Optiland v0.3.1 Release Notes

This release brings a number of new features, improvements, and refinements aimed at enhancing both user experience and codebase maintainability. Here's what's new in v0.3.1:

General Optical System Enhancements

• Physical Aperture Overhaul
  Major upgrade to the physical apertures module, including support for Boolean apertures (e.g., unions, intersections). Reference here.

• QuickFocus Solver
  New solver to automatically move the image plane to the point of best focus.

• Paraxial Surface Support
  Introduced ParaxialSurface type for fast first-order (Gaussian) optical system modeling. Reference here.

• Surface Comments
  Surfaces now support a comment attribute for easier documentation and traceability.

Usability and Workflow

• Merge Optics with +
  Two Optic instances can now be combined using the + operator for quick concatenation of optical systems. Reference here.

• Custom Callback in Optimizers
  Optimizers now accept user-defined callback functions for real-time updates or custom stopping conditions.

Testing, Compatibility & Maintenance

• Improved Python Compatibility
  Official support for Python 3.13.

• Expanded Test Coverage
  New tests added to improve reliability and prevent regressions.

• Better Handling of Incomplete Material Data
  Gracefully handles missing extinction coefficient (k) data in materials.

• Documentation & Style Cleanup
  Documentation has been improved, examples added, and code formatting updated for consistency.

• Refactors & Quality of Life
  General internal improvements to make future development smoother and easier.