New High-Performance Computing Capabilities in Zemax OpticStudio

In the latest release of Zemax OpticStudio, Ansys rolled out High-Performance Computing (HPC) feature, which accelerates optimization and Monte Carlo tolerancing for complex systems. That feature can turn overnight simulations into same-day processes, including computationally slow large-scale straylight analysis.

What Is HPC?

HPC utilizes computer clusters or supercomputers to perform large simulations by parallelizing processes. Many optical simulations, such as non-sequential ray tracing, tolerance analysis, global and hammer optimizations can benefit from parallelizing billions of rays or running millions of calculations. Engineers can utilize saved time to try more variations or run simulations that didn’t seem to be viable in the past due to time constraints.

How HPC Works in OpticStudio

Th HPC calculations are performed on a remote system, either on premise or in the cloud with OpticStudio connecting through user credentials and keys. Jobs are packaged and submitted directly from the OpticStudio. Due to running on the remote system, local hardware is using minimal resources, allowing you to do other tasks in the meanwhile.

Supported HPC Workflows

Currently, this feature supports following processes:

• optimization
• tolerancing
• non-sequential ray tracing

For optimization, it enhances performance in both Hammer Optimization and Global Optimization. In tolerancing, it speeds up Monte Carlo tolerancing runs by enabling distributed execution. Additionally, for non-sequential ray tracing, OpticStudio supports parallel NSC, along with efficient handling of detector data, path statistics, and filtered results.

Learn more about the release on the official Ansys page

Learn more about Ansys Zemax OpticStudio