrays. This article shows some examples of how to use it.

One of the many benefits of ZPL macros is that they can be written in any text editor, such as Windows' own Notepad. However, macros are often a lot easier to read, understand and debug when the macro commands are highlighted, and programmer's text editors provide more powerful text editing features.

This article describes how to use two such programmer's editors with ZPL.

This article introduces a quick and simple macro that can be used to scale the weighting of a range of optimization operands.

This article described a brief ZPL code snippet written to save the author from some tedious keyboard data entry. 

This article is also available in Japanese.

This article describes how to change the settings of a graphic window via the MODIFYSETTINGS ZPL keyword. 

This article explains good practice and gives some helpful tips on how best to write and debug your ZPL macros.

This article demonstrates how to open several lens files using the ZPL macro. This is often useful for analyzing lens files generated by ZEMAX during the Monte Carlo tolerance analysis.