General...
The Essential Macleod Options dialog box that is activated has several features, and is divided into tabs. Selecting a tab displays a group of options.
Data Sources Tab
The upper text box contains the path and name of the current Materials Folder. This can be changed and the new folder will then be the one automatically used. A record of material databases that have been used by the package is maintained and these paths are available in a dropdown list activated by the arrow to the right of the folder name. Since a change in materials folder could have serious consequences for an existing design, it is arranged that the Materials Folder option is available only when there is no open design file.
It can be very useful to have different material files for different applications. For example, the default wavelength units in the package as provided are nm and these should be changed to microns if much infrared work is to be done. One material database can then be completely in microns and one completely in nm. It is helpful to give the materials folder a meaningful name such as IR or Visible or UV. Sometimes in the early stages of a design, nondispersive materials are used. A special folder with nondispersive materials may then be useful, called, perhaps "Non Dispersive".
Later in the manual you will find that it is very easy to create new material databases and to import materials into them. A useful way of working is to create a new materials database at the start of any new project. Only those materials that apply to the project need be imported into it. The database folder can also be used to store the design, plot and table files. Although there is no design folder in the list of options, the package will return to the same design folder each time it is loaded until another is used to store files.
The data and design files are completely separated from the material files by their extensions. At the end of the project the folder will contain all the files necessary to resurrect it and it can be saved to an archive and then deleted. This technique insulates the standard materials from changes that are made only in connection with a particular project yet the special set of units that may have been used, the particular materials, the designs and so on are all preserved.
Reference files are stored in a reference folder. These are files containing data necessary for the operation of the package. In the Essential Macleod the important files in
the reference folder are those containing definitions of color matching functions and of source output for the color calculations. The reference folder is also used extensively in the Function enhancement to the Essential Macleod. The Options dialog box includes a field that gives the folder where the reference files are located. Once this has been defined it will seldom be necessary to change it but the possibility does exist.
Windows Tab
When Cascading Close is checked any plots and tables in open windows that are associated with a given design will be closed when the design window is closed. When it is not ticked then windows will not be automatically closed.
If the Prompt to save old Tables and Plots before closing box is checked then the user will be asked if any plots or tables that have been changed from the version that is stored on disk should be saved before being closed.
Keep old Plots and Tables displayed is a useful option. It is very easy to accumulate many opened plots and tables. These do use up memory and should be closed as soon as they are no longer immediately needed. If this option is not checked then a new table or plot will simply replace any older one. If the option is checked then the new plot or table will coexist with the older.
Plotting Tab
The plots can be produced with either ticks on the axes or a complete grid. Show Grid on Plots decides which is to be used. Note that the plots saved by the program are stored as data rather than images. If this option is changed then all plots that are recalled from store will follow the current choice even though they may have been created with the other in force. Note that it is very easy to remove a grid from an individual plot or to restore it once removed.
Nominal Plot Segment Length has an important role in plotting. The package uses a special adaptive technique. Plots are drawn with variable spacing of successive values of the independent variable so that closely packed fringes will be reproduced without having to use a very small and inefficient interval on smoother parts of the characteristic. An
algorithm calculates a starting interval from the thickness of the coating, the wavelength range and the size of the plot. During plotting, the interval is continuously varied. The nominal plot segment length is a parameter that defines the closeness of points required for the plots in general. It should rarely need to be altered. However, if you find that the kind of plot that is normally being produced is fairly flat but is taking a long time because there are too many points, then this number may be increased. If, on the other hand, the fringes are so closely packed that the program is jumping across them, then this number should be reduced. The number should be adjusted in very small increments. Halve it or double it at the most with each adjustment. It is very easy to set it so that an impossibly large number of points is required.
When the axes for plots are automatically selected, the X-axis range is scanned to estimate the total Y-axis range. This range is then used to drive the adaptive plotting algorithm. If the Y-axis range is very small, then this will force the adaptive plotting algorithm to look for very fine changes in the calculated Y values. Such plots will take a long time to calculate but they will not add any useful information. To prevent this, a minimum range can be specified. If a Y-axis is being automatically generated, then the estimated Y range is constrained to be no less than the minimum range for the
performance parameter. If the Y-axis has been defined and is not automatic, the minimum range values do not apply. If you wish to modify the default minimum range values, the Minimum Ranges button displays a form where you can specify the minimum range to be used for each of the available performance categories.
Plots can be generated with two Y-axes. Sometimes it may not be clear which Y-axis is used for a particular trace. Y-axis identification defines the default method by which axes are identified. If Identify Y Axes is checked then the titles for the Y-axes will be prefixed by the appropriate identifier and each trace will have its legend prefixed by the identifier for its Y-axis. Y-axis identification can also be manually performed in the Plot window.
A default appearance (background color, font characteristics etc.) can be specified for all plots. To set the default appearance, save a plot that has the desired appearance, then open the Plotting tab in General Options, click on Choose and select the saved plot. To remove a previously chosen plot file, click on Delete. Note that Delete does not delete the plot file.
Cone Tab
This tab provides control over the cone calculation provided by the Stack Editor.
Nominal Cone Segment Length controls the adaptive calculation used by Cone when calculating the cone response at a particular wavelength, frequency or incident angle. It is similar to Nominal Plot Segment Length described above.
Bandwidth Step controls the step size when the bandwidth is non-zero.
Gaussian beams do not have a distinct cutoff where there is no irradiance. The beam intensity falls off with a Gaussian distribution. When calculating the performance of a coating illuminated with a Gaussian beam, the Essential Macleod will not calculate performance beyond a specified ratio of the Gaussian beam’s semi-angle. This has the effect of truncating the edges of the beam. When the ratio is sufficiently large, the effect on the calculations will be negligible. The default value for the ratio is 2. At this limit, the intensity of the beam has fallen to 0.0003 times the on axis intensity, which should be
satisfactory for most applications. To change the value of this ratio, modify the Gaussian Calculation Scale Factor value. Making the value larger improves the calculation results at the expense of a greater calculation time.
Designs Tab
This tab provides control over the order in which layers are displayed, the formula ordering convention and the intervals used for derivative calculations.
For the Display Order, there are two possible options: Medium at Top and Substrate at Top. When Medium at Top is selected, designs are displayed with the incident medium at the top of the list. When Substrate at Top is selected, designs are displayed with the substrate at the top of the list. Layers can be numbered either with the layer next to the medium numbered 1 or from the substrate.
The Formula Order is used to specify which end of the formula is next to the incident medium. Medium at Left specifies that the incident medium is at the left end of the formula string. Medium at Right specifies that the incident medium is at the right end of the formula string. The formula editor indicates which convention is in effect so that you do not have to remember.
Wavelength Delta Factor defines the interval used for calculating the first derivative of the optical constants. The default value has been selected to give the best performance for the majority of designs.
Optical Thickness Convention controls the display of optical thickness values. There are two options: FWOT and QWOT. When FWOT is selected, the optical thickness of a quarterwave thick layer is reported as 0.25. When QWOT is selected, the optical thickness of a quarterwave thick layer is reported as 1.
When Use Packing Density to adjust Extinction Coefficient is checked, the packing density value will be applied to the Extinction Coefficient data as well as the Refractive Index data. When unchecked, only Refractive Index will be modified by the Packing Density.
Update Tab
This tab provides control over the automatic checking for updates.
If automatic checking has been enabled, then, each time the Essential Macleod is started, it will first check to see if the specified number of days has elapsed since the last time a check for updates was made. If it has, then the program will connect to the Thin Film Center web site to determine if a new update is available. If there is a new update, you can choose to download and install the update now or just continue using the Essential Macleod. If you choose to download the update, the Essential Macleod will close so that the program file can be modified.
If Automatically check for updates is checked, then the Essential Macleod will check for updates at the specified interval. The interval is specified by entering the number of days in the box after Check for updates every.
Color Tab
This tab specifies the wavelength intervals to be used when calculating color parameters. The Wavelength Interval for Performance is used when requesting a color
calculation from the menu. The Wavelength Interval for Refinement is used when calculating the value of a color target during refinement or synthesis. Specifying larger values increases the speed of color calculations but the accuracy is reduced.
Print Tab
This tab specifies the default header and footer to be used for printed output. The header and the footer may be multi-lined and have three sections: left, middle and right.
A bar (“|”) character is used to separate the sections.
For example, the header definition:
Left|Middle Section on more than one line|Right
would appear as follows on printed output:
Left Middle Section Right
on more than one line
Several symbols may be used in the header and footer. These are:
%o The type of document being printed. For example in a design this will be replaced by “Design”
%f The name of the file being printed as displayed in the title bar of the window.
%t The date when the document was printed. This will be formatted according to the date format specification at the bottom.
%d The current page number
%% Inserts the “%” character.
There are several pre-defined date formats available. These are:
Format Name Description
General Date
Display a date and/or time. For real numbers, display a date and time, for example, 4/3/93 05:34 PM.If there is no fractional part, display only a date, for example, 4/3/93. If there is no integer part, display time only, for example, 05:34 PM. Date display is determined by your system settings.
Long Date Display a date according to your system's long date format.
Medium Date Display a date using the medium date format . Short Date Display a date using your system's short date format.
Long Time Display a time using your system's long time format; includes hours, minutes, seconds.
Medium Time Display time in 12-hour format using hours and minutes and the AM/PM designator.
Short Time Display a time using the 24-hour format, for example, 17:45.
You can also design your own date format using these formatting commands:
Character Description
(:)
Time separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the time separator. The time separator separates hours, minutes, and seconds when time values are formatted. The actual character used as the time separator in formatted output is determined by your system settings.
(/)
Date separator. In some locales, other characters may be used to represent the date separator. The date separator separates the day, month, and year when date values are formatted. The actual character used as the date separator in formatted output is determined by your system settings.
c
Display the date as ddddd and display the time as
ttttt, in that order. Display only date information if there is no fractional part to the date serial number; display only time information if there is no integer portion.
d Display the day as a number without a leading zero (1 – 31).
dd Display the day as a number with a leading zero (01 – 31).
ddd Display the day as an abbreviation (Sun – Sat).
dddd Display the day as a full name (Sunday – Saturday).
ddddd
Display the date as a complete date (including day, month, and year), formatted according to your system's short date format setting. The default short date format is m/d/yy.
dddddd
Display a date serial number as a complete date (including day, month, and year) formatted according to the long date setting recognized by your system. The default long date format is mmmm dd, yyyy.
Aaaa The same as dddd, only it's the localized version of the string.
W Display the day of the week as a number (1 for Sunday through 7 for Saturday).
Ww Display the week of the year as a number (1 – 54).
M
Display the month as a number without a leading zero (1 – 12). If m immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
Mm
Display the month as a number with a leading zero (01 – 12). If m immediately follows h or hh, the minute rather than the month is displayed.
Mmm Display the month as an abbreviation (Jan – Dec).
Mmmm Display the month as a full month name (January – December).
Oooo The same as mmmm, only it's the localized version of the string.
Q Display the quarter of the year as a number (1 – 4).
Y Display the day of the year as a number (1 – 366).
Yy Display the year as a 2-digit number (00 – 99).
Yyyy Display the year as a 4-digit number (100 – 9999).
H Display the hour as a number without leading zeros (0 – 23).
hh Display the hour as a number with leading zeros (00 – 23).
n Display the minute as a number without leading zeros (0 – 59).
nn Display the minute as a number with leading zeros (00 – 59).
s Display the second as a number without leading zeros (0 – 59).
ss Display the second as a number with leading zeros (00 – 59).
t t t t t
Display a time as a complete time (including hour, minute, and second), formatted using the time separator defined by the time format recognized by your system. A leading zero is displayed if the leading zero option is selected and the time is before 10:00 A.M. or P.M. The default time format is h:mm:ss.
AM/PM
Use the 12-hour clock and display an uppercase AM with any hour before noon; display an uppercase PM with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
am/pm
Use the 12-hour clock and display a lowercase AM with any hour before noon; display a lowercase PM with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
A/P
Use the 12-hour clock and display an uppercase A with any hour before noon; display an uppercase P with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
a/p
Use the 12-hour clock and display a lowercase A with any hour before noon; display a lowercase P with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M.
AMPM
Use the 12-hour clock and display the AM string literal as defined by your system with any hour before noon; display the PM string literal as defined by your system with any hour between noon and 11:59 P.M. AMPM can be either uppercase or lowercase, but the case of the string displayed matches the string as defined by your system settings. The default format is AM/PM.
Here are some examples of user-defined date formats:
Format Display
In addition to the text header and and footer, graphics may also appear in the header and footer. To specify the graphic files to be used, click on the Graphics… button at the right of the Header and Footer text boxes. A dialog will appear allowing you to choose the files containing the graphic data for the left, center and right images. At the right, the selected graphic is shown. It is resized to fit the display box and so may appear distorted.
The image in the display box is only to confirm that the correct file has been chosen and does not show how the graphic will appear on the printed page.
The images are placed on the page so that in the header, the bottom of the header images are aligned with the bottom of the header and the top of the footer images are
aligned with the top of the footer. If both graphics and text have been specified for the same location, then the text will overprint the graphic.
JPEG Tab
Plots created in the Essential Macleod can be exported as JPEG images. This tab
Plots created in the Essential Macleod can be exported as JPEG images. This tab