.. include:: links.inc Introduction ============ .. only:: html .. contents:: Table of Contents :local: :backlinks: top *SfePy* (http://sfepy.org) is a software for solving systems of coupled partial differential equations (PDEs) by the finite element method in 1D, 2D and 3D. It can be viewed both as black-box PDE solver, and as a Python package which can be used for building custom applications. The word "simple" means that complex FEM problems can be coded very easily and rapidly. There is also a preliminary support for the isogeometric analysis, outlined in :ref:`isogeometric_analysis`. The code is written almost entirely in `Python`_, with exception of the most time demanding routines - those are written in C and wrapped by `Cython`_ or written directly in Cython. *SfePy* is a free software released under the `New BSD License`_. It relies on `NumPy`_ and `SciPy`_ (an excellent collection of tools for scientific computations in Python). It is a multi-platform software that should work on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. *SfePy* was originally developed as a flexible framework to quickly implement and test the mathematical models developed during our various research projects. It has evolved, however, to a rather full-featured (yet small) finite element code. Many terms have been implemented that can be used to build the PDEs, see :ref:`term_overview`. SfePy comes also with a number of examples that can get you started, check :ref:`examples`, :ref:`gallery-index` and :doc:`tutorial`. Some more advanced features are discussed in :doc:`primer`.