Using Engineering Software Modules on Illinois Campus Cluster

Overview

The College of Engineering maintains its own set of software modules on the Campus Cluster, separate from the default modules available to all users. This page explains how to find, load, and use these Engineering modules, including in Slurm batch scripts.

Engineering modules are stored at:

/projects/illinois/eng/shared/modulefiles

The corresponding software installations live at:

/projects/illinois/eng/shared/software

Getting access to the Engineering partition and modules

Access to the Engineering modules assumes you already have access to the Grainger College of Engineering partition(s) on the Campus Cluster. If you don't yet have access, request it using one of the forms below:

• Research use: Submit the Campus Cluster user account form. In the Primary queue dropdown, select ENG-RESEARCH-GPU.
• Instructional use: Ask your TA or professor to submit the Campus Cluster class account form. In the Primary queue dropdown, select ENG-INSTRUCTION.

Once your account is provisioned, you'll be able to submit jobs to the Engineering partition and load the Engineering modules as described below.

Step 1: Add the Engineering module path

By default, module avail will not show Engineering-specific modules. You need to tell the module system where to look first:

module use /projects/illinois/eng/shared/modulefiles

You'll need to run this command once per session (or add it to your Slurm submit script — see below). It does not persist between logins.

Step 2: List available modules

module avail

After running module use as shown above, the Engineering modules will appear at the top of the output, in their own section, for example:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------- /projects/illinois/eng/shared/modulefiles ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   abaqus/2024                 ansys/2025R1        comsol/6.3         hdf5/1.14.5               netcdf-fortran/4.6.1    zlib/1.3.1
   ansys-instruction/2025R2    ansys/2025R2 (D)    gaussian/16.c02    mathematica/13.3.0 (D)    netcdf/4.9.2

Step 3: Load a module

Once you've found the module you want, load it with:

module load ansys/2025R2

Other useful module commands

Using Engineering modules in Slurm scripts

The same module use / module load commands work inside your Slurm submit file. Add them near the top of your script, before the command that runs your software:

#!/bin/bash
#Sample Batch Job Script
#
#SBATCH --time=00:01:00                     # Job run time (hh:mm:ss)
#SBATCH --nodes=1                           # Number of nodes
#SBATCH --ntasks-per-node=2                 # Number of cores per node
#SBATCH --job-name=ansys_job                # Name of job
#SBATCH --partition=eng-research-gpu        # Partition
#SBATCH --account=kxue2-cs-eng              # <- replace with your account
#SBATCH --output=ansys_job%j                # Output file name
#

module use /projects/illinois/eng/shared/modulefiles
module load ansys-instruction/2025R2
fluent 3d -g

# END OF FILE

Notes on specific software

Ansys

• Instructional use: Load the ansys-instruction module. This uses a separate environment variable to target the instructional license and is free to use. This license is strictly for teaching and course work purposes, do NOT use this module for research.
• Research use: Load the ansys module. This requires you to have your own Ansys license, purchased through Webstore. When purchasing, make sure Webstore associates the license with your NetID, not a hostname.

Abaqus

• Instructional use: Not currently available.
• Research use: Load the abaqus module. This requires you to have your own Abaqus license, purchased through Webstore. As with Ansys, make sure the license is associated with your NetID, not a hostname.

Getting help

If you run into issues or have more questions regarding software modules, email us at techrep@engr.illinois.edu