Lumerical product components and licensing overview

This article provides more information on the type of licenses Lumerical supports and how the products work in relation to the license. 

Product components

1. Design environment (CAD/GUI) 
   • Layout editor
   • Job manager
   • Analysis and visualization
   • Script interpreter
2. Simulation physics engine
   • 'solver'
   • simulation calculations

Licensing

Each Lumerical product comes with both a GUI and solve/engine licenses. 

1. Opening the design environment (CAD/GUI) on a machine by a user will 'check out' a GUI license. 
   • Starting with the 2021 R2 release, opening multiple instances of the CAD on the same machine takes up only 1 GUI license. 
   • For remote connections, leaving the design environment (GUI) open while disconnecting your remote session will not release the GUI license. It's considered as 'In-Use' by the license manager. To release the GUI license, the design environment (GUI) must be closed. 
2. Running a simulation will take up a solve/engine license. 
   • Additional FDTD 'solve' licenses otherwise called "Accelerator" licenses, can be purchased separately. Contact your Ansys account manager for licensing options that will fit your needs. 
   • To calculate the number of solve licenses to run your simulation, see this article for details. 

See also

List of licensed features by product 

Lumerical solve, accelerator and Ansys HPC license consumption