Main window

The main window is the central control point for all OSLO tasks. It contains the menu bar, tool bar, program controls, and access to all other OSLO windows. The main window should be maximized to make use of the full display area, allowing as much room for the other OSLO windows as possible. It cannot be reduced smaller than the size of the control area.

Menu bar

The menu bar displays a related list of top-level items for the OSLO menu system. Each item contains a pull-down menu with several options. Some options contain pull-right menus with additional choices. The OSLO menu system works like other Windows menus. You can either click on an item to choose it or press the ALT key followed by the underlined letter key of the menu option of interest. Options not available are dimmed.

To establish a link in your mind between OSLO and other Windows programs designed for document processing, think of the lens as the document. The various menu items contain the following options:

File ¾ Options that open and save files, and manage printing and plotting. The last option on the File menu is Exit, which stops the program.

Edit ¾ Options that edit lens surfaces or elements, such as insert, delete, reverse, insert catalog element. Except for Scale Lens, the commands on this menu are dimmed unless a row button in a spreadsheet is selected.

Update ¾ Options that change lens data. These include access to OSLO spreadsheets, such as the Surface Data Spreadsheet or the Paraxial Setup Spreadsheet. Other available options are for setting the operating conditions that determine how OSLO performs lens calculations, draws, and prints output.

Optimize ¾ Options that set up and carry out optimization.

Show ¾ Options that draw views of the lens in a graphics window or list the lens data in the text window.

Calculate ¾ Options that use the lens data to calculate the performance of the system. The optical evaluation routines, such as aberration analysis, ray tracing, and image analysis are found under this menu.

Options ¾ Advanced or special purpose routines, plus support routines for setting preferences, etc.

User ¾ SCP or CCL routines supplied with the program or added by the user.

Window ¾ Options to open, close, and update graphics windows. Window also includes commands to copy text and graphical output to a file or the Windows clipboard.

Help ¾ Provides an entry into the OSLO help system. You can also obtain help by clicking on the help button on the tool bar or a Help button in a spreadsheet.

Tool bar

The tool bar provides a quick way to perform common tasks. The icons indicate which tasks can be performed. These tools are separated into six groups. Tools within each group have similar functions. Those tools not available are dimmed. To see a one-line description of a tool, hold the mouse cursor over the tool button. The description will appear after a short period of time.

Each tool function can also be executed using the function keys, as indicated.

File group

This group includes tasks performed frequently from the main window.

F1 Opens the OSLO Help system.

F2 Displays the File Open dialog box so you can open a new lens.

F3 Saves the current lens data to a file on disk, and overwrites any previous data in the disk file

F4 Opens the text editor window

Spreadsheet group

These icons are used to access some of the principal spreadsheets in OSLO. The "S" in the upper right corner indicates a spreadsheet.

F5 Opens the Surface Data Spreadsheet.

F6 Opens the general operating conditions spreadsheet.

F7 Opens the Gaussian beam spreadsheet.

F8 Opens the tolerance data spreadsheet.

Text group

These tools display numeric lens data in the text window. The "T" in the upper right corner indicates text output.

F9 Displays surface data in the text window.

F10 Displays paraxial constants in the text window.

F11 Displays a basic ray trace analysis for an on-axis field point and a point at the edge of the field.

F12 Displays a basic spot diagram analysis in the text window for an on-axis point and a point at the edge of the field.

Graphics group

These tools display views of the lens in the current graphics window.

SHIFT+F1 Draws the lens in plan view.

SHIFT+F2 Draws the lens in solid model view.

Report graphics group

These tools activate OSLO's report graphics features. For each graphic, OSLO calculates lens performance at three field positions (on axis, 0.7 field, and full field) and displays this performance on standard templates. These tools combine many menu operations into one. They are useful both for quick evaluations and to make concise summary graphics for reports.

SHIFT+F3 Ray analysis report graphic. This graphic includes ray intercept diagrams, astigmatism, distortion and lateral color plots, and a plan view of the lens with the default drawing rays traced.

SHIFT+F4 Wavefront analysis report graphic. This graphic displays an exit pupil wavefront map and contour plot for each of the three field positions.

SHIFT+F5 MTF through-frequency report graphic. This graphic displays the MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) as a function of spatial frequency at each of the three field positions. The MTF of an ideal lens is plotted for reference.

SHIFT+F6 MTF through-focus report graphic. This graphic displays the MTF (Modulation Transfer Function) at a fixed frequency as a function of focus at each of the three field positions. The frequency is specified in the spot diagram operating conditions.

SHIFT+F7 Spot diagram analysis report graphic. This graphic includes spot diagrams at three field and five focal positions, and the radial energy distribution for each field position.

SHIFT+F8 Point spread function report graphic. Shows the diffraction point spread function at the three field points.

Optimization group

SHIFT+F9 Optimizes the lens. Carries out up to 10 full iterations using the current variables and error function.

SHIFT+F10 Computes and displays the current operands in the current text window.

SHIFT+F11 Opens the interactive design window.

SHIFT+F12 Autofocus. Computes and adds a focus shift to the lens to optimize the spot size on axis.

 

Control buttons

The OK button and the check button are equivalent. Both are equivalent to pressing ENTER, except that when a spreadsheet or dialog box is being edited, they are equivalent to SHIFT+ENTER. They cause OSLO to accept and terminate the current data entry. In a spreadsheet, the check button causes OSLO to accept changes and close the spreadsheet. In a dialog box, the check button causes OSLO to close the box and perform the operation.

The Cancel button and the X button are equivalent. They are both equivalent to pressing ESCAPE, except that when a spreadsheet or dialog box is being edited, they are equivalent to SHIFT+ESCAPE. X causes OSLO to reject and terminate the current data entry.

Command area

Prompt line ¾ The prompt line contains a prompt that either states the current status of the program or requests specific keyboard input. OSLO contains a special feature that generates prompts for all required input data.

Command line ¾ This is where keyboard input to OSLO occurs. When a spreadsheet is active, keystrokes entered into the program are echoed in both the spreadsheet and on the command line. When the command line expects an argument that is an item from a list of allowed values, a pop-up options list appears containing all the allowed values. (See Pop-up windows.)

Message area ¾ The message area contains informative messages of up to 2 lines from the program. Error messages appear in a separate alert box. The message area is also used for program output, such as calculator results or file actions, that is not appropriate for the text window.

Pop-up windows

Options lists ¾ Many OSLO commands (see Command area in this chapter) and SmartCell buttons (see Spreadsheets below) require a choice from a list of several arguments. OSLO provides this list of arguments either in a pop-up menu or options list. Pop-up menus work similarly to other menus. You can then select an element from an options list by double-clicking on it or by selecting it with the arrow keys and pressing ENTER. You can also enter the desired value on the command line. If you decide not to perform the command, click on Cancel (or press ESCAPE). You must complete the command or cancel it before OSLO will perform other operations.

Alert boxes ¾ When OSLO is unable to complete an operation, it informs you with a pop-up alert box. The box contains a message describing the reason for the incomplete operation. OSLO frequently generates several error messages in a row, since the failure of one operation causes subsequent operations to be invalid. Each alert box contains an OK button. You must acknowledge the message by clicking on this button or by pressing ENTER before OSLO will continue.

Text window

A text window is opened when the program starts and cannot be closed (although it can be minimized to an icon). It serves as a serial record of a design session, allowing you to scroll backwards through up to 1999 lines of text output from previous commands. The page mode preference controls the behavior of the text window. If page mode is turned on, the first line of output from each command will appear at the top of the text window. If it is off, the last line of output from each command will appear at the bottom of the window (if the window is overfilled).

The text window can be resized up to full screen and supports both vertical and horizontal scrolling.

You can open a second text window using the Window >> Text >> Open menu items. Text output from the program will be directed to the window that has an asterisk on the title bar. Each text window has its own spreadsheet buffer.

Next Page | Chapter Summary | Table of Contents


Copyright © 1997 Sinclair Optics Inc. All rights reserved.
Page last updated 19970601