This article explains:

• Modifying system settings, including System Aperture, Lens Units, Fields and Wavelengths
• Entering lens prescription data
• Using solves to enforce design contraints
• Analyzing system performance prior to optimization
• Determining degrees of freedom and setting variables
• Setting up a default merit function
• Optimizing and analyzing final design performance

This article introduces prospective and new ZEMAX users to the capabilities of sequential mode in ZEMAX including:

• Layouts
• Spot Diagrams
• Ray and Optical Path Difference (OPD) Fans 
• MTF calculations
• Extended source modeling
• Off-axis systems
• System aperture, field and wavelength data

This article can be used to explore both the ZEMAX demo and full, licensed versions of ZEMAX.

This article is also available in Japanese.

• what an afocal system is
• how to optimize such systems
• how to get data from afocal systems in angular units
• how to handle cylindrical systems
• how to handle systems with multiple focal and afocal spaces

The article includes a zip archive containing sample files, which can be downloaded from the link on the last page of this article.