2.0 First Project

Here we describe a step-by-step process to creating a new KostaCLOUD Project and making a simple singlet.

First we ask that you navigate to the CLOUD Portal.

Create a new Folder by clicking "" and then "". Call this Folder: "Getting Started", and create it by clicking

Navigate into this folder by clicking on the Folder's Name "Getting Started"

Create a new Project by clicking "" and then "". Name the Project "Singlet", and create it by pressing .

Under Current Directory, right click "Singlet" and press .

Now wait for the workspace to load up in your new tab. Once it is done loading it should look alot like this:

Making the Singlet

The first thing you might notice is that your scale-bar is quite small (Bottom Left, by the New Button). It defaults to 2.5mm. For this example lets zoom out with the mouse-wheel or trackpad to bring it to about 5mm.

Next Mouse over the Button and a small insertion "dot" () will appear that shows where the Lens will be placed when you click the Lens Button.

Next click on the Lens button. After a couple of seconds, a Flat Lens with N-BK7 will show up in the workspace. The program will automatically trace some rays based on your imaging parameters

Now that you have a Lens Blank in KostaCLOUD, let's give it some curvature. To do this click on the Lens with your mouse. The extended properties menu will be shown on the right hand side of the screen. Your properties should look something like these below (It is ok if your numbers are not exactly the same as the ones shown).

In the "Quick Access" Section and "Surface 1" Subsection, you can change the value of the surface Radius by clicking on the "Infinity m", it will then change to "inf" when you enter the field.

Delete the text in the field (backspace or delete key), and type in the number "10". It will show the units below in a popup. You can enter math, pickups, etc. here. But for now we will just go with "10", where the default unit is in "mm". You can also change units by typing in the unit after the number. (e.g. "1in", "1ft", "10ps*c")

After leaving the field, or pressing "enter/return" key, you should get a Lens that looks like the following:

You can additionally change the Radius again by clicking on the Table Icon () next to the KostaCLOUD logo in the Simulation-level Toolbar. You should see "Table View" Prescription table show up.

Relative distances can be changed in the table by changing the "Thickness" column values, and this will move all optics in the Optical system according to this changed value. You can also set other properties in the table such as Radius, Conic, Material, etc. and have a "bird's eye" view of your optical prescription. Now feel free to close the table by clicking "x" or pressing the Table button again.

Tracing Rays, Clearing Rays, and Sources

Now lets change by sub-modes within the software by clicking on the Tab in the Nav Bar/Simulation-level Toolbar. Your screen should look like this:

Now you are in the Simulation Tab. Click Clear Trace, and your rays should disappear.

Now Press the "Trace" button in the Nav Bar/Simulation-level Toolbar and rays should show up on screen.

Changing Imaging Parameters

If the Properties Menu is still on "Lens 1", then in order to get to the "Workspace Settings" Properties, you can always simply click on the background (blue or black in dark-mode), to get back to definitions in the workspace. Lets now change the Entrance Pupil Diameter. We can change the Entrance Pupil Diameter by setting to something else such as 5mm. So change the value to 5, and the workspace should automatically retrace, rescale the Lens and update as shown below:

You can change things like add more wavelengths, Polarization states and Fields as well. Lets also add in a small field of 1deg. This will demo usage of Multi-parameter values. To do so, we hover over the 0.00deg under the θ_y column, as shown below. When hovering you will see an "Eye" and a + symbol show up (). Click on the + to add a field. A timer will appear (), which allows you to make multiple changes before saving your input. This way if you want to add a few fields, you can easily do that, or if you aren't happy with your changes and want to revert to the original state, you can press the red "X". If you want to commit changes immediately without waiting for the timer to run out, you can press the green "Check".

Now that you know how this works, hover over the field, press the +, and enter "1" into the θ_y column, and press the green checkbox.

Now you should see that the viewer has updated with your add 1deg field.

Now that you can setup a basic design, you can move onto the next section to learn how Optimization is setup in KostaCLOUD ODS.