Hello from Engineering Calculations,
Things are changing in the world of optical design software.
ORA (CODE-V) was purchased by Synopsis (not Don Dilworth's design code).
Focus Software has merged with Radiant. (ZEMAX)
Optikos no longer actively markets ACCOS-V but it is still available.
Don Dilworth's code is (as I understand it) still available.
None of the frist generation optical design code developers are getting any younger and some have passed on to the great loss of the optical design community. I'm 66. Healthy but 66.
Many other professional codes have faded into the background. There may be other codes under development for commercial sales but I am not personally aware of their names or capabilities.
When I began writing KDP in April 1987, I wanted to have it used as the in-house proprietary code at the aerospace company I then worked for. I was unsuccessful in selling the idea to my management there or at the next company I worked for. I continued to develope KDP for my own use in specialized situations where the commercial codes of the day were not easily adaptable for the unique tasks I needed to perform. The analysis of segmented primary mirror telescopes (for example) was most easily done by writing code for these optics since I had full control of the FORTRAN source code of KDP. KDP was even used to simulate and understand the EARTHSHINE problem that was found to exist in the VIIRS NPOESS sensor. A paper with yours-truely as a co-author is available on the net from the primary author Mr. Stephen Mills of Northrop Grumman Space Technology.
I want KDP in its second version (KDP-2) to be available to anyone who needs an optical design and analysis program and is not able to purchase one of the other commercial codes and does not want to write their own code from scratch. KDP is a vastly flexible code which even has a seperate NSS raytrace and optical system database which was added to model an optical time delay system based on a reflective optical system called a White Cell (Named after the inventor circal
1944).KDP-2 is for anyone anywhere who has the ability to download it from my website at
I encourage anyone to download it, use it, change it, upload it to other servers for others to download. It may be used as an in-house code or it may be used as the beginning of any new optical code by anyone. Anyone to me means individuals, companies or governments anywhere on our planet.
For those who want my help, I sell that to supplement my retirement income but I have so many other interests that I hope KDP-2 is used for free to give people with an interest in optical design and optical analysis a path forward in their endevors.
Sincerely,
Jim Klein
This will be posted here and at comp.lang.fortran and sci.optics and sci.optics.fiber.
James E. Klein Engineering Calculations KDP2 Optical Design Program and Design Work