Caution
Fill in all input cells related to activated merit functions.


Up to 5 merit functions can be activated at the same time.

All cells corresponding to an activated merit function must be filled in.

Whatever the merit function, the weight is necessarily a positive number.

For spot diagram merit functions, the value is expressed in mm if the analysis surface is considered at a finite distance and in deg. otherwise. It is necessarily equal to or larger than "0".

For paraxial functions, the value has no unit ("magnification") or is expressed in mm ("efl"). In all cases, it is necessarily strictly positive or strictly negative.

For "ray angle-fieldX" functions, the value is expressed in degrees. It is necessarily positive or null and smaller than 180 degrees.

For "ray shift-fieldX" functions, the value is expressed in mm. It is necessarily positive or null.

For "OPD - fieldX" functions, the value is also expressed in mm. There is no constraint on its sign.

For these 3 last functions, the normalized coordinates of the ray on the aperture (Pnx and Pny) have necessarily values between "-1" and "+1".

In order to maximize the efficiency of an optimization sequence, variables and merit functions must be selected accordingly. In other words, selecting variables for which all chosen merit functions are deliberately insensitive should be avoided. For instance it is not efficient to select the radius of curvature of a surface interfacing the same media when using spot diagram or paraxial merit functions as it does not affect any of them. likewise, selecting the the distance from the object surface or to the observation surface as variables together with the "efl" as the unique merit function does not allow to process the optimization. Other trips and tracks to avoid are detailed in the tutorial section of this table.