Welcome to the Optica Software FAQ page. This
page will be regularly updated as new questions arise from our
users. If you do not find an answer to your question here,
please send us
your question and we will be happy to answer it for
you!
Q: I am on a limited budget. Is there a
lower-priced alternative to Rayica?
A: Yes! We are now offering LensLab as a lower-priced alternative to Rayica for amateur
astronomers, experimental hobbyists, and users on a limited
budget. In addition, we also offer special discounted rates on Rayica and Optica 3 for individuals on a
limited budget.
Q: Do you offer a demo version of your
products?
A: Yes! We now offer a demo
version of our products on a case-by-case basis.
Q: Where can I get a demo of Mathematica?
A: You can request a Mathematica
15-day trial version at the
Wolfram.com web link for demos.
Q: What are the chief advantages of using your
products over other packages?
A: Our products exhibit a
complete language for modeling optical systems in
three-dimensional space. This gives you the most control
possible over the entire design and analysis process. Built
upon the enormous repertoire of symbolic, numeric, and graphic
capabilities of Mathematica, our Rayica and Optica 3 packages are unprecedented in their ability
to flexibly model novel and innovative optical systems. For
example, our packages enable you to specify symbolic
parameters for the various positions, optical properties, and
curvatures of system elements. You can also describe the
shapes of optical surfaces with your own symbolic equations.
In addition, you can directly perform higher-level analysis of
your own in Mathematica from the results of Rayica and Optica 3 without switching to a
different software environment. Finally, unlike any other
product on the market, we openly publish our source code for
your inspection and our products work with every major
computer operating system, including but not limited to:
Windows, Macintosh, and Unix/Linux systems. Such features make
our products unlike any other commercial package.
Q: What forms of optimization are supported by Rayica and Optica 3?
A: Rayica and Optica 3 support all of the popular minimization
algorithms. These include both constrained and unconstrained
methods of minimization. Methods for constrained minimization
include: the differential-evolution genetic algorithm,
simulated annealing, random search, and the Nelder-Mead
simplex algorithm. In addition, Rayica and Optica
3 also support the following unconstrained minimization
methods: Newton, Quasi-Newton, Gauss-Newton, and principle
axis (also known as Brent's method). In addition to Rayica's ray-trace models of optical systems and
numeric optimization, Optica 3 supports symbolic
models of optical systems and analytic optimization based on
methods of calculus for minimization. In particular, Optica's symbolic modelling abilities enable truely
globally optimal solutions to be determined.
With the help of the new dynamic work environment of
Mathematica 6, managing your optimization problems in Optica 3 is now easier than ever before.
Q: Does Rayica/Optica 3 use Mathematica and is Rayica/Optica 3 backward-compatible with the original Optica I
product ?
A: Rayica/Optica 3 is a
direct descendent of Optica I and uses Mathematica in the same way. As such, both Rayica and Optica 3 contain all of Optica's functions and can run all Optica notebooks but many recent functions did not exist in Optica I . However, there have been some minor syntax
changes between the default behavior of some functions in Optica 3 and Optica I, but you can easily
switch back to the original Optica syntax format if
you wish. These changes are well documented at the end of the
new Rayica/Optica 3 User Guide which you can view on our website.
Q: What are the differences between Rayica and Optica 3?
A: Rayica does
geometric ray-tracing and is a subset of the latest Optica
3 product. Optica 3 does symbolic analysis of
optical systems, Gaussian beam propagation, as well as
diffractive effects in imaging systems, interference, and
wavefront calculations. In addition, Optica 3 offers
deeper support of dynamic optical models than Rayica with Mathematica 6. To learn more about the differences
between Rayica and Optica 3, please examine
our Product
Comparison Matrix.
Q: What is the difference between Optica 3 and LensLab?
A: LensLab is an
entry-level product that has a similar feature-set to the
original Optica I product. Optica 3 is the
latest generation professional-grade product with a
feature-set that far exceeds LensLab (see our Product
Comparison Matrix).
Q: Which versions of Mathematica do
you support with your products?
A: We support all versions of Mathematica including version 5.2.
Q: Which computer platforms do you support with
your products?
A: We support all platforms that
work work with Mathematica. These include: Windows
98/Me/NT 4.0/2000/XP, Mac OS X, Linux, and
Unix:Sun/HP/IBM/SGI.
Q: I have previously purchased Optica from Wolfram Research. Is it possible to receive a discount on Rayica/Optica 3 ?
A: Yes! We offer discounts to
former Optica I users.
Q: Do you have a special rate for students?
A: Yes! We now offer special
rates for students.
Q: Do you offer an academic discount?
A: Yes! We now offer discounts
for educational users.
Q: What are the benefits of your annual support
service?
A: Our annual support package
entitles the user to: a free-home-use license, the most
current version of our products throughout the support service
duration, top-priority access to our support team, free
computer systems transfers, and one hour of consulting service
for each product purchased.
Q: After reading through your on-line
documentation, I was unable to locate specific examples of my
desired application for your product. Does your documentation
presently cover every feature of your software?
A: Unfortunately, the complete
coverage of the every aspect of our products capabilities are
simply too vast to mention within a single introductory
discussion or even within the scope of our basic user manual.
In addition, we are constantly developing new features (often
in response to our user's needs) that are not always well
covered in the basic documentation. It is our expectation that
our product's documentation will, by necessity, be an on-going
endeavor that is continually updated as a result of feedback
from our user community. For this purpose, our web-site will
be continuously updated to provide new on-line documentation,
additional examples, up-to-date software, and advanced
technical support. If you have an application that is not
covered in our present documentation, please let us know and
we will let you know if that feature is available and,
whenever possible, we will add further information about that
topic on our site.
Q: You are selling your "add-on" products at a
greater price than the "base" Mathematica product.
How can you justify this?
A: We do not view our new
products to be a simple accessary of Mathematica in
the way that electric windows might be an accessary of an
automobile. Instead, our products form the "car" itself and Mathematica serves as the "engine". In particular,
while Mathematica may be the development environment
of our products, the merits of our products stand on their
own.
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