Graphical Ray-Trace and Surface Generation Methods for Aspheric Surfaces

By means of geometric constructions, a series of solutions has been developed to perform marginal and paraxial ray-tracing on the drafting board. The methods are applicable to plano, spherical, and aspheric surfaces. Mechanical analog constructions of the ray-trace solutions are capable of generating Schmidt, parabolic, and other aspheric optical surfaces. The methods are applicable to the study of known designs, as well as to the development of curves to fit established or desired ray-traces.