Learning Forum

[mseng3]

Hi, I'm an IT Pro for a university engineering college. I'm attempting to help refresh several research lab computers for a research group. I have very little knowledge of ANSYS or the relevant subject matter, but in order to support this group, I am in need of some in-depth clarification on the anatomy of ANSYS products and licensing.

I'm dealing with several computers all from different generations which have multiple versions of various ANSYS products installed, and am highly confused. After days of research I still don't have my head wrapped around all of this. Can you please answer the following questions for me?

1) Can you tell me what the products/licenses are associated with the customer number I provided when I signed up for this account (redacting it here, because I don't know how private this is)? Any and all information about the license would be helpful.

2) What is the difference between ANSYS Electronics, Electronics Desktop, Electromagnetics, etc.? Are these just rebrandings/aliases for the same suite?

3) Is ANSYS Maxwell supposed to be a part of suite(s) mentioned in #1, or what is the relationship there? In older versions of the software it seems that Maxwell is included, but in 2019 R3, Maxwell is not installed, or rather, there is no singular "Maxwell" executable file in the location where older versions have it, and it doesn't show up when searching the start menu. I do see some other executables that reference the Maxwell name.

4) If Maxwell is a separate entity, is it licensed separately? Our documentation states we have 5 floating licenses for Electronics Desktop and 1 for Maxwell. I don't know how accurate our documentation is. My understanding is it is all now licensed by the same license server we have on campus (hosted by our central software webstore).

5) Are older versions of the software no longer able to be licensed by newer version of the license server? If so, what are the compatibility details?

6) What is the difference between the above mentioned suite(s)/software and the overall "ANSYS (vXX)" suite?

7) Are all references to Agilent and Ansoft in various products (such as HFSS) purely legacy?

Thanks so much for any enlightenment. Usually I'm able to unravel these kinds of mysteries given enough time, but there's just too many missing pieces in this one.

Best regards,

 

== Matt

[tsiriaks]

1. You have licenses for Mechanical , CFD, and Electronics products which are 3 flagship ANSYS tools. So, you can basically install/use all packages under Academic section.

2. Same, just different terms to call it (aliases)

3. Any Electronics related products, are part of the Electronics package (install or license). Maxwell has been included in ANSYS Electronics Desktop (AEDT) suite since v17.0 , you'd only have a separate Maxwell (shortcut, install, etc.) only if it's older than this.

4. There are many parts in the AEDT GUI that requires different licenses (e.g., Open AEDT, insert Maxwell Design, Solve Maxwell, etc.) and also depends on the version of AEDT, so let's focus only the latest version 2019 R3. These are mostly interchangeable with other Electronics tools and the generic Electronics licenses with only exception being solver licenses that still requires their own/unique license and that's why you have a separate Maxwell license (this provides Maxwell solver licenses, among other).

5. You have to be more specific on how old these versions are and what tools/solvers you are talking about but generally, if it's 17.0 or newer, it should be fine.

6. See my #1 , ANSYS has 3 flagship tools. The AEDT is just one of the 3.

7. I'm not sure about what Agilent has/had and its relevant to ANSYS. But all Ansoft products including Delcross are now included in AEDT suite. So, for your #2, from time to time, we refer to it as Ansoft too.

All in all, your life'd be much easier if you can encourage all users/professors to update versions to at least 2019 R2.

Thanks,

Win

 

[mseng3]

Thanks a lot. My intention is to update all computers to 2019 R3, I just needed to make sure that AEDT 2019 R3 covered all the bases, and it sounds like it does.

I was having issues getting our license server (managed by another group) to properly license 2019 R3, but that seems to have cleared itself up now. At least, I'm able to open AEDT and insert Maxwell designs, without licensing errors, now that I have half an idea what I'm doing.

Thanks again,

== Matt

[tsiriaks]

Sounds good ! You are welcome.

If that's all, please mark this thread as 'resolved' ('Is Solution') , so we know it's been addressed.

Thanks,

Win