This article describes how to simulate the optical appearance a diamond using the powerful, non-sequential capabilities of ZEMAX. It uses a white light source and the true-color capabilities of ZEMAX to show the visual appearance of the diamond. It also contains a useful trick to maximize the light grasp of the receiving optics, and the macro used to generate the polygon object file for a diamond.

This article describes how to model a rainbow including water droplets and the sun's blackbody spectrum.

This article is also available in Japanese.

This article explains how to convert Sellmeier 1 dispersion coefficient data into dispersion coefficient values for the Gradient 5 surface. After doing so, the Gradient 5 surface may then be used to model the variation of index with position for a Sellmeier 1 glass.

This article explains how to create user-defined surfaces of revolution for use in the non-sequential mode of ZEMAX. Examples employing the Bezier curve and a cubic spline curve are provided. 

The Detector Volume object in ZEMAX is a very useful tool for detecting light inside a volume. It uses volume pixels, or voxels, to detect light. However, the ZEMAX interface currently allows these voxels to be viewed only in 2-D planes. This article will show you how to use ZEMAX to create intricate CAD models of the voxels in a Detector Volume, and a sample ZPL macro is given at the end of this article for use in creating these CAD models automatically.

This article describes how to allow programs that support Visual Basic for Applications to communicate with ZEMAX.

This article is also available in Japanese.

There have been literally dozens of eye models published over more than 150 years, from very simple “reduced” eyes consisting of a single refracting surface to very complex models with more than 4,000 refracting surfaces. This article presents several sequential and non-sequential models of the human eye in ZEMAX format, with glass catalog data.

Veiling glare is a term that is often used in the field of imaging system design. Technically, veiling glare is stray light that reaches the sensor plane of an imaging system, and it can cause a decrease in the imaging system’s performance.

Often,  a full non-sequential treatment is needed for accurate results. However, for many optical imaging systems, a first-cut look at forward scattering effects is all that is really required. This article will show how to make just such a preliminary veiling glare measurement using tools that are already built into ZEMAX. This analysis will require just a few minutes to perform, and will give very useful results.

In this article, we will create model of a human eye in ZEMAX using the Liou & Brennan 1997 eye model. After successfully generating this eye model in ZEMAX, we will use it to design a free-form progressive eyeglass lens.

A few years ago the manufacturers of optical glasses started the process of reformulating their glasses to remove arsenic and lead. At first glance, most of these glasses appear to be the exact equivalents of the original glasses. However, examining the indices in the near UV and the NIR shows that the indices can differ in the 3rd decimal place.

Further more, many other properties of the glasses differ significantly: the new formula glasses absorb earlier at each end of the spectrum, and there can be massive differences in the thermal properties between the old and new formulations.

This article discusses these topics, and shows some traps it is easy to fall into with 'Exact Equivalent' glasses.