COMSOL add-on products are the modules, interfacing products and other options that extend the COMSOL Multiphysics platform. COMSOL’s product page states: “All add-on products from the product suite connect seamlessly with COMSOL Multiphysics” for a modeling workflow that remains the same regardless of what is modeled.[1] Licensing follows the same structure. Each add-on has its own feature name in the licence file, it is used through COMSOL Multiphysics, and the SLA says that Programs licensed under one licence type may not be run in integrated use with Programs licensed under another.[3] An FNL base is therefore paired with FNL add-ons, an NSL base with NSL add-ons and so on.
Editions
COMSOL groups the add-on products into families. The list below follows the 6.4 product page, and the feature names are those printed in the 6.4 Installation Guide.[1][2]
| Family | Products | Feature names (examples) |
|---|---|---|
| Electromagnetics | AC/DC, RF, Wave Optics, Ray Optics, Plasma, Electric Discharge, Semiconductor | ACDC, RF, WAVEOPTICS, RAYOPTICS, PLASMA, ELECTRICDISCHARGE, SEMICONDUCTOR |
| Fluid flow and heat transfer | CFD, Mixer, Polymer Flow, Microfluidics, Porous Media Flow, Subsurface Flow, Pipe Flow, Molecular Flow, Granular Flow, Metal Processing, Heat Transfer | CFD, MIXER, POLYMERFLOW, MICROFLUIDICS, POROUSMEDIAFLOW, SUBSURFACEFLOW, PIPEFLOW, MOLECULARFLOW, GRANULARFLOW, METALPROCESSING, HEATTRANSFER |
| Structural mechanics and acoustics | Structural Mechanics, Nonlinear Structural Materials, Composite Materials, Geomechanics, Fatigue, Rotordynamics, Multibody Dynamics, MEMS, Acoustics | STRUCTURALMECHANICS, NONLINEARSTRUCTMATERIALS, COMPOSITEMATERIALS, GEOMECHANICS, FATIGUE, ROTORDYNAMICS, MULTIBODYDYNAMICS, MEMS, ACOUSTICS |
| Chemical engineering | Chemical Reaction Engineering, Battery Design, Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer, Electrodeposition, Corrosion, Electrochemistry | CHEM, BATTERYDESIGN, FUELCELLANDELECTROLYZER, ELECTRODEPOSITION, CORROSION, ELECTROCHEMISTRY |
| Multipurpose | Optimization, Uncertainty Quantification, Material Library, Particle Tracing, Liquid and Gas Properties | OPTIM, UQ, MATLIB, PARTICLETRACING, LIQUIDANDGASPROPERTIES |
| Interfacing | LiveLink for MATLAB, Simulink and Excel; CAD Import; Design; ECAD Import; LiveLink for SOLIDWORKS, Inventor, AutoCAD, Revit, Solid Edge and PTC Creo Parametric; File Import for CATIA V5 | LLMATLAB, LLSIMULINK, LLEXCEL, CADIMPORT, DESIGN, ECADIMPORT, LLSOLIDWORKS, LLINVENTOR, LLAUTOCAD, LLREVIT, LLSOLIDEDGE, LLCREOPARAMETRIC, CATIA5 |
The catalog records this family as a single row, COMSOL add-on modules and interfacing products, because COMSOL publishes no per-module part numbers or prices. The product line changes over time. The 6.4 table also lists a CHATBOT feature that “adds chatbot components for communication with an AI system”, and MODELMANAGER, which is not included in Class Kit licences, together with MODELMANAGERSERVER for floating network licences.[2]
Deployment and platform products
COMSOL Compiler and COMSOL Server are add-ons for deploying applications, and each has its own licence features, COMSOLCOMPILER and COMSOLSERVER.[2] They are covered in COMSOL Server, COMSOL Compiler and applications. COMSOL Multiphysics itself includes the Model Builder, the Application Builder and the Model Manager.[1] The Model Manager local database is included with every licence except the class kit licence, connection to a Model Manager server is supported with an FNL or a single-user licence, and running a central Model Manager server needs an FNL.[5] The Model Manager server row records this.
Metrics
The licensing unit for an add-on is the same as for its base licence: a named user, a designated computer or a concurrent user. The per-add-on count appears in the licence file as the number after the version and expiry on each INCREMENT line, so that two concurrent users of an add-on require two keys.[2] The FlexNet licence feature is the unit to use when reconciling usage. An administrator can see issued and in-use keys per feature in the output of lmstat.[7]
Some features are checked out together. For add-ons that use the CAD kernel, CADIMPORT is checked out in addition to the add-on’s own feature, and CADIMPORTUSER counts distinct users including desktop and batch users for floating licences. Under certain circumstances a single CADREADER feature may also be checked out.[2] This applies to the Design Module, the CAD Import Module and the LiveLink products for CAD, whose feature entries all list CADIMPORT, CADIMPORTUSER and CADREADER.[2] A site that owns several CAD interfaces and one CAD Import key should check the key count against concurrent use of any of them, because each of them checks out CADIMPORT.
Counting / floors
For floating licences each add-on has a batch twin, formed by appending BATCH to the feature name, for example RFBATCH. Batch features let a user run jobs on remote computers and clusters while continuing to use COMSOL locally, and one concurrent user can run any number of distinct batch processes on one licence if the models differ only by parameter values.[2] The Batch licence feature row records this. Class Kit and COMSOL Server licences have their own suffixes: CKL, CSL, CSLU and BACSL.[2]
The SLA states no floors. A customer typically buys add-ons in quantities that match the base licence, but the quantities are whatever the quotation says.[3]
Virtualization & partitioning
COMSOL does not licence add-ons by processor, core or host. All licence types allow multicore and multiprocessor shared-memory computing, and the cluster rights are part of the base licence type.[6] For an FNL, running distributed jobs on a cluster checks out CLUSTERNODE from each node. This is a key count that appears in the licence file and applies to the base licence, not to each add-on.[2]
Cloud / BYOL
Add-ons follow the base licence in cloud use. Cluster and cloud computing are supported on Windows and Linux with FNL and COMSOL Server licences.[10] NSL and CPU licences exclude cluster and cloud computing.[3]
Programs
- Maintenance and Support. Ending Maintenance and Support for one Program ends it for all other Programs that need that Program to run, even if bought separately, so allowing the base licence to lapse ends support for every add-on.[3] See Ending support on one Program ends it for dependent Programs.
- Licence files after a lapse. COMSOL has no obligation to issue licence files for Programs, or for Programs they depend on, that are not on Maintenance and Support, except where a new Program is added.[3]
- Product Updates. Updates deliver corrections without new functionality and need no new licence file.[8]
- CAD interfacing restrictions for Applications. An Application that needs the CAD Import Module, Design Module, LiveLink products for CAD or File Import for CATIA V5 must have a graphical user interface, must be substantially functionally identical to the Programs when run with them, must not have CAD as a major function and must not be marketed as a standalone translator to or from a CAD product. If COMSOL stops offering a required CAD product, rights to use it for that Application are limited to the licence term and the compatible CAD version.[3]
Out of scope
- Feature guidance for each module and prices. COMSOL publishes neither a price list nor per-module part numbers on the pages retrieved.[1]
- Third-party CAD, MATLAB, Excel or Simulink licences that the interfacing products need. Those are licensed by their publishers.[3]
- Release-by-release changes in the module list, which follow the COMSOL release history.