Introduction

• Overview
  • Even if you don’t read manuals…
  • Download and Installation
  • Support
    • Contact
  • Conventions and Notation
• Installation
  • Pre-Installed on Binder
  • Recommended Method
    • Install conda
    • Create a conda environment
    • Install FiPy
    • Enable conda environment
  • Obtaining FiPy
  • Installing FiPy
  • Required Packages
    • Python
    • NumPy
  • Optional Packages
    • Gmsh
    • SciPy
  • Level Set Packages
    • Scikit-fmm
    • LSMLIB
  • Development Environment
  • Git usage
    • Git client
    • Git branches
  • Nix
    • Nix Installation
• Using FiPy
  • Logging
  • Testing FiPy
    • Parallel Tests
  • Command-line Flags and Environment Variables
    • Command-line Flags
    • Environment Variables
  • Solver Suites
  • Solving in Parallel
    • OpenMP Threads vs. MPI Ranks
  • Meshing with Gmsh
  • Coupled and Vector Equations
  • Boundary Conditions
    • Default boundary conditions
    • Applying fixed value (Dirichlet) boundary conditions
    • Applying fixed gradient boundary conditions (Neumann)
    • Applying fixed flux boundary conditions
    • Applying outlet or inlet boundary conditions
    • Applying spatially varying boundary conditions
    • Applying Robin boundary conditions
    • Applying internal “boundary” conditions
  • Adaptive Stepping
  • Manual
• Solvers
  • PETSc
  • PyAMG
  • pyamgx
  • SciPy
  • Trilinos
  • Performance Comparison
    • Serial Performance
    • Parallel Performance
  • Convergence
    • Tolerance
    • default
    • legacy
    • absolute_tolerance
    • divergence_tolerance
    • Reporting
• Viewers
  • Matplotlib
  • Mayavi
• Frequently Asked Questions
  • How do I represent an equation in FiPy?
    • Is there a way to model an anisotropic diffusion process or more generally to represent the diffusion coefficient as a tensor so that the diffusion term takes the form \(\partial_i \Gamma_{ij}\partial_j \phi\)?
    • How do I represent a … term that doesn’t involve the dependent variable?
    • What if my term involves the dependent variable, but not where FiPy puts it?
    • What if the coefficient of a term depends on the variable that I’m solving for?
  • How can I see what I’m doing?
    • How do I export data?
    • How do I save a plot image?
    • How do I make a movie?
    • Why doesn’t the Viewer look the way I want?
  • Iterations, timesteps, and sweeps? Oh, my!
  • Why the distinction between CellVariable and FaceVariable coefficients?
  • How do I represent boundary conditions?
  • What does this error message mean?
  • How do I change FiPy’s default behavior?
  • How can I tell if I’m running in parallel?
  • Why don’t my scripts work anymore?
  • What if my question isn’t answered here?
• Efficiency
  • Efficiency comparison between --no-cache and --cache flags
• Theoretical and Numerical Background
  • General Conservation Equation
  • Finite Volume Method
    • Cell Centered FVM (CC-FVM)
    • Vertex Centered FVM (VC-FVM)
  • Discretization
    • Transient Term \(\partial (\rho \phi) / \partial t\)
    • Convection Term \(\nabla \cdot \left( \vec{u} \phi \right)\)
    • Diffusion Term \(\nabla \cdot \left( \Gamma_1 \nabla \phi \right)\)
    • Source Term
  • Linear Equations
  • Numerical Schemes
• Design and Implementation
  • Design
    • Numerical Approach
    • Object Oriented Structure
    • Test Based Development
    • Open Source
    • High-Level Scripting Language
    • Python Programming Language
  • Implementation
• Virtual Kinetics of Materials Laboratory
• Contributors
• Publications
• Presentations
• Change Log
  • Version 4.0.1
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.99 - 2025-09-16
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.4.5 - 2024-06-25
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.4.4 - 2023-06-27
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.4.3 - 2022-06-15
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.4.2.1 - 2020-08-01
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.4.1 - 2020-02-14
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.4 - 2020-02-06
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.3 - 2019-06-28
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.2 - 2019-04-22
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.1.3 - 2017-01-17
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.1.2 - 2016-12-24
    • Pulls
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.1.1 - 2015-12-17
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.1 - 2013-09-30
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.0.1 - 2012-10-03
    • Fixes
  • Version 3.0 - 2012-08-16
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.1.3 - 2012-01-17
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.1.2 - 2011-04-20
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.1.1 - 2010-10-05
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.1 - 2010-04-01
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.0.3 - 2010-03-17
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.0.2 - 2009-06-11
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.0.1 - 2009-04-23
    • Fixes
  • Version 2.0 - 2009-02-09
  • Version 1.2.3 - 2009-01-0
    • Fixes
  • Version 1.2.2 - 2008-12-30
    • Fixes
  • Version 1.2.1 - 2008-02-08
    • Fixes
  • Version 1.2 - 2007-02-12
    • Fixes
  • Version 1.1 - 2006-06-06
  • Version 1.0 - 2005-09-16
    • Fixes
  • Version 0.1.1
  • Version 0.1 - 2004-11-05
• Git practices
  • Branches
    • Merging changes from master to the branch
    • Submit branch for code review
    • Refactoring complete: merge branch to master
• Continuous Integration
• Conda Lockfiles
• README-like documents
• Making a Release
  • Source
  • Release from master
  • Upload
  • Update conda-forge feedstock
  • Announce
• Glossary

Last updated on Sep 16, 2025. Created using Sphinx 7.1.2.