Surface Data
Display surface data.
SurfaceThe surface number to display the data for.
Discussion
This feature generates a text window which displays surface-specific data. The data includes surface and element powers and focal lengths, edge thickness, index of refraction, and other data for the surface.
If the glass type of the surface is a "model" glass, then OpticStudio will list out the index of refraction at each defined wavelength calculated from the model glass parameters. Also listed is the name of the "Best Fit Glass", which is the name of the glass in the currently loaded catalog(s) which has the closest index of refraction to the model glass in an RMS sense. Specifically, OpticStudio computes the index error as the sum of the squares of the difference between the model index and the actual glass index using the dispersion formulas. The sum is over the defined wavelengths. The index error is computed for every glass in the current catalogs, and the glass with the lowest RMS index deviation is designated as the best fit glass.
Note that the best fit glass may have a different V number than the model glass, however, this is due to the approximations made in the model glass dispersion. Since index of refraction is the physically significant parameter, only the index is used is making the glass selection. When changing from model glass to a real "fixed" glass, the same algorithm is used to make the selection. For more information on model glasses, see "Using model glasses".
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