ZOSPy

ZOSPy wraps the Ansys (Zemax) OpticStudio API in a more pythonic, well-documented interface, hiding the often verbose .NET-based ZOS-API behind readable, autocompletable function calls. This allows researchers to script and share optical ray-tracing simulations as ordinary Python code or Jupyter notebooks, instead of relying on manual, hard-to-reproduce interaction with the OpticStudio GUI.

Beyond the core API wrapper, ZOSPy bundles ready-made functions for common OpticStudio analyses, solvers and API constants, together with autocomplete support and a unit-test suite that guards against regressions when OpticStudio itself is updated. The package is developed by the MReye group with funding from an NWO Open Science grant, and is used internally for ray-tracing studies of intraocular lens design and ocular radiotherapy planning. It is also supported by many contributors outside our group, spanning multiple fields including optics research and astronomy.

• Residual ellipticity in waveplate-compensated polarization-resolved SHG microscopy may arise from femtosecond laser spectral bandwidth

  Nguyen, Wilde, Uhlmann, Smith, Kusch-Wieser, Zanrè, Schwiedrzik and Csúcs
  (2026), doi: 10.64898/2026.02.24.707711
• LensCopilot is all you need: leveraging a knowledge-grounded LLM for automated high-performance lens design

  Zhu, Wang and Zhang
  Fifth International Computational Imaging Conference (CITA 2025) (2026), doi: 10.1117/12.3093653
• Patient‐specific mapping of fundus photographs to three‐dimensional ocular imaging

  Haasjes, Vu and Beenakker
  Medical Physics (2025), doi: 10.1002/mp.17576 
• A Novel MRI-Based Approach to Peripheral Refraction and Prediction of Myopia Progression

  Kneepkens, Vught, Polling, Klaver, Tideman and Beenakker
  American Journal of Ophthalmology (2025), doi: 10.1016/j.ajo.2025.06.013 
• Ray Tracing and Physical Optics Based Simulator for Digital Holographic Microscopy

  Parant, Paquet-Mercier, Marquet and Thibault
  Optica Imaging Congress 2025 (3D, DH, COSI, IS, pcAOP,RadIT) (2025), doi: 10.1364/DH.2025.DW4A.3
• ZOSPy: optical ray tracing in Python through OpticStudio

  Vught, Haasjes and Beenakker
  Journal of Open Source Software (2024), doi: 10.21105/joss.05756 
• Correction Method for Optical Scaling of Fundoscopy Images: Development, Validation, and First Implementation

  Pors, Haasjes, Vught, Hoes, Luyten, Rijn, Vu, Rasch, Horeweg and Beenakker
  Investigative Opthalmology & Visual Science (2024), doi: 10.1167/iovs.65.1.43 
• Peripheral visual field shifts after intraocular lens implantation

  Vught, Luyten and Beenakker
  Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery (2023), doi: 10.1097/j.jcrs.0000000000001299 
• Effect of anatomical differences and intraocular lens design on negative dysphotopsia

  Vught, Que, Luyten and Beenakker
  Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery (2022), doi: 10.1097/j.jcrs.0000000000001054 

License

MIT

Last updated

Jul 1, 2026

Requires Python

>=3.10,<3.15

Dependencies

• lark ~= 1.2.0
• pythonnet >=3.1.0,<4
• pandas
• pydantic >= 2.4.0
• numpy
• semver >= 3.0.0,<4
• typing_extensions (only if python_version <= '3.10')