Let’s Explore the New Ansys Granta Material Picker

Are you an avid Zemax user who recently updated to 2026R1 and noticed this new tool “Granta Material Picker” in the Libraries tab?

If so, then today is your lucky day! I will be reviewing how the Granta Material Picker is a game changer for users of Zemax OpticStudio.

History of the Zemax Material Library

But first, let’s start with the history of material selection in Zemax OpticStudio—well, at least the history of it since I started using the Zemax in 2020.

Zemax OpticStudio has a Materials Catalog that is filled with material data for a plethora of optical glass. I like to refer to it as the Material Library, as it consists of catalogs from different optical glass suppliers. The catalogs within the library include huge optical glass names like Hoya, SCHOTT, Corning, and Ohara.

Each catalog contains a list of the supplier’s glass, along with all the glass data for optical design. Things like the index of refraction, Abbe number, spectral range, and coefficient of thermal expansion are included in the glass data. Users can also add mechanical data for the glass if they are running STOP analysis workflows that use the Zemax STAR module. See, for example, the glass data for SCHOTT’s BK-7 glass.

Users can also create their own material catalog if they are using glass from suppliers that do not include their catalog in the Zemax Material Library. The Material Library is a great resource saves users the hassle of reaching out to these glass manufacturers to retrieve the optical glass data themselves.

The Missing Feature

However, there has been something that the Material Library has been missing, and that’s a way to search through the available catalogs for the perfect glass for a specific application. For example, what if you are designing your first achromatic doublet, and you have walked through all the first-order optics to define your index of refraction for your two lens glasses, but are not yet familiar with the different glasses and their indices of refraction?

In the past, the workaround would be to use a Model Glass in the Lens Data Editor to define the specific index of refraction (and Abbe number if you have it). Once you have your initial optical system within the Zemax Lens Data Editor, you can change your glass type to “Fixed” and Zemax will find the glass that closest matches the model glass. There may be some caveats to the workflow, like what if the glass that’s chosen is obsolete,  but this is where the new Granta Material Picker comes into play.

Granta Material Picker

The Granta Material Picker utilizes the Ansys Granta UI to search the optical material library. The Ansys Granta solutions are full of comprehensive material data, like Mechanical and CFD information, for a wide range of materials to be used in different Ansys simulations. The Granta Material Picker is the first time that optical properties have been integrated into the Granta ecosystem.

That being said, let’s explore the Granta Material Picker! You’ll first notice that users will be prompted to sign into your Ansys account. If you do not have an Ansys account, you will need to create one to access the tool.

Once signed in, users can access the “Optics Design Data” source to access the vendor-provided optical material database.

I would first like to focus your attention to the right, where the “Columns” tab resides.

This tab allows users to pick which optical parameters are added to the glass list. For example, if you are interested in both the index of refraction and Abbe Number of the glass, selecting those would allow you to see those values for each glass within the list view. Mechanical properties of glass like the coefficient of thermal expansion and density are also available in the list view.

Now comes the real fun features of the Granta Material Picker…the Search and filter tools on the left! That is right, the Granta Material Picker now allows Zemax OpticStudio users the ability to search and filter the material library by name, refraction, index, abbe number, pretty much any property that suppliers provide for their optical catalog!

Users can filter the results by catalog name, material family, and status (like whether it is an obsolete or preferred glass). Users can create a filter range for their glass properties to establish a list of glasses that would work for their specific optical design and application. I can imagine this feature to be extremely helpful for new optical design engineers that are not familiar with all the optical glasses, or optical designers that may be working with tight environmental conditions.

Once users have used the search and filter tools to find the optimal glass, the datasheet can be opened by clicking on the glass within the list. The datasheet provides all the optical, physical, mechanical, and chemical data for the glass (if provided by the glass supplier).

Once users have the name of the glass, they can go back to the Lens Data Editor and add the glass to the optical surface. Users can also select multiple glasses and create a new catalog. The tool automatically creates an AGF file that is placed in the correct Zemax directory to be used just like any other material catalog.

And the good news: the Granta Material Picker is available for all editions of Zemax OpticStudio! No additional license of Granta or Zemax are needed to access the tool. This means that everyone that uses Zemax has access!

I cannot wait to hear the many ways in which the Granta Material Picker helped our Zemax users save time picking their glass materials and creating their own custom catalogs! If you are interested in using the Granta Material Picker or have any questions, I would love to hear from you!