Learning Forum

[Chris Kopetski]

Lumerical community support moved from the Lumerical Knowledge Exchange (KX) to the Ansys Learning Forum (ALF) on April 16, 2021. This move was part of ongoing efforts to integrate Lumerical products and services with the rest of the Ansys organization. Lumerical’s team of Application Engineers will continue providing support to our customers on this new site. That said, there are a few important differences to understand.

You’ll have to create an ALF account. After that, go to the Photonics category and ask (or answer!) a question. Lumerical’s support registration is not required to access ALF.

Check out the Guidelines for posting on the Ansys Learning Forum.  A key difference between ALF and KX is that Ansys employees (including the Lumerical team) are not permitted to download any attachments (learn more here). Screenshots are recommended if you want feedback on the settings in your project files.

If you have trouble creating an ALF account, contact us here. Pick the 'Account Inquiry' option and state that you are having trouble creating an ALF account.

If you are trying to register for Lumerical support, see here.

[fedeugo]

Hello Where is all past lumerical forum threads material going to be moved? It would be not be particularly "nice" if all the support material already existing on kx was trashed...I also lost access to all my previous enquiries on the forum and the related answers, which in some cases were half-way and not fully answered yet.

[tiach329]

Hi So where can I found the previous posts on KX ?

[Chris Kopetski]

Many of the ~400 topics in the Photonics section of ALF are posts that we have migrated from the Lumerical KX. We prioritized the topics to move based on their popularity (i.e. page views) of each topic. Lumerical staff will still have access to the KX content for a few more months, and will continue to migrate more content to help answer new questions that are asked in ALF.
Our original plan was to move all of the KX topics (>10,000) to ALF, but unfortunately that was not feasible.
: If your discussion was interrupted by the switch to ALF, please re-post your question.

[tiach329]

Even topics with little popularity on KX may be helpful to many users. So why can't you keep the KX only being accessed and close other functions, like posting and editing?

[lStolz]

Hi also in my opinion all the posts on KX are critical for many users. My work already is compromised by the fact, that I can not quickly look up small issues. These are problems for that it is often not feasible to post a new question every time. KX was able to immediately provide answers. Without this "feature", the software losses a lot of quality.

[Chris Kopetski]

I apologize for the disruption this change has caused to everyone. The best I can offer is for you to re-post your question in the Ansys forum. If it was already answered in the KX, we should be able to provide a faster reply. I realize that's not as quick as simply searching for existing content, but over time the Ansys forum gain more and more content, and hopefully offer a similar experience to the old Lumerical KX.

[serajmd90]

Yeah.. I also strongly believe this. Whatever I am currently searching in Lumerical KB it is suggesting to use ANSYS learning forum and these informations are not available in ansys however it is showing in google partially. This is giving too much problem. Ansys should have planned before making any decision on the forum side.

[Chris Kopetski]

Thanks for the feedback. While we are not able to bring the old KX back, the comments from everyone in this thread show that it's worthwhile for us to continue migrating content from the old KX to ALF.

[mustafacc]

Is it at least possible to see the posts that our old usernames contributed to? I've had a few example scripts and workarounds to many issues I was having attached to posts and replies that are quite obscure. I always used to refer back to those threads to look up the solutions.

[AnnaBragina]

Hello!
I know that at the moment Lumerical kx is not available, but I'm looking for an answer of certain question and it looks like it has already been dicussed here https://kx.lumerical.com/t/example-how-to-track-a-specific-mode-profile-for-variable-structure-dimensions/6546. Could you please help me to get acces to this link or to move all discussions to the AVF? It's crucial to my work.

[Chris Kopetski]

Normally I would move your posts to ALF so others could benefit from what you shared. However, Ansys staff are not allowed to post example files (details here, here), so I can't re-post the files you shared. I've sent you an email with the information contained in your old posts. You're welcome to re-post on ALF, but it's totally up to you.

[Chris Kopetski]

That page will be moved to https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500006158142. It's not ready yet, but should be available in the next few days.

[fhadavan]

Hi there, I'm looking for an answer of certain question and it looks like it has already been discussed in the below link. Could you please help me find the answer to my question? Thanks
https://kx.lumerical.com/t/how-to-simulate-the-charge-distribution-with-unpolarized-light/9951

[Chris Kopetski]

Please see https://forum.ansys.com/discussion/27048/how-to-simulate-the-charge-distribution-with-unpolarized-light

[lstott]

It doesn't seem like this decision was made with the users best interests in mind. After working with lumerical for some time, I have a collection of frequently visited links which are critical to many aspects of the work I do, these are now useless. Furthermore, with out the KX I can say the success of my projects would have been much delayed as it is a vital tool for simulation set up and troubleshooting. Ansys has created the perfect opportunity for users to start thinking about whether or not this is time to start migrating to a different software, given that a critical aspect of the support has been removed on top of the typical frustrations of working with lumerical.
It would be within the users best interest to have the old KX available until everything has been fully migrated to the new forum. At the very least, for the old links to redirect you to the topic now on the Ansys forum.
Not to mention the amount of time employees will have to spend answering the same questions which they have already provided comprehensive answers to...(on top of all the work they are putting into migrating old inquiries).
An unnecessary duplication of everyone's efforts and poorly thought out migration plan. Thanks Ansys.

[Sarah_Cynthia]

Hello, could you please help me access these links? It would be really helpful. Please.
https://kx.lumerical.com/t/2d-material-reflection/1105
https://kx.lumerical.com/t/graphene-mos2-heterostructure-modelling/15129

[Chris Kopetski]

I have posted an abbreviated version of the (long) discussion in those threads here.

[Mengyunnnn]

Hello, please could you also update the link of this discussion on multipolar analysis? https://www.researchgate.net/post/How-to-perform-Multipolar-Analysis-in-a-resonant-metamaterial-structureThank you!
There's tremendous and valuable discussion on the old Lumerical community, it would be great if they all can be accessed again...

[Mengyunnnn]

sorry, I pasted the wrong link ... it's this one. https://kx.lumerical.com/t/scattering-from-electric-and-magnetic-dipole/996
Thank you so much!

[Chris Kopetski]

You can find that post here: https://forum.ansys.com/discussion/27595/scattering-from-electric-and-magnetic-dipole

[Mengyunnnn]

Thank you so much for the prompt response!

[ZHMa]

I want to download some associatedexample zip files from the lumerical web
https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041566614
https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041566734-Triangular-FCC-BCC-Photonic-Crystal-Bandstructure
Does anyone can help?

[Chris Kopetski]

Access to some example files, such as the ones you mentioned, requires you to Register for Lumerical support. This process basically confirms that you have an active license. Here are the instructions:

[ZHMa]

Thank you, It works.

[TheManuel]

I agree with Istott.
But whats done is done and we have to live with it.
Maybe it is possible to get some improved features for this forum.
Would it be possible to sort posts here by views ?
Sort posts by how often others bookmarked them ?
Migrating the top google search results and updating the link to the migrated post in this forum would also be very nice.

[Chris Kopetski]

Thanks for the suggestions. The ALF team must work within the capabilities of the forum platform they are using, but they are working on a number of our suggestions. One that I'm looking forward to a change to the page template, so the word 'Lumerical' appears on all topics in the Photonics category. This should improve google search results, since many people searching for help on our products include the word 'Lumerical' in their search. At the moment, the word Lumerical doesn't appear anywhere on the page unless someone includes it directly in their post.

[pbos]

Please direct me to the manual for the FDTD solver ( not the class or videos)

[pbos]

I am unable to register for the FDTD solver course. I get an error that says I need to go the the "help" menu of my FDTD program and click on "register" . But the help menu I see is different from that shown on your web page, and there is not a button that says "register"
Please help

[Chris Kopetski]

The FDTD product manual can be found here: https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/360033154434
It sounds like you're using an older version of FDTD. Can you provide a screenshot of the Help - About menu?

[Group11]

I am a student and I have an 30 days standard version of Lumerical. When using FDTD solver, I have an issue. I am trying to simulate a single slit and it is a very simple simulation but simulation times are too long like 10-15 hours. I added the example file to attechment that I am having problem with simulation times. I am waiting for your help as soon as possible. Have a good day.

[Chris Kopetski]

The simulation should run much faster than that. Check out the example on this page:
https://support.lumerical.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500012955881

[Hatef]

Hi,
I almost cannot find any topics from past lumerical KX. I think keeping only 400 posts out of 10,000 posts is like reducing the quality of the product by 96% !. It would be nice if you reconsider this decision. Thanks

[Chris Kopetski]

I agree that some useful information has been lost, but it just wasn't possible to migrate all the content. If there is a specific topic you're looking for, please let me know.

[Jonath]

Hi there, I'm also looking for an answer to a certain question and it looks like it has already been discussed in the following old KX topics
"Multiple layers of Metal Contacts CHARGE" July 3, 2019
and
"DEVICE: Two contacts are adjacent, modeling several materials in metal contact" (can't obtain date from google search)
Unfortunately I couldn't find the direct links to the topics any more.
It would be great if you could repost these topics, if that doesn't work any other form of help would be greatly appreciated :)

[Kyle]

I summarized the answers in those two topics in this post:

[Hatef]

Hello,
I remember there were some posts regrading the relation between the recommended mesh size and the wavelength of the light. I cannot find that post anymore. Would u please help me to find it? Thanks Regards

[Chris Kopetski]

I assume you're talking about FDTD simulations. The mesh size will usually be proportional to the wavelength. I.e. Smaller wavelengths generally require a smaller mesh size. However, the material properties and geometry of the structures are also important. Here are a few resources to find more information:
Mesh settings tab (video)
Mesh Setup Tips (video)
Using mesh override regions in FDTD (ALF)
Convergence testing (KB)
Selecting the best mesh refinement option (KB)