New QED.NET software for the SSI-A®
QED is pleased to announce the release of QED.NET for SSI-A.
The QED.NET software was originally developed for the ASI® and Q-FlexTM, and is a re-write of our software “from the ground up” using industry best-in-class technology and tools. QED.NET reaps the benefits of Microsoft’s multi-billion dollar investment in their .NET framework, such as improved reliability and security, use of industry standard interfaces, and faster development cycles. QED.NET for SSI allows you to take advantage of several new features and improvements to stitching that have been developed for the ASI. Several key features of this major upgrade include:
- Improved measurement design process
- Faster sphere measurements
- Various improvements to asphere measurements
- New analysis and reporting tools
- Plus, all the advantages of the QED.NET framework
Improved measurement design process
QED has made significant changes to the measurement design process, one of the most important 
parts of an asphere measurement. We have put our expert knowledge into the software to provide improved transmission element ranking and diagnostic information, which makes it easier for you to choose the optimal transmission element. If a good transmission element is not identified, a “masked configuration” can be quickly and easily created to simulate a slower transmission element. Interferometer settings (number of phase averages, masking, etc.) can be stored directly in the measurement design to ensure that the correct settings are always used. Thresholds on the standard deviation of the averaged phase maps minimize the chances of acquiring data with high air turbulence or phase-unwrapping errors, improving the quality of subaperture data.
Faster sphere measurements
The most time consuming part of a sphere measurement has typically been autonulling. In the SSI-A control software, each subaperture was autonulled to minimize alignment and retrace error; however, the alignment errors for each subaperture in a given ring are often quite similar. QED has developed so-called “predictive” autonulling that uses autonulling information from earlier subapertures to predict the axis positions that will give a null in the next subaperture. After moving to this subaperture position, the software then assumes that the alignment is good, and a “quality” measurement is taken. Autonulling is only initiated if the alignment terms of the quality measurement exceed the autonull tolerance. This change drastically reduces measurement time and in most cases only the first subaperture of each ring needs to be autonulled.
Improved asphere measurements and new analysis tools
QED is constantly improving the algorithms that are used in asphere stitching, and QED.NET for SSI-A incorporates several changes that were made as part of the ASI development. These changes result in more accurate and more robust measurements. Additionally, several other improvements have been made to the stitching and analysis steps. All stitch results are now checked for common errors, and a warning is displayed if an error is detected. High-resolution stitching algorithms allow asphere measurements to be stitched with up to 2000 pixels without significantly increased demands on RAM or processing power. New asphere best-fitting options are available to make the removal of the nominal aspheric shape more consistent with other asphere measurement methods. Other analysis options (masking, Zernike removal, filtering, etc.) are available to make it possible to complete all data analysis directly in the QED.NET software; you can specify a complicated series of analysis steps to be executed automatically after stitching completes. After the data analysis is complete, the software can display a report summarizing the measurement along with the final analyzed phase map.
All the advantages of the QED.NET framework
QED.NET for SSI-A includes many other features: significantly faster workspace opening/switching due to the fact that QED.NET workspaces are databases, not Zipped archives of many individual files as they were with SSI-A control software; customizable, dockable UI allows you to lay out the UI the way that YOU want it; real-time crash prevention via internal 3D simulation modeling; customizable “User Groups” to allow administrators to control access to many of the functions within the software; SMTP Email and FTP interfaces that allow you to send questions, workspaces, or log files to QED customer service at the press of a button from within the software.
In addition, the QRc radius measurement system from QED Technologies is an optional feature for SSI-A systems that are equipped with QED.NET software. QRc enables precise measurement of the radius of curvature using a laser displacement measuring interferometer (DMI). To learn more about the QRc, download the New Product Bulletin from the QED Learning Center.
In summary, QED.NET guides you through faster, more accurate, and more robust measurements on your SSI-A.
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