Lumerical is a Canadian company which publishes a line of photonics modelling and simulation software including “FDTD” and “MODE Solutions”. In April 2020 Lumerical was acquired by U.S.-based Ansys, Inc.: https://www.lumerical.com/ansys/

All members of ECE's photonics group share use of our network concurrent license. The license is hosted on our server mlm.ece.utoronto.ca. License access outside of the ECE wired network (including on UofT wifi) requires connecting via the ECE VPN. The license authorizes use in Canada only. Do not run Lumerical outside of Canada using this shared license.

Registered users can download the latest installer from the Ansys website. Each user must create a login on the Ansys website here using their UofT email address, and agree to the license terms and give our Ansys account number to receive download access. Your login also gives access to their user forums and support information. The registration process sends a verification code to your registered email address. Enter this code to complete registration. You can also register a mobile phone number to verify your login via SMS.

After verify the access code, you will be prompted for your profile details – full name, address, and Ansys account number. Contact ECEHELP for our Ansys account number and enter it when completing your profile for your Ansys login.

Logged in to the Ansys Customer Portal with your Ansys account, follow these steps to locate the download link for the installer:

In the menu across the top, open the Downloads menu and choose “Current Release” at the top.

On the downloads page, find the Photonics category (lower right). There will be a link to download the Lumerical installer for your O/S. The Windows installer for 2021r1 is 1.3 GB.

The steps to install the software are posted here: Windows Link Linux Link (Note that MacOS support has been discontinued.) The links on these pages for downloading appear to require a login on an older Lumerical server - ignore those links; instead, access the download via the Ansys Customer Portal as described above.

If you need the ECE VPN where you are, connect to ECE VPN before installing. Once you have installed the software, enter the license server config information (IP 128.100.9.50, specify TCP port 27002) using the “Ansys Standard Licensing” steps on this page:

https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026079294-How-to-obtain-a-floating-license

The installer offers to start Lumerical on completion. This launches the Lumerical R2021 Launcher app. In Windows, this app is also available under Start→Lumerical, or you can also launch Start→Lumerical→Configure License to go directly to the Lumerical Configure License utility. After clicking “Ansys (Standard)” and entering the server IP and TCP port, you can apply the changes. In the Lumerical Launcher, it will say you need to restart the program to apply the changes.

After the license server settings are applied, the Lumerical Launcher should list all the available features in the “Solvers” pane with “New Project” beside each. If you did not reach the license server to check out a license, it will instead say “Evaluate,” offering only a trial license. (The Launcher can also be very slow to appear after you click to launch it if the license server is unreachable, e.g. due to the VPN not being connected.)

If the Launcher shows “Evaluate” for all solvers, that implies you did not get a license checkout from our server; re-check that the ECE VPN is connected properly, redo the Configure License steps, and restart the Launcher until you see “New Project” beside the listed features, indicating you have checked out a license.