PyZOS 0.0.8
Python interface for Zemax OpticStudio COM API (ZOS-API)
License: MIT
Keywords: zemax opticstudio extensions COM optics ZOS-API

..  image:: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pyzos/pyzos/master/Doc/images/pyzos_banner_small.png

Python Zemax OpticStudio API 
----------------------------

Current revision
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0.0.8 (Last significant update on 02/26/2016) 

Philosophy / Design Goals
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Problems
~~~~~~~~

The ZOS-API is an excellent interface for OpticStudio. However, using the ZOS COM API in 
Python directly through PyWin32 is not conducive and feels very unpythonic for the following
reasons: 

* the large set of *property* attributes of the ZOS objects are not introspectable, 
* several interface objects require appropriate type casting before use, 
* the interface is quite complex (albeit flexible) requiring a significant amount of coding,
* the ZOS-API only works in standalone (headless) mode. This prevents users from interacting with a 
  running OpticStudio user-interface and observing changes made to the design instantly.   

Solutions
~~~~~~~~~

The philosophy behind PyZOS is to make ZOS-API easier to use in Python by:

* enabling interactivity with a running OpticStudio user-interface (`see demo <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot5CrjMXc_w>`__)
* providing better introspection of objects' properties and methods 
* reducing complexity by

  - providing a set of custom helper-methods that accomplishes common tasks in single or fewest possible steps
  - providing a framework for easily adding custom methods that seamlessly couple with existing ZOS objects
  - managing appropriate type casting of ZOS objects so that we can concentrate on solving optical design problem

* do all the above without limiting or obscuring the ZOS-API in any way
* do all the above with as minimum coding as possible (i.e. do a lot by doing very little)

These *enhancements* to ZOS-API using PyZOS library are documented in this (work in progress) 
`Jupyter notebook <http://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/pyzos/pyzos/blob/master/Examples/jupyter_notebooks/00_Enhancing_the_ZOS_API_Interface.ipynb>`__.   


Example usage
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.. code:: python

    import pyzos.zos as zos   
    osys = zos.OpticalSystem(sync_ui=True) # enable interactivity with a running UI
    sdata = osys.pSystemData
    sdata.pAperture.pApertureValue = 40
    sdata.pFields.AddField(0, 2.0, 1.0)
    wave = zos.Const.WavelengthPreset_d_0p587
    sdata.pWavelengths.SelectWavelengthPreset(wave)
    ...
    osys.zPushLens(1)  # copy lens from ZOS COM server to the visible UI app
    ...
    osys.zGetRefresh() # copy changes from the visible UI app to the ZOS COM server
    ...
 
See more example use of PyZOS used within Jupyter notebooks `here <https://github.com/pyzos/pyzos/tree/master/Examples/jupyter_notebooks>`__.


Install PyZOS from PyPI
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Use the following command from the command line to install PyZOS from PyPI:

.. code:: python

  pip install pyzos



Interested in contributing?
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You can contribute in may ways:

1. using the library and giving feedback, suggestions and reporting bugs 
2. adding custom functions you wrote for your project that others can use
3. helping to write the unit-test, adding test cases
4. letting others know about PyZOS (if you found it useful)


Dependencies
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The core PyZOS library only depends on the standard Python Library. 

1. Python 3.3 and above / Python 2.7; 32/64 bit version
2. `PyWin32 <http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/>`__

All the dependencies can be installed by using the Anaconda Python distribution.

License
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The code is under the `MIT License <http://opensource.org/licenses/MIT>`__.