From: "James Lerch" 
To: "ATM List" , 
Reply-To: "James Lerch" 


Greetings All,

Dave Rowe and I are working on porting (actually re-writing) Figure45 over
to a Win32 environment.  Towards that end I'm looking for some comments on
the following topics:

#1 Does anyone actually "use" any of the following in Figure45
    A) Transverse error analysis graph
    B) Spot Diffraction Analysis graph
    C) Spot Visualization Display

    More importantly, would anyone severely miss these options if they were
no longer available?  Personally, in our ATM lab classroom environment, we
never use these options.  While keeping these options isn't too much work,
I thought I might instead concentrate on adding new options like:

    A) A figuring session comment screen
    B) Figuring history slide show (similar to Couder.exe by Ricardo Dunna)
    C) Find Best fit Conic Constant screen (Similar to Sixtests by James
Burrows)
    D) New surface analysis screen that:
        i) Excludes central obstruction
        ii) Allows masking off the edge of the mirror

#2 Surface Error Analysis Graph Screen

Have a look at this, and tell me what you think:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/FigureXP.gif ( 24KB)

Here's the proposed changes:

    A) While I was writing the code for this display, I got to thinking
about our classroom environment.  Nearly every time I show the classic
radial surface deviation graph to a new student, their eyes glaze over.  So
my first thought was to chart the surface error over the Diameter of the
mirror, instead of just the radius.

    B) X axis labels.  Instead of  radial percent, I just displayed the zone
center radiuses.  Compare the graph to your couder mask (or rings drawn on
the back of the mirror blank) to help visualize the areas that need work
while figuring (Does anyone want tick marks showing radial % or physical
dimensions?)

    C) Y axis labels.  Instead of marking off microns (or nanometers) I just
put wave error reference lines.  (Does anyone really want to know the
actual surface height in nanometers??)

    D) Y Axis Scaling.  Since having the option of a figuring history slide
show was high on my "to-do" list.  I changed the Y-Axis scaling
options. The scaling function is now fixed to the following displays:
        (i) 1/4 wave
        (ii) 1/2 wave
        (iii) 1 wave
        (iv) 2 waves
        (v) "Oh My" which = the P-V error of the mirror when > 2 Waves..

I guess that's it for the moment,  Comments and suggestions are very welcome!


Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction,testing, and coating site)

--- BBBS/NT v4.00 MP