Ansys Your Product License Has Numerical Problem Size Limits Verified

Here’s a clear, informative content piece explaining how ANSYS enforces numerical problem size limits based on your product license. You can use this for internal documentation, a knowledge base article, or a team notification.

Part 4: Do Not Ignore the Word “Verified” – A Critical Technical Distinction

Many users mistakenly read this as: “Your problem size is too big.” But the message says: “Your license has numerical problem size limits verified.” This nuance changes your troubleshooting approach.

What it is NOT:

• A hardware memory error (though that could occur later).
• A corrupted installation.
• A network license dropout.

What it IS: A deliberate, successful validation that your model exceeds the license's contractual boundary. ANSYS is complying with its license terms. Therefore, no amount of reinstalling or toggling settings will bypass it—unless you change the license or reduce the model size. Here’s a clear, informative content piece explaining how

Test with a Known Small Model:

Run a 1000-node model. If that passes, your license works. The problem is purely model size. If even a small model fails, the license itself is corrupted or the feature is missing.

Method 1: Check License File or License Center

• Open ANSYS License Management Center.
• Look for lines like:

  FEATURE ansys  (MAXDOF=32000, MAXELEM=100000)
  

• For Academic products: ACADEMIC MAXDOF=512000 (common for Teaching/Research).

Why Does Ansys Enforce This?

Ansys uses problem size limits to differentiate license tiers. Common license levels include:

| License Type | Typical Limit (DOFs) | | --- | --- | | Teaching (Student) | ~512 to 2,000 nodes/elements | | Research (e.g., CFD R2) | ~512,000 cells/nodes | | Professional | ~1–2 million DOFs | | Enterprise / Premium | Unlimited (or very high) | Part 4: Do Not Ignore the Word “Verified”

Your license file contains a parameter called ProblemSizeLimit or a feature-specific token limit. If your mesh exceeds that number, Ansys refuses to solve.

Part 2: Why Does ANSYS Impose Numerical Problem Size Limits?

Not all ANSYS licenses are equal. The company deliberately scales feature access and computational capacity to match different user needs and price points. The "numerical problem size limits" exist for three primary reasons:

1. Product Differentiation : Premium licenses (e.g., Enterprise, Mechanical Premium) offer unlimited or near-unlimited DOFs. Lower-tier licenses (e.g., Teaching, Basic, or some Research licenses) are capped to encourage upgrades.
2. Hardware Resource Management : Smaller licenses prevent a single user from accidentally (or intentionally) launching a 50-million-element simulation on a shared academic or departmental license server, which could starve other users of resources.
3. Educational Pacing : In teaching licenses, limits force students to focus on mesh convergence and model simplification rather than brute-force refinement.

Common license types and their typical limits (may vary by version and specific contract): A hardware memory error (though that could occur later)

| License Type | Typical Node/Elements Limit | DOF Limit (Approx.) | | :--- | :--- | :--- | | ANSYS Student | 32,000 nodes/elements | ~100,000 DOFs | | ANSYS Academic Teaching | 512,000 nodes/elements | ~1.5M DOFs | | ANSYS Academic Research | 2,000,000+ (varies) | ~4M-8M DOFs | | ANSYS Professional | 20,000 nodes/elements | ~60,000 DOFs | | ANSYS Enterprise/ Premium | Unlimited (hardware dependent) | None |

When your model exceeds the threshold defined in your license file (e.g., ANSYSACADEMICTEACHING), the solver triggers the "numerical problem size limits verified" message.