Learning Forum

[Theo Husby]

I'm having trouble running Zemax student.

I've followed the link to download the free student software, installed it, but I can't run it because it asks for a license, and I haven't been sent one. I don't see any instructions to sign up for one. 

A forum post from January 2024 said that Ansys wasn't giving out student Zemax licenses. Is this still the case?

I tried requesting a free trial, but I was sent a link to the downloads page that I already tried.

I'm stuck in a circle. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. 

[Niki Papachristou]

 

Hi Theo,

Thank you for reaching out to us, and sorry to hear that you are faceing issues with ZOS installation. May I ask you how are you trying to download ZOS? I would suggest to go to this webpage: Ansys Zemax OpticStudio Student - Free Software Download, which mentions that has a built in lisence.

Kind Regards,

Niki

 

[Wihan Adi]

Hi Niki,

 

Just would like to bring to your attention that there are other people having the same problem as shown in this discussion thread:

Zemax Student Version (ansys.com)

Thanks for your help,

 

Wihan

[Niki Papachristou]

Hi Wihan,

Thank you for raising this up! Let me talk to our internal lisence experts for this issue and I will come back to you.

Kind Regards,

Niki

[Theo Husby]

Hi Niki and Wihan,

I tried running Zemax again today so I could give you a more detailed explanation of what was happening, and to my surprise, it just worked. The problem has mysteriously solved itself.

The window that pops up when the application is starting up said that it was the student version and I wasn't prompted to enter a license number this time. Perhaps there was a delay between when I downloaded the software and when the student license was created and assigned to me?

I don't know if this thread is going to be helpful to anyone else with the same problem, but I guess give it another try a couple days after you download it?

Cheers,

Theo

[Wihan Adi]

Hi Theo,

Thanks for the update, and glad to hear that it worked for you! Unfortunately, I still have the same issue. Currently waiting for a fix. 

Cheers,

Wihan

[Niki Papachristou]

Hi Theo and Wihan,

Thank you for your patience here. I have informed my lisence experts colleagues regarding this issue and they are working on it.

Meanwhile, can I ask you to run the installation and the software as administrator on your computer? This might overcome the issue for now.

Let me know if that wokred.

Kind Regards,

Niki

[Wihan Adi]

Hi Niki,

I think a workaround has been found, and can be read further here:

Zemax Student Version (ansys.com)

Briefly, we need to install it as an administrator, and it has to be run from the windows search bar, also as an administrator. 

Thanks for your help!

Wihan

[Theo Husby]

Glad you found a solution, Wihan! This makes sense. I've been opening it from the windows searchbar, and it hasn't given me any trouble since I first installed it.