@Nicholas.Croglio

I understand the frustration. Can you give more detail about what sort of problem you are having? Also, which links do not work and what instructions are you currently following? Do you know what kind of license it is as well?

For me, this article was the most helpful one:

https://support.zemax.com/hc/en-us/articles/6621657653907-Ansys-Zemax-license-server-installation-and-activation

However, the actual procedure keeps changing slightly. For one thing, I don’t think you need to download the Ansys License Manager from that article anymore, it seems to install directly with OpticStudio. But then again it could have changed again since I last did it.

Good luck with your installation, and take care,

David

Hi @Nicholas.Croglio 

I have updated the title of your post. While I understand your frustration, I ask you to please keep in mind that this is a professional forum, so we do not allow coarse language.

Regarding your post, it is difficult to assist you if you do not give specifics about the issues you’re facing, but I will try to address each item one-at-a-time.

1. The process to get new Ansys licenses to work is provided here (for server setup) and here (for connecting to the server). Additional instructions for troubleshooting connection issues are available here. Additionally, some users may have USB licenses which are very rare so there is not a Knowledgebase article for setting those up. If you have a USB license, then please reach out to the Zemax Support team via the portal here: https://www.zemax.com/pages/profile#support-tickets.
2. The Zemax team is still transitioning into the Ansys support system so our support system is sometimes out-of-sync with the Ansys one, particularly for users who have just switched to an Ansys license from a legacy Zemax one. Please rest assured that we do have a record of you being under support within the Ansys system. If you see that you are unsupported on the Zemax website, you may follow the provided instructions to self-register for support on the Zemax portal via this link. Self-registering for support triggers our system to update your status to match the Ansys one. This update usually takes 3-6 hours. If you need immediate assistance, then you may reach out to us directly via our email address: zemax.support@ansys.com. It looks like your support status has already been updated by Don, so you are good to go on that end.
3. Zemax does not have a live telephone number. What phone number are you calling? If it is the general Ansys phone number I can check with the team on their availability. However, in general, it is most efficient to contact us directly for Zemax-related questions. That can be done via the portal or email, as listed above.
4. Which instructions are you referring to? Let’s fix the links if they aren’t working. Can you provide a link?

It looks like you have opened a case with us internally, so I’ll allow Don to assist you with the specifics of your license setup. Please let me know if you have any questions about anything I shared above.

Also, @David.Nguyen - thanks for stepping in and giving your two cents . The installation procedure is changing as the product (and our team) becomes further integrated into the Ansys system. In the meantime if you see any discrepancies or issues in our documentation, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Best,

Allie

@Allie 

No worries, I didn’t report the discrepancies at the time because I know it is, as you said, a transition period. And also, it wasn’t too complicated for me to figure out the small differences with Don’s super useful original article.

If I install OS again in the future, I’ll double-check more thoroughly :)

Take care,

David

Ally,

Those instructions do not work!

You have no phone number to call which is ridiculous!

You show my support as not being active, so I cannot setup a call anymore, and then between yesterday and today, I cannot log into the account.

Your process is a mess and there is no way to contact anyone!

David,

This article was useless as they totally screwed up my account during the transition.  They show me as having no support on both the Zemax site and ANSYS site.

But, they should have sent full instructions in December when I renewed as opposed to three months later.  They have numbers listed on the ANSYS site where you are told you must go in that article, but then everyone there is totally clueless.

Hi Nicholas,

I’m sorry you’re still having trouble with our systems. However, I do ask that you refrain from making a duplicate post on the forums. We are already conversing with you via a private support case and via this thread.

Regarding the ongoing conversation, I see that Don has scheduled a call with you via our support system for tomorrow (Thursday). That will be the best way for us to see where you are getting stuck.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Best,

Allie

Dear Allie,

I completely understand the frustration of Nicolas, because it happend to me also. It always taks several hours for me to install a license (on a new computer or an updated license). Afterwards I need a beer to calm down.

The Zemax staff should bear in mind that many OpticStudio users (like me) do not have any skilled IT people available, but must install the server software on their own. 

The documents you cited are much too complex for unskilled people. At least I am not able to understand what they are talking about. Example: I do not understand the different license types and therefore I do not know which license I have (I only know if I have an USB dongle or not). So I am lost even before I can start.

The only way to get out of this trouble was a telephone converation with the German support team. They were able to guide me throgh the installation process in 10 minutes. So I really applause to the lady at the telephone. She is my hero.

The installation process is made for large companies with IT staff and I understand that it is absolutely frustrating for engineering offices or even self-employed designers.

Consequently my wish to Zemax: Provide telephone numbers and offer to call the people directly. Or if you allow me to ask for a present for my birthady, eastern and Christmas together: Send us a USB dongle and a simple installtion file. It worked so pretty for the last 20 years.

Best regards,

Christoph

Hi Christoph,

Thank you for the additional perspective. Is there information we could provide - either as a Knowledgebase article or a different format - that would help? As Zemax works to integrate its websites into the Ansys systems, I’d like to understand this pain point and work on mitigating it.

Some ideas I’ve seen are these:

• Ansys Support provides some videos that demonstrate license install.
• Zemax support provides (brief) descriptions about license types in relevant articles, like the one here.
• Zemax support has a “Support FAQ” for quick answers to questions where we could add licensing topics (here).

For smaller companies without dedicated IT, which of these would be most useful? Or is there another method you use to try to find help on a topic like installation?

Hey Allie, may I offer a suggestion?

Get someone in Zemax support to ‘buy’ a license using the same process as a customer would. Then get them to install the software on a machine that does not already have it installed, using only the instructions provided to customers (which would include the Knowledge Base, of course).

The question is: how many Zemax support engineers can install the product right first time, using only the materials available to customers? Don’t use Don Dickenson, as he’s an IT person. Get someone with a degree, Masters or PhD from UofA, Rochester or similar, and see if they can successfully install it on their personal laptop with no other help.

The key is to do it with only the information given to customers, no secret-squirrel expert knowledge or secret handshakes.

• Mark

Hi Allie, hi Mark,

thank you for following up this topic!

Allie, of course all the necessary information is given by Zemax somewhere. For a large company, hosting many licenses this might be OK. There is probably one person taking the time and has already the experience to read through the documents and set up everything for their colleagues.

I follow Mark’s suggestion: Imagine me as beeing a self employed engineer or a small engineering office with only a few people employed. Then you should deliver one document together with the bought license, that consits of three chapters:

Chapter 1: How to install Zemax on one machine from scratch. On this machine runs everything: the server and Zemax. If there are steps like “Read out the name of the machine”, or “Connect to something” you should also describe how to do it. Assume the person installing the software has no IT skills.

Chapter 2: How to install Zemax on a second machine assuming the server runs on the machine installed in Chap1 (necessary for small comanies with tow or three licenses).

Chapter 3: How to activate the new license each year, when I renew the subscription.

If it is not possible to have this information documented on only one page, your installation procedure is too complicated for us ordinary non-skilled, non-IT persons and you probably will always face these issues with mad customers (like I am during the installation process .

I am quite well connected in the optical community and I do not know of any single person, who is able to install Zemax without trouble. Imagine this would happen with Microsoft Office or any graphics program or anything else you need to install on your computer. And if you finally allow me to say that: The software of all your competitors is installed in less than 5 minutes (At least as of today. I fear that this might change in the future).

Best regards,

Christoph

Dear Allie,

it is now tow months since we had the above discussion. I am curious if you ever followed Mark’s suggestion and let some person try to install Zemax from scratch without any personal help, just with the documents you provide to us users?

Last week I wanted to activate my license on my laptop, because I was away for some days and would have had the opportunity to work on a nice location on a combined work/holiday trip. What shall I say? I tried for two hours to get OpticsStudio running an my laptop. Then I gave up. I did some other work during these days, but the frustration level increased.

That’s just a feedback from me. Don’t worry.

Best regards,

Christoph

So, I hijacked one of David Vega’s threads on LinkedIn to raise this topic: see https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7247007041578278912/?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(ugcPost%3A7247007040714244096%2C7249461791171215360)&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(7249461791171215360%2Curn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A7247007040714244096)&dashReplyUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A(7249469910085447680%2Curn%3Ali%3AugcPost%3A7247007040714244096)&replyUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A(ugcPost%3A7247007040714244096%2C7249469910085447680)

If the installation problems have been resolved, I’ll retract it and apologize, so please let me know. But if not, please raise any problems with the installer on this thread, so that we get it fixed.

• Mark

Hi all!

Checking back in on this thread - I have some good news. I reviewed the information you, the users, are sent upon receipt of a new license and agree it is lacking. There seems to be a lot of information but it is very decentralized. After some meetings with the Ansys licensing team, I am drafting some new guidance for installation that should be available to all customers. As part of this, we are going to update the initial “welcome” email and convert Don’s documentation into a PDF which is linked from the email.

To @Christoph ‘s point, the previously linked guidance is missing Chapter 2, but should cover Chapters 1 and 3. For Chapter 2, we have this article which I could merge into the same PDF.

My question for this group is this: what were the biggest struggles you faced while installing? The initial issue raised in this thread was with support status - but after the Optics support migration that happened last month, we are now in the same system as the rest of Ansys so that should be solved. Other than that, is there anything not covered in Don’s guides that needs to be added?

At a high level, here is an outline of what I plan to include in my draft email as a start:

1. Getting started with Ansys support (how to register for ACSS)
2. Obtaining your license file from the License Portal
3. Link to the Download Center to download the software and the Ansys License Manager
   1. Note: I will be recommending using the Ansys Unified Installer which includes Zemax OpticStudio as one of the options for download.
4. How to install the license (+ link to how to configure the firewall & other exceptions, as listed in the Download Center)
   1. Link to installing on client machines

Does this suffice? Or is there a step in here I’m missing?

Thanks for your diligence! Let me know your thoughts!

Dear Allie,

thank you yery much, that you try to support us here. Unfortunately I fear that there is not much hope, that the license installation routine itself would change. I’ll give you one example of my struggles:

On your webpage “Configuring Zemax applications to access an Ansys license” you write (I cite):

“To access a floating license on a license server at your organization, fill in the license server's name. If you need to access multiple license servers also check the "Specify Redundant servers" box.

If you are unsure of the server information, contact your license administrator shown in your Zemax.com profile page under "My organization's licenses" or your IT department for assistance”

I am a self-employ optical designer. I do not know, if I need access to multiple license servers. I do not know the difference between the “License Server” and the “License Management Center”. I do not know, if I need to change my default port. I do not have somebody in my IT departement to ask, because I am the only person in my company. I do not know what to do, if the “Ansys License Manager” tells me “Licensing Interconnect: not running”. I do not know what to do, if the “Ansys License Manger” tells me: “Error: The hostid in the license file is not a valid hostid for this license server machine.”

Do you see my problems? It is not only a matter of documentation. The promblem is much deeper. Your installation process is set up for large companies, paying for a dedicated IT department. That’s OK, if you are a large company. For normal people, not having any “Licence Management” experience it is impossible to install the license if anything does not work from scratch without spendening many hours of try and error and reading through a ton of documents.

If you want to improve your Licensing process for small companies I only see one of the following three ways:

1. A USB dongle solved all that in the past.
2. Or a soft license as CodeV is using it. That is so simple, that I never had a problem with it.
3. Or a video-call is part of your licensing process. A support person of Ansys is installing the license on all needed computers from remote. This would also be necessary every time a new computer is bought or the operating system (Windows) is installed.

As long as you stick with your complicated license server installation model process, you will allwas have a bunch of frustrated people like me, where something is not working for some reason. I wanted to install Zemax on a laptop, that I use maybe three times a year when I visit customers. I spend about three hours of trying to get the license running. It did not work. I gave up and now I tell the customers, that I cannot show the results at their premises but only at an online meeting via Zoom or Teams.

Thanks again for your try.

Best reagrds,

Christoph

Hi All,

I changed today my computer and zemax does not work. I tried several methods (uninstall, remove firewall etc.) to overcome it but nothing helped. The license seems to works but when I try to open zemax file but nothing happended.

***solved***

Please help me….

B.R 

Nadav