OPTICS ONE Optical Ray Tracer.

MSDOS (will run in an MSDOS window [click here for MSDOS NOTES] under Windows.

OPTICS ONE has been under development at DYNACOMP for several years. This package stresses accuracy and the user interface, problems often encountered with optical analysis software for small computers. These features make OPTICS ONE applicable to classroom use as well as practical optical system design. OPTICS ONE is particularly well suited to experimenters who do not know a lot about lens design, but want to test their ideas on the computer before spending time and money purchasing components and assembling designs on an optical bench. In conjunction with the manual, it can even be used as a tutorial.

Instead of the brute force (and conventional) use of the trigonometric functions found in FORTRAN, C, and BASIC, OPTICS ONE employs recursion and iteration schemes to minimize both truncation and round-off error. For example, for a fully illuminated (by 300 uniformly spaced rays) 400 cm wide, f=100 cm parabolic mirror, the blur circle at the focus is calculated to be (based on ray intersections) 10E-12 cm, with a maximum ray deviation of 10E-6 cm. That is accuracy well beyond question.

Keeping the user in mind, OPTICS ONE is menu-driven, with defaults for many of the options. The lens data editor is particularly easy to use. For each of up to 20 lens or reflector surfaces, you enter the following data: surface radius, thickness, width, refractive index, and displacement off axis. You may include stops (apertures) anywhere in the system, and request a ray report at any surface or stop.

Data is easily entered, stored to disk, recalled, augmented, edited, etc. While editing, if you wish to keep any values, you just press return; you only enter changes. Struggling is not allowed. Running a particular model is also easy. You may set the overall plotting scale factor, vertical and horizontal positions, or you may use the defaults or last values entered. In this manner, you can zoom in on the graphic display to fine tune your design.

You also have control over the following:

O Number of rays (up to 300)

O Ray bundle center, diameter, angle off axis

O Ray distribution (uniform, equi-energy uniform)

O Surface type (spherical, parabolic, ideal). The general report includes the positions of all surfaces, locations and heights of all images, and the Petzval sum (for field curvature). Surface reports include the location of maximum intensity, blur circle, transmission factor (loss of rays from stops, lens widths), and a full listing of ray intersection points.

Included on disk for instructional purpose are data files for over two dozen optical systems (including a Cassegrain telescope; Ramsden, Huygenian, Gaussian, double and triple achromatic eye-pieces; Zeiss anastigmat; Steinheil aplanat; Ortho Protar; Dagor; four-element Tessar; and many others).

The 300-page user's manual includes diagrams and specifications for these optical systems, along with discussions and sample runs to guide you through operating OPTICS ONE. It also includes a tutorial on lens design. The manual itself can be used as a primer for those not familiar with optics, or as a refresher; it is very well written and very complete.

Price: $199.95 Full System.