Optical Design Software for Everyone (Not a sales pitch!)

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

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It may be freely downloaded with the its executable, auxilliary files and the full unabridged FORTRAN source code and documentation files. I use Intel Fortran 9.1 and the matching version of Lawson Wakefields Winteracter library for its user interface and graphical presentations.

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

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1-818-823-4121 1-818-507-5706 (Fax) 1377 E. Windsor Rd., #317 Glendale, CA 91205
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Engineering Calculations
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Hi, Jim,

Thanks for the reminder, and especially for the code, which I've installed but haven't tried yet.

The only problem with open-sourcing something like that is that it needs a specific set of proprietary tools to build it, so for most folks only the binary will be useful.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Reply to
Phil Hobbs

Hi Phil,

There is an up-side. I stopped upgrading Visual Studio and Intel Fortran in 2006. I use version 9.1 of Intel Fortran. The copy of Winteracter I use is 7.1.

Neither are current and there are lots of creative ways and personal friends in the business who probably have copies that can be "borrowed" for "evaluation".

No other extra tools are needed as my distribution copy comes with a MAKE.

There are lots of ICON makers for $20.00 or less. I use one I bought in 1996 that cost like $19.00, came on-line with a backup diskett (3-1/2").

So rebuilding KDP-2 is not that expensive for the "creative" person. The recompile and the link are done with simple .BAT files.

I wish I could have found a free interface/graphics package as good as Winteracter but all the free ones were a pain to make work.

Jim Klein

James E. Klein Engineering Calculations KDP2 Optical Design Program and Design Work

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1-818-823-4121 1-818-507-5705 1377 E. Windsor Rd., #317 Glendale, CA 91205
Reply to
Engineering Calculations

Since discovering KDP-2 with its source code I have the dream to make the ray-tracing code somehow usable from C/C++.

Isn't it possible to split out the ray-tracing part into a GUI-less library which provides a C-API?

Then it should be possible to build the ray-tracing code with open- source Fortran tools, and to build a GUI with other open frameworks and tools.

Reply to
Peter Kümmel

Hi Peter,

Certainly, you have all the source there and my permission to do ANYTHING with it so go for it.

A word of warning about software projects of any kind. Don't neglect the rest of your life! Software projects can be somewhat addictive if your not careful. :-)

Jim Klein

Peter Kümmel wrote:

James E. Klein Engineering Calculations KDP2 Optical Design Program and Design Work

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1-818-823-4121 1-818-507-5705 1377 E. Windsor Rd., #317 Glendale, CA 91205
Reply to
Engineering Calculations

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