Quote Originally Posted by Pete View Post
diffraction is the one you're looking for.
Considering that the original subject of the thread was using diffraction to create colored prints, I'm a bit embarassed to not have remembered it.

Quote Originally Posted by rylangrayston View Post
I have no clue how well these things work in actual practice but I can tell you that the resin blocks uv light very well. Im sure you can print a large aperture, but i don’t know how small you could print one.
You've mentioned before though that you can fill a hollow print and it will cure under sustained UV, which would suggest that the cured resin isn't completely opaque to UV. I'm sure it's too opaque to make into a focusing lens for the laser though.

I think most glasses-wearing watchers had the lens printing idea after seeing the column print video. I look forward to running some tests to see what kind of refractive index the resin has and just how smooth it can print with that sub-layer interpolation that was talked about.

I think that it would be easier to write an equation to directly generate lens cross-section based on z-axis and focal point than it would be to make a parametric lens model and use a slicer. The machine that grinds out the lenses for the optomitrist already uses a CNC process that might already be very similar to g-code.