Installation using the stand-alone installer for Windows

Notes

• The guidelines shown here is for Ansys Optics stand-alone installer. 
• Starting in 2025R1, Ansys Optics products are now available in the Ansys automated installer. See Installing Lumerical Using the Ansys Automated Installer for more information. 
• For Lumerical 2024 R2 and older releases please use this KB guide >> Lumerical installation guide for Windows (prior releases)

Stand-alone installer default installation process

The guidelines in this section show the default installation process for the 2025 and newer releases of the Ansys Optics stand-alone installer on a supported Windows computer.  

1. Download the stand-alone installer for the optics product in the Primary packages section. See this KB for more information.  
2. Open Windows Explorer and go to where you saved the downloaded zip file.
3. Right-click on the zip file and 'Extract All'. 
4. Open the extracted folder and run '.EXE' installer file. 
5. Follow the instructions on the installation wizard and complete the installation. 

Lumerical default installation

• Install the "Ansys Optics launcher" and MPI when prompted.
  

• By default, the Ansys Optics Launcher will be installed in: 

   "C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\ANSYS Optics\[[verpath]]\Launcher\bin"

• Enabling the MPI firewall exemptions during the installation, adds the rule to your firewall to allow running simulations using the bundled MPI on the local computer.
  
• Continue and complete the install process using the default settings. 

1. Open the Ansys Optics Launcher (if installed):
   • From the "Ansys Optics [[ver]]" folder in "Windows Start"  > "All Applications" 

   • Or using the Ansys Optics "Launcher.exe" file in:

      "C:\Program Files\ANSYS Inc\ANSYS Optics\[[verpath]]\Launcher\bin" 

2. Select "I have a license from Ansys...".
3. Configure your license following the instructions below: 
   1. Choose "...configure my license only for Lumerical products" if you will be using only Ansys Lumerical products, then "Go to the licensing setup" and configure Ansys Lumerical to obtain the license from your server.
   2. If you are using other Optics products, e.g. Ansys Speos® or Ansys Zemax OpticStudio®, choose “configure my license for All Optics products” and configure the Ansys licensine settings as shown in this Knowledge Base.
   3. Request an evaluation license through the Lumerical Free Trials portal. For further information on the process, see the Knowledge Base article on How to request an evaluation license.
   4. If you are joining a workshop, following the instructions provided by the workshop organizers or Ansys Optics Support on how to access the licenses for your workshop. The process will differ per workshop. 

Lumerical advanced installation process

• The process outlined in this section applies to the current [[ver]] release that comes with the top-level bootstrap installer (Lumerical_Installer.exe) that installs both the Ansys Optics Launcher and the Lumerical Optics simulation software using the default process shown above. 
• The advanced or custom installation process will install each component onto your local computer with the option to change the installation path for the Ansys Optics Launcher and Lumerical Optics software. 
• Ensure that Lumerical is not running in the background. e.g. reboot the computer. 
• Use the advanced installation method if there are any issues with the default process. 

Optics Launcher installation

• Run the 'Ansys_Optics_Launcher_data.msi' file in the "Lumerical Suite\Ansys_Optics_Launcher" folder that was extracted from the downloaded zip file. 
• You have the option to change the installation directory and create a Desktop shortcut. 
• Follow the instructions to complete the installation. 

Lumerical installation

• Open/Run the 'lumerical_data.msi' file found in the "Lumerical Suite" folder that was extracted from the downloaded zip file.

• You have the option to change the installation directory. e.g. if you want to install Ansys Lumerical into the same folder as the Ansys Optics Launcher, change the install path to:

   "C:\Program Files\ANSYS Optics\[[verpath]]\Lumerical\"

  or to a different drive/directory as shown:

   "D:\ANSYS Optics\[[verpath]]\Lumerical\"

• Ensure that the all firewall exemptions are enabled. 
• Follow the instructions to complete the installation. 

Lumerical custom installation

• Open a command prompt with Administrator access
• Change directory to the location of the Lumerical installation files (current user's Downloads folder shown in the example below)
• Run the "custom install utility batch" file,

cd %USERPROFILE%\Downloads\LUMERICAL_2025R2.01_WINX64\Lumerical_Suite\
custom_install_utility.bat

• This extracts the Lumerical application files into the "custom_install_utility" folder in the current working directory in the local drive.
• This folder can be copied or moved to a different location. e.g. shared network folder for shared access across all clients.  
• Run the Lumerical product CAD from the "..\custom_install_utility\[[ver]]\bin" folder:

<path>\custom_install_utility\[[ver]]\bin\fdtd-solutions.exe
<path>\custom_install_utility\[[ver]]\bin\mode-solutions.exe
<path>\custom_install_utility\[[ver]]\bin\device.exe
<path>\custom_install_utility\[[ver]]\bin\interconnect.exe
<path>\custom_install_utility\[[ver]]\bin\cmlc.exe 

• See this Knowledge Base (KB) for more installation options using 'MSIExec' and the 'Lumerical_Data.msi' package. 

Microsoft MPI installation

• Run 'msmpisetup.exe' inside the ‘MS-MPI’ folder.
• It will prompt with options if the same or newer version of the MPI is already installed. 
• Install with default options and complete the installation process. 

Intel MPI installation

• Run 'w_mpi-rt_p_{version}.exe' in the ‘intel_mpi_runtime’ folder. 
• It will prompt with options if an existing or newer version of the MPI is already installed.
• Select default options and complete the installation process. 

Job launching presets

See this Knowledge Base (KB) on how to change your "Job launching preset" to run your simulations with Microsoft MPI (default), Intel MPI (remote jobs), without MPI (Local Computer), or custom presets to run on your cluster. 

Opening Lumerical CAD/IDE

• See this Knowledge Base (KB) on running Ansys Lumerical CAD/IDE.

See also

How to obtain a floating license 

How to request an evaluation license 

Ansys license manager Windows installation guide 

Uninstalling Lumerical