Is the Flexible Material Plugin Framework working on Lumerical 2021 R1.1?

joaonizer

Hi,

I'm trying to develop a custom nonlinear material model on Lumerical via the Flexible Material Plugin Framework. However, after pasting the .dll in the materials folder and restarting FDTD, it does not recognize the new material.

I tried building the Lorentz Example Plugin provided in the following link:

https://www.lumerical.com/learn/video/material-plugins-a-practical-implementation-demo/

and it did not work as well.

I'm using Visual Studio 2019 (Release, x64) to build the solution.

Any considerations?

kjohnson

The examples from our documentation page (https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034394734) were compiled with Visual Studio 2013, I would recommend that you use that version to test the Lorentz material example if possible.

kjohnson

Hello,

I don't know of any issues with the plugin materials in 2021 R1.1. There are plugin material DLL files available on this page, for the step index and Lorentz materials : https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034394734

Does it work if you use these DLL files directly, instead of building your own?

joaonizer

https://forum.ansys.com/discussion/comment/107128#Comment_107128

I tried the stepindex.dll and indeed it worked. But once I compiled the LorentzExample by myself using Microsoft Visual Studio 2019, the lorentzexample.dll model did not show up on the material's list.

Is there any special setup I should do in order to get my own model or even this Lorentz Example compiled correctly, besides the steps shown in the Demo I provided in my original question?

Thanks for the reply @kjohnson

kjohnson

Hello @joaonizer ,

There shouldn't be any more steps in addition to what was shown in the demo. The issue might be related to the version of Visual Studio you are using, I will have to look into this and get back to you when I know more.

joaonizer

https://forum.ansys.com/discussion/comment/107144#Comment_107144

Thanks @kjohnson,

I'll see if I can get the same version as the Demo's one (2008 if I'm not mistaken). If you indeed get more info please let me know!

kjohnson

The examples from our documentation page (https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034394734) were compiled with Visual Studio 2013, I would recommend that you use that version to test the Lorentz material example if possible.