Changelog, bekannte Fehler und Ausblick - BeamXpertDESIGNER

Known issues in current version:

• An error when exporting grating objects to Zemax results in no diffraction in Zemax when the grating object is hit from behind.
  

Changelog:

Version 0.97.0 (04-20-2022)

• New Feature: Grating object supports now multiple diffraction orders. Watch this video for more details: Multi diffraction orders
• New Feature: The "Ray Analyzer" window supports now all the Ray model related evaluations methods known from the "Screen Viewer".
• New Feature: Preview images for setups in "Recent List", "Recoveries List" and in a new build-in file dialog.
• New Feature: New "Save a copy as..." menu item allows saving a copy of the current setup under a new name without closing it.
• New Feature: Both, the binary and the XML output format, now optionally support build-in ZIP compression.
• Improvement: Better rendering of beam segments in some situations.
• Improvement: Many minor user interface improvements, including wrong tooltips, bad alignments, etc.
• Bug fix: Using the "Dependency Viewer" created an unwanted tiny permanent overlay window which couldn't be closed.
• Bug fix: In XML format, some special characters (like ä, ü, ö, °, µ, ...) were stored incorrectly.
• Bug fix: If the same setup file was opened with multiple instances, changes made by one instance could be silently overwritten by another instance.
• Bug fix: If the refractive index of a material could not be determined, incident beam and ray segments were reflected instead of blocked.
• Bug fix: Selecting beam segments could cause crashes in the context of replicating groups.
• Bug fix: In some cases, the pre-calculated values in the "Ray Analyzer" could differ from the actual values.
• Bug fix: The intensity threshold was sometimes not applied correctly.
• Bug fix: Changes in the "Distance" field in the "Object Viewer" were not always applied.
• Bug fix: A processor core was running permanently, even if there was nothing to do.

Version 0.96.1 (01-18-2022)

• New Feature: Multithreading support for ray model, typical performance boost by a factor of 10 on desktop computer.
• New Feature: Monte Carlo ray distributions as an alternative to existing equidistant sampled distributions. Watch this video for more details: Monte Carlo ray generation mode
• New Feature: New evaluation window called "Ray Analyzer". Allows evaluation on all surfaces in the system (not only on screens!). Very fast pre-calculation and display of beam propagation parameters for all surfaces in the system, including the beam quality factor M². Calculation and display of the projections of the phase space density distribution (e.g. near field distribution and far field distribution) from the ray distribution. Watch this video for more details: Ray Analyzer
• New Feature: In the beams section of the "Screen Viewer", the new evaluations "Asymmetry" and "Astigmatism" have been added.
• Improvement: Optimized data format for ray model allows to handle more rays and improves simulation speed.
• Improvement: User interface completely revised, typos fixed, incorrect tooltip corrected, missing tooltips added, tab order corrected, hot keys added, input controls improved, high DPI support improved.
• Improvement: Wavelength and spectral width of source objects are now entered in the same subsection of the "Object Viewer" or the object properties.
• Improvement: Data export to text files harmonized.
• Bug fix: Incorrect evaluation of a dispersion formula under special conditions.
• Bug fix: Converting a clone object to the cloned object could cause a crash.
• Bug fix: Changing the color setting in the profiles section of the "Screen Viewer" could cause a crash.
• Bug fix: Grating objects could still be modified even in the locked state.
• Bug fix: In very complex optical systems, small numerical inaccuracies could accumulate significantly under certain circumstances.
• Further minor bug fixes.

Version 0.91.3 (02-15-2021)

• Bug fix: Faulty allocation of dependent to independent values in the results of the "Dependency Viewer" (since version 0.91.2).

Version 0.91.2 (02-06-2021)

• New Feature: The beam profiles displayed in the profile section of the "Screen Viewer" can now be colorized according to the segment color (as specified in the source object) or by colors determined from the corresponding wavelength. Enabling color mixing simulation. Watch this video for more details: Coloring Beam Segments
• New Feature: Sources may colorize the ray and beam segments according to their wavelength. Especially useful for broadband sources. Watch this video for more details: Coloring Beam Segments
  
• New Feature: Multi-Merit-Optimization. Optimization tool allows to define multiple merit quantities. Each merit quantity can be weighted as required. Optimization is performed by minimizing the weighted sum of the squared deviation of all merit quantities from their respective target value. Watch this video for more details: Multi-Merit-Optimization
• New Feature: Size of main window toolbars can now be adjusted (--> Settings/User Interface). Useful for small displays.
  
• Improvement: A new encryption method is used for encrypted group objects. Please note: this breaks backward compatibility! Group objects encrypted in this version are no longer readable in older versions.
  
• Further minor user interface improvements.
• Further minor bug fixes.

Version 0.91.0.1 (11-13-2020)

• Bug fix: Permanent processor load occurred even when no calculations are performed (since version 0.91.0).
• Bug fix: When increasing numerical values with the arrow keys, an unwanted beep sounded (since version 0.91.0).

Version 0.91.0 (11-03-2020)

• New Feature: STL-Export of geometrical data of optical components and of beam caustics. These STL files can be imported in many common mechanical CAD software.
  
• New Feature: A dedicated toolbar for common file operations like "Load", "Save", and "Save as" for faster access.
  
• Improvement: Calculation and output of incident angles in beam and ray model unified.
  
• Improvement: All settings and data of the tool windows “Dashboard”, “Optimization” and “Dependency Viewer” are now saved and restored together with the setup.
  
• Improvement: Several new menu items in the Window menu that allow to collect all windows of an instance on demand on a specific monitor in a multi-monitor configuration.
  
• Improvement: Unification of the control elements for linking input controls (Dashboard, Optimization, and "Dependency Viewer").
  
• Improvement: If the diagram in the "Dependency Viewer" has multiple y-axes, it is now easier to set the ranges independently. In addition, axis ranges may be linked together.
  
• Improvement: The line type and symbols of the curves in the "Dependency Viewer" can now be defined separately for each curve via the context menu of the legend.
  
• Improvement: Saving data of the "Dependency Viewer" in text format is now done with more counting digits.
  
• Improvement: In the "Dependency Viewer", the unit prefix for displaying the data can be freely selected. The selected unit prefix is also used when saving the data in text format.
  
• Improvement: Several minor user interface improvements.
  
• Bug fix: Calculation of the direction and the beam propagation properties of a diffracted beam was erroneous when the diffraction direction of the grating object was chosen as vertical.
• Bug fix: When restoring a grating object that was previously saved as a User Object, some parameters were lost.
• Bug fix: If the angle of incidence on a screen object was very oblique, the beam propagation parameters and the angle of incidence were calculated incorrectly.
• Bug fix: In some multi-monitor configurations it could happen that the title bar of program windows were outside the desktop area after loading a setup and hence unaccessible, so that those windows could no longer be moved.

Version 0.90.21 (06-21-2020)

• New Feature: Conversion of the component database to SQL. Thereby considerably faster searches (10 to 100 times faster).
  
• Zemax Import: Further improvements.
• Setup-Viewers: The release of a viewer can now also be triggered from the "Setup Viewer" menu of the main window.
• Several user interface improvements.
• Several stability improvements.

Version 0.90.19 (03-10-2020)

• New Feature: Diffraction Grating object. Represents a simple reflecting or transmitting surface grating, defined by its grating period and the desired diffraction order.
  
• New Feature: Broadband sources. Source objects can now have a spectral width. Such Source objects will generate a definable number of Beam segments and Ray bundle segments, each with the same beam propagation parameters, but different wavelength and thus cover the desired bandwidth.
• New Feature: Export to the Zemax archive file format (*.zar). This file format contains all necessary files (DLLs, coating files, etc.) to be able to import the setup into any Zemax installation. It is recommended to use this format if exported files are to be transferred to third parties.
• New Feature: In the angular coordinate widget, the direction vectors of the local coordinate axes expressed in global coordinates can be shown ("Local direction vectors").
• New Feature: The "Dependency Viewer" can now have more than one dependent parameter.
• New Feature: All settings in the "Dependency Viewer" are now saved with the setup file and restored on loading. Improvement: Redesign of the user interface of the "Dependency Viewer".
• Bug fix: Some bugs related to clone objects and group objects that could cause the program to crash have been fixed.
• Bug fix: Some minor bugs related to Zemax export (*.zmx) have been fixed.
• Improvement: Better accessibility to snapshots of Setup Viewers.
• Many minor user interface improvements.
• Many minor bug fixes.

Version 0.90.15 (10-25-2019)

• New Feature: The surfaces of cylindrical "AsphericLens" objects can now have different horizontal und vertical curvatures. This allows, among other things, the definition of saddle surfaces.
  
• New Feature: The surfaces of "ThickLens" objects can be decentered in horizontal or vertical direction. This allows, among other things, the definition of off-axis parabolic mirrors (conic constant = -1).
• New Feature: Added a direct link to the change-log page at beamxpert.com to the help menu.
• Bug fix: The improved performance of the SetupViewer in version 0.90.14 had the impact that the lables of some objects were no longer displayed.
• Bug fix: For clone objects, the attributes "Active", "Hidden" and "Ignored" were taken from the master object instead of from the clone object.
• Optical components library: Added catalogs of the suppliers "OptoSigma" and "LASER2000".
• User interface: Many cosmetic improvements.
• Many other minor bug fixes and improvements.

Version 0.90.14 (09-13-2019)

• Zemax Import: Improved import from ZMX format. Added support for ZAR format (archieved Zemax files). Display of detailed list of errors that may have occurred during import. Please note: the import filters are continuously improved. ZMX or ZAR files submitted by users that have not been imported correctly will allow to further improve the filter function.
  
• Zemax Export: Some improvements.
• Update function: Network access to files for necessary updating switched from FTP to HTTPS.
• Encrypted Groups: Groups can now be encrypted with a user name and a password. This allows save transfer of objects or of whole setups to third parties who then can work with these objects without having access to the exact specification.
• CloneObjects: Nesting of CloneObjects now possible, i.e. CloneObjects or Groups containing CloneObjects can be cloned.
• "Setup Viewer": Improved performance when drawing a large number of objects.
• Numeric input controls: Bug fixes.
• "Screen Viewer": Profiles can now be displayed in false colors. Use the General Settings and/or the context menu of the beam profile display to switch between grayscale and false colors.
• "Screen Viewer": Bug fixes.
• Other minor bug fixes and performance improvements. Plenty of rearrangements under the hood.

Version 0.90.13 (05-31-2019)

• Zemax Export: Improved the deployment of files necessary for export to Zemax and adapted it to the requirements of newer Zemax versions.

Version 0.90.12 (05-21-2019)

• Zemax Export: Fixed a bug that prevented copying files necessary for export to Zemax.
• Installer: Significantly faster now. Doesn't delete any longer user created folders in "c:\Program Files (x86)\BeamXpertDESIGNER\Catalogs".

Version 0.90.11 (05-18-2019)

• Optical Components library: Corrected faulty links of components from Qioptiq to a wrong web page.
• "Screen Viewer": Functionless "Auto center" feature in the "Profile" section is now working.
• New Feature: "Dependency Viewer". Allows the automatic variation of any parameter and the determination of the dependent change of another parameter. Watch this video for more details: Dependency Viewer
• Object browser: Focal lengths in the result List are now updated when the default wavelength is modified.
• New Feature: If a beam hits an object whose refractive index cannot be determined for the wavelength of that beam, the beam stops at that object.
• New Feature: "Caustic Viewer". Beam propagation can be displayed as a 2D-graph showing the beam diameter as a function of the propagation distance. Watch this video for more details: Caustic Viewer
• Zemax import: some improvements (still far from being perfect).
• Several other minor bug fixes and performance improvements.

Version 0.90.10 (02-13-2019)

• New Object "Coordinate Break": CoordinateBreak objects provides the following options:

• Export to Zemax now available:

• Bugfix: under some conditions the direct link to the vendors webpage for components of the optical components library didn´t work.
• Bugfix: programm crash on raytracing under some special conditions
• Slightly increased performance by avoiding unnessary redraws

Version 0.90.09 (12-10-2018)

• Bugfix: Invalid Raytracing on Prism objects. Under some circumstances, hits with prism surfaces were not detected.
• Clone objects can now be replaced by (steady) copies of their master object, hence breaking the connection to the master object.
• Several minor bug fixes.

Version 0.90.07

• Optical components library updated
• Added the following catalog:
  • Bernhard Halle Nachf.
• Components from the optical components library offer now a direct link to the vendor´s webpage of that component (wherever it is possible).
• Minor bug fixes.

Version 0.90.06

• Optical components library updated:
  • Removed all previous (outdated) components librarys
• Added the following up-to-date catalogs:
  • Asphericon
  • Edmund Optics
  • Eksmaoptics
  • Newport
  • Qioptiq
  • Ross Optical

Note: The Thorlabs catalog is no longer included for licensing reasons. Please contact our support for further information on this issue.

Version 0.90.05

• Improved handling of license key errors
  
• Bugfix: Invalid Raytracing inside Prism objects. Hits with prism surfaces were partially not detected.
• Bugfix: In "Screen Viewer", spot diagram: Total power coupled in multi-mode fibers has been dsplayed in percentage instead of absolute units.
• Bugfix: In "Screen Viewer", spot diagram: Relative power coupled in multi-mode fibers has been given relative to single emitter power instead of complete source power.
• Bugfix: In "Screen Viewer", spot diagram: Program crash when trying to calculate guess value for TEM00 content under some circumstances.

Version 0.90.03

• Bugfix: minor bug concerning product activation

Version 0.90.02

• Bugfix: Program crash on beam or ray incidence angles very close to 90°