Fixing Lumerical engine or run time errors

This article shows the process on resolving common runtime or engine errors when running Lumerical simulations.

Notes

Stop Ansys Optics or reboot your computer before doing the process outlined in this page.
Delete the "Lumerical product preference.ini" files from your "User's" hidden directory. See this Knowledge Base (KB) page for details.
Then try running the simulation after the above.
Otherwise, continue with the process shown below.

Ansys Optics job manager details

On the "Job Manager" window, right-click on the job that is highlighted with a "Job Error" and click "View job details". This will open another window showing details about the error.

MPI-related run time error

Error: failed to run job! Could not find MPI executable:

```
Invalid MPI path
```
```
Unable to connect to host
```

Failed... Possible error: license not configured

Checking MPI on Windows

Open Windows 'Control Panel > Programs and Feature'
Check if 'Microsoft MPI' and 'Intel MPI' are on the list.
If these are installed, your current installation might be corrupted.
Otherwise, install these MPI from the Lumerical installation package as shown below.

Installing MPI

Before installation

Note: If you have Microsoft Visual Studio installed, you cannot install Intel MPI. Run the simulation using either Microsoft MPI or Local Computer as the "Job launching preset". See below for details.

Ensure that Lumerical is not open or running in the background.
If the MPI is already installed and you are still having issues, uninstall the MPI from Windows "Control Panel > Programs and Features".
See this KB for details on installing MPI.

Microsoft MPI installation

Run 'msmpisetup.exe' inside the ‘MS-MPI’ folder from the extracted Ansys Optics installation package.
Install with default options when prompted and complete the installation.

Intel MPI installation

Open the ‘intel_mpi_runtime’ folder inside the extracted Ansys Optics installation package.
Run 'w_mpi-rt_p_{version}.exe'.
Install with default options when prompted and complete the installation.

Install Lumerical without MPI

Install using the 'lumerical_data.msi' installer in the extracted Ansys Optics installation package.
This will only install the Ansys Optics simulation suite
Simulate without MPI as shown below.

Running simulations with MPI

Open and run your simulation using the installed MPI. You can run using; Microsoft MPI or Intel MPI on Windows and Intel or OpenMPI on Linux, as the "Job launching preset" in the "Resource configuration advanced options".

Run simulations without MPI

If for some reason you are unable to install the MPI on Windows and run into issues with the MPI. If you are only running simulations on your local machine, use 'Local Computer' as your 'Job launching preset'.

Lumerical simulation and event log files

Simulation log file

When running Lumerical simulations, a log file is created for every process used to run the simulation file. The simulation log file takes simulation filename and ends with "_p0". e.g. simulationfilename_p0.log

Windows event logs

To obtain the Windows application event logs,

Open / Run "Event Viewer" from Windows Start (Search).
Expand "Windows Logs" on the left section and select "Application".
Select "Filter current log" on the right section.
Select/Enable the following Event Levels; "Critical", "Error", and "Warning". "OK" to save your selections.
Then "Save filtered log file as..."
Browse and Save the log file into your folder.