.. _user_guide:

.. meta::
   :description: Install Optiland, follow the quickstart, and learn the conventions every Optiland model relies on.

Get Started
===========

Everything you need to go from an empty environment to a traced, analyzed
optical system, plus the reference pages you will keep coming back to.

.. grid:: 1 2 2 3
   :gutter: 3

   .. grid-item-card:: Start Here
      :link: start_here
      :link-type: doc

      Choose a learning path for students, practising optical engineers,
      computational researchers or contributors.

   .. grid-item-card:: Installation
      :link: installation
      :link-type: doc

      ``pip install optiland``, optional PyTorch and GPU support, the GUI, and
      building from source.

   .. grid-item-card:: Quickstart
      :link: quickstart
      :link-type: doc

      A complete five-minute tour: build, trace, analyze and optimize a lens.

   .. grid-item-card:: Conventions
      :link: conventions
      :link-type: doc

      The surface-sequential model, the "after" rule, sign conventions and
      units. Read this first.

   .. grid-item-card:: How Do I …?
      :link: how_do_i
      :link-type: doc

      A task-shaped index mapping concrete questions to the example that
      answers each one.

   .. grid-item-card:: Cheat Sheet
      :link: cheat_sheet
      :link-type: doc

      Copy-paste snippets for the most common operations.

   .. grid-item-card:: Glossary
      :link: glossary
      :link-type: doc

      Definitions of the optical and Optiland-specific terms used throughout
      the documentation.

   .. grid-item-card:: GUI Quickstart
      :link: gui_quickstart
      :link-type: doc

      Explore and edit systems interactively with the Optiland desktop GUI.

.. toctree::
   :hidden:
   :maxdepth: 1

   start_here
   installation
   quickstart
   conventions
   how_do_i
   cheat_sheet
   glossary
   gui_quickstart