Method for constructing an optical element (18, 20, 14) for a motor vehicle headlamp which has a housing, the light exit opening of which housing is covered by a transparent cover pane and in which a light source is arranged, which optical element (18, 20, 14) has an optical surface which can be illuminated by at least one light source of the motor vehicle headlamp and which, taking into consideration all optical surfaces located in the beam path, distributes the light of the at least one light source into an actual light distribution, a target light distribution first being defined, which is characterized in that it has predetermined brightness values in certain emission angle directions and distances and has a homogeneous appearance within bright regions without lighter or dark lines between individual light regions, and corresponding data being transferred to a computer, and the method comprising the following steps: - creating a CAD model of the optical surface; - dispersing the CAD model of the optical surfaces into partial aperture surfaces; - calculating partial light distributions for all partial aperture surfaces, said partial light distributions being generated in different regions of the light distribution by a partial aperture surface in each case; characterized in that the following steps are performed: - specifying surface element models of the optical surface, which surface element models have a scattering characteristic, due to their shape, in a first spatial direction and in a second spatial direction different from the first spatial direction; - joining a plurality of surface element models to form an ensemble covering at least one contiguous part of the optical surface; - simulating an actual light distribution emanating from the optical surface under the influence of the ensemble; - changing the actual light distribution in response to a variation of the forms of the surface element models of the ensemble defining the scattering characteristic; and - iteratively adjusting the actual light distribution to the target light distribution by varying the forms of the surface element models of the ensemble defining the scattering characteristic. - creating a CAD model of the optical surface; - dispersing the CAD model of the optical surfaces into partial aperture surfaces; - calculating partial light distributions for all partial aperture surfaces, said partial light distributions being generated in different regions of the light distribution by a partial aperture surface in each case; characterized in that the following steps are performed: - specifying surface element models of the optical surface, which surface element models have a scattering characteristic, due to their shape, in a first spatial direction and in a second spatial direction different from the first spatial direction; - joining a plurality of surface element models to form an ensemble covering at least one contiguous part of the optical surface; - simulating an actual light distribution emanating from the optical surface under the influence of the ensemble; - changing the actual light distribution in response to a variation of the forms of the surface element models of the ensemble defining the scattering characteristic; and - iteratively adjusting the actual light distribution to the target light distribution by varying the forms of the surface element models of the ensemble defining the scattering characteristic. - specifying surface element models of the optical surface, which surface element models have a scattering characteristic, due to their shape, in a first spatial direction and in a second spatial direction different from the first spatial direction; - joining a plurality of surface element models to form an ensemble covering at least one contiguous part of the optical surface; - simulating an actual light distribution emanating from the optical surface under the influence of the ensemble; - changing the actual light distribution in response to a variation of the forms of the surface element models of the ensemble defining the scattering characteristic; and - iteratively adjusting the actual light distribution to the target light distribution by varying the forms of the surface element models of the ensemble defining the scattering characteristic.