Optical System design: Software Tools Cover Envelope Calculations to the Final Engineering Drawings

Optical design is a convenient phrase that covers the whole range of activities required for the creation of an optical system. Optical design usually begins with simple considerations of the spatial envelope of a new lens — finding the object/image distances and sizes, aperture, focal length etc. The designer must then find a suitable starting design, either derived from basic theory, from his experience or from a design library. This start point will need to be analysed and understood and then optimised to match the requirements of the task in hand [1]. Almost always, optimisation involves repeated simultaneous multi—variable adjustments, and this therefore requires sophisticated software tools as following described in this article.