Running the Ansys Optics CAD/IDE

This guideline shows how to open and run Ansys Lumerical product CAD/GUI from a supported system. 

Note: Starting in 2025R1, Ansys Lumerical products will ship with a built-in Mesa 3D library. You can enable or disable this feature using instructions shown in the Knowledge Base article on Launching Products With and Without the Mesa Library

Ansys Optics Launcher 

Windows

1. Open the Start Menu by:
   • clicking on the Windows icon on the task bar or by
   • pressing the  Windows logo key on your keyboard. 
2. Navigate to "All Apps" or "All Programs"
3. Select "Ansys Optics <version>"
4. Click on the "Ansys Optics Launcher"; 
   From the Launcher, select Solvers on the left and click on "New Project" to the right of the 'Solver's Name' in the list.
    

Linux

Running using Terminal

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run the Ansys Lumerical CAD/IDE executable with the full install path (default install path shown).

3. Execute:

   /opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/bin/launcher &

4. From the Launcher, select "Solvers" on the left and click on "New Project" to the right of the 'Solver's Name' in the list.
   

Running from Desktop

Note: The specific way of launching the app may differ depending on your Linux, the following instructions applies primarily to the Rocky 8 distribution, and other Linux distributions running the Gnome Desktop Environment.

1. Open the Apps screen from the side bar, this can be achieved either by the button, or the “Activities” button in Rocky Linux.
2. Search “Ansys Optics Launcher”
3. Click on "Ansys Optics Launcher"
4. From the Launcher, select "Solvers" on the left and click on "New Project" to the right of the 'Solver's Name' in the list, see image from step 4 from “Running using Terminal” above.

Running the CAD directly 

• Steps below outlines the process of opening or running the Ansys Optics software CAD/GUI directly, outside of the Ansys Optics Launcher. 

Windows

1. Open the Start Menu as shown above and Navigate to All Apps or All Programs.
2. Select "Ansys Optics <version>"
3. Click the "Application Name" to run the CAD/IDE directly (outside the Ansys Optics Launcher). 

Linux Terminal 

1. Open Terminal. 
2. Run the Ansys Lumerical CAD/IDE executable with the full install path (default install path shown).

•  

• FDTD (FDTD, Stack and RCWA)

   /opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/bin/fdtd-solutions &

• MODE (EME, FDE and varFDTD) 

   /opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/bin/mode-solutions &

• Multiphysics (CHARGE, HEAT, FEEM, DGTD and MQW) 

   /opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/bin/device &

• INTERCONNECT 

   /opt/lumerical/[[verpath]]/bin/interconnect &

Note: Starting in 2025R1, the commands above will launch the products with the built-in Mesa 3D library, to launch without this library, see the Knowledge Base article on Launching Products with and Without the Mesa Library.

See this Knowledge Base (KB) to add the installation path into your environment in Linux. 

See also

Running multiple Lumerical GUI instances on Linux – Ansys Optics