Zemax User Manual

Aris grabbed the binder. For the next eight hours, he and Lena did not so much read the manual as interrogate it. Appendix J described a “zombie surface”—a theoretical plane with negative thickness that could be inserted into an optical path to cancel out a known aberration. It was a mathematical trick, a hack that Zemax’s own algorithms hated. But the manual, in its arcane, footnote-heavy way, explained the conditions under which the universe would allow it.

Between the Glossary and the Index, there is a section called "How To Perform Specific Tasks." This is a lifesaver. Need to model a hologram? Convert a CAD part to a binary lens? Create a decentered mirror assembly? The manual gives you the step-by-step workflow. zemax user manual