Maker of the Optical Design Software OpTaliX

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OpTaliX Version History

Version 7.12
(29-March-2008)
New Features:

  • China-Daheng lens catalog added.
  • The accuracy of the solid angle calculation (see RIRR command) has been significantly improved.
  • New database item: NRAYS returns the number of rays traced at a specific field, wavelength and/or zoom position.
  • A variety of test/source images have been added. These files are stored in the "\optalix\images\" directory and include colour and grey bars, Siemens star, TV test charts, USAF targets, grids and RGB colour images.
  • Temperature coefficients on index of refraction (DnDT) updated and completed for OHARA glass catalogue.


Bug Fixes:

  • Some glitches in the user interface of the "extended object analysis" (EIMD command) removed. In addition, the resulting image may now stored as bitmap file (BMP, PCX or PNG format).
  • The context sensitive help in the tolerance dialog now works again.
  • The size of the tolerance dialog is now correctly maintained between sessions. Previously the dialog was always displayed at its minimum size irrespective of user settings.
  • The KT-optimization did not accept variable coefficients in user defined surfaces (UDS).
  • Coatings with file names greater than 10 characters could not be attached to optical surfaces.
  • In optimization/refinement of coatings, S- and P-planes were interchanged. This lead to unexpected results in polarization critical applications.
  • Import of coating files from the MacLeod package: Layers specified by physical thickness (instead of optical thickness, the default) are now correctly imported and interpreted.
  • Dispersion coefficients of glass B270 in the special glass catalogue updated.


Version 7.10
(15-Feb-2008)
New Features:

  • Optimization using glass variables now supports real (catalog) glasses instead of searching for fictitious glasses.
  • Updated test plate list from Optimax.
  • The glass polygon for defining constraints on glasses is now integrated into the optimization parameter dialog as a separate tab. This option is invoked by the "EDI OPR" command. The previous command "EDI GLP" command is obsolete, but still supported.
  • Coating performance (reflection, transmission, phase) may now exported to Excel.
  • Memory requirements in illumination analysis have been substantially reduced. Extensive illumination calculations are now possible even on computers with very low physical memory.
  • Zernike surfaces may now be defined as SURFACE or PHASE deformation. Previously, only surface deformation was supported.


Bug Fixes:

  • Design files from the "Handbook of Optical Systems" corrected. Older versions of OpTaliX could not read some example designs.
  • Field aberrations (FIE command) were not correctly plotted if the system contained surfaces with (central) obscurations.


Version 7.08
(21-Dec-2008)
New Features:

  • The optical design files presented in the the book "Handbook of Optical Systems", edited by H.Gross, are now included in the OpTaliX example design library and may also separately downloaded from Optenso's download page. More than 300 new sample designs are included in this special library.
  • Improved handling of coating materials during import from the MacLeod package. In case unknown material names are detected in the import file, the program now opens a dialog box to assign existing materials from the library to the unknown material names.
  • Emittance properties of extended illumination sources can now be controlled. Previously only sources that emitted uniformly in angular space were supported. The new parameter SCOS now allows a broad variety of angular emittance characteristics, including Lambertian sources.


Bug Fixes:

  • The program crashed if the example dialog was exited without selecting a design example.


  • Exporting PSF data to ASCII or Excel files could fail in case of gray level, false colour, or contour rendering. The PSF export now works under all rendering conditions.


  • The limit on number of test plates has been eliminated. Previously only 5000 test plates per vendor were allowed.


  • Results from CAM calculations could not be exported to Excel/ASCII files if the file/path specification contained blank characters. Also, some spurious effects with the Windows ODBC interface were circumvented.




Version 7.04
(02-Nov-2008)
New Features:

  • In the lens catalog dialog (IMP CAT) the lens layout is now displayed. This gives a better visualization of the optical system or lens prior to loading (importing) it into OpTaliX.
  • The ray source viewer now also allows export of ray data in binary format. This option completes the ability of the ray viewer to fully convert ray source files, between ASCII and binary, reduce file sizes by reducing number of source rays, and assign a new (emittance) power to the whole source.
  • New commands return the PV-values of spots and wavefront: SPDPV, SPXPV, SPYPV, and WAVPV


Bug Fixes:

  • Parameters of illumination sources could be destroyed in zoom/multi-configuration systems.
  • In aspheric deviation plots, spline deformation was not correctly displayed if the base surface was aspheric.
  • Defining very large ray source files could slow down rendering of the lens layout plot significantly. This problem is now resolved by buffering plot rays.
  • OPD fan plots now work for all specified wavelengths again. In previous versions the OPD was only plotted at the reference wavelength.


Version 7.02
(14-Sept-2008)
New Features:

  • A new dialog allows browsing through example designs.
  • Zemax Import: Improved handling of fictitious (model) glasses
  • Significant improvements to the illumination engine:

    • Rays emitted from an extended source (e.g. lamp) are now displayed in the lens layout plot. This allows a better control of the illumination condition and the associated illumination ray paths.
    • A power can be assigned to each source.
    • Individual sources can be arbitrarily placed in 3D space and arbitrary orientation with respect to the object surface or the global coordinate system.
    • Sources emittance is now defined by emittance angle and spatial extension and no longer depends on the physical stop position (respectively entrance pupil).
  • New macro options:

    • The OPEN and CLOSE statements give access to external files for subsequent read/write operations.
    • A SELECT statement selects different external files (that have been previously OPENed) to perform different operations on different files.
  • Lens catalogs updated/added from ArcherOpTx, Asphericon, Geltech, 3M Precision Optics.
  • Test plate lists updated, plus many more new test plates added from Changchun BoXin, Changchun Hengrun, Chengdu SWOC, CVI Melles Griot, Davidson Optronics, Edmund Optics, ELCAN Canada, IC Optical Systems, JDSU, JML Optical Industries, LaCroix Optical, Maui Optical Systems and Imaging Center, MediVision, Midwest Optical Systems, Primex, Rainbow Research Optics, Republic Lens Company, Rochester Precision Optics, Ross Optical Industries, SILO, SVG Precision Optronics-Tinsley, VLOC.
  • New glass catalog from Rochester Precision Optics.

Bug Fixes:

  • In lens layout plots, cell offsets in array surfaces were not correctly drawn.
  • Lens modules focal length (MFL) was incorrectly scaled in the SCA (scale) command.
  • The varables MFL, MRD are now persistent. In previous versions these variables were erroneously deleted if the variables/targets editor (EDI VAR) was invoked.

Versions 6.xx Summarizes history of obsolete versions 6.xx
Versions 5.xx Summarizes history of obsolete versions 5.xx
Versions 4.xx Summarizes history of obsolete versions 4.xx