Beginners in fenics

General
1

Good evening, everibody, Does fenics work with python or only with C++? Can I use visual studio code as an editor without creating a conflict?

2

You can use FEniCS in either language. However, most users prefer the Python interface.

Yes, you can. I’ve been using vscode for developing with FEniCS since 2020

3

Thanks for your answers dokken, I have tried to install fenics on my PC with a Windows 10 environment to work with Visual Studio code in Python 3.13.1 but I get an error when running the program. ModuleNotFoundError: No module named ‘fenics’, I have tried several times and nothing, I don’t know if you could help me with this?

4

The module is called dolfinx, not fenics. Various beginner guides exist, which you’re encouraged to go through to get started. E.g., The FEniCSx tutorial — FEniCSx tutorial and the demos on Demos — DOLFINx 0.9.0 documentation

5

Thanks Stein, I have tried to install Petsc4py the following error appears
*** Windows python detected. Please rerun ./configure with cygwin-python. ***
===============================================================================
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip_vendor\pyproject_hooks_in_process_in_process.py”, line 389, in
main()
~~~~^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip_vendor\pyproject_hooks_in_process_in_process.py”, line 373, in main
json_out[“return_val”] = hook(**hook_input[“kwargs”])
~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip_vendor\pyproject_hooks_in_process_in_process.py”, line 280, in build_wheel
return _build_backend().build_wheel(
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
wheel_directory, config_settings, metadata_directory
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
)
^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py”, line 438, in build_wheel
return _build([‘bdist_wheel’, ‘–dist-info-dir’, str(metadata_directory)])
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py”, line 426, in _build
return self._build_with_temp_dir(
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^
cmd,
^^^^
…<3 lines>…
self._arbitrary_args(config_settings),
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
)
^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py”, line 407, in build_with_temp_dir
self.run_setup()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\build_meta.py”, line 320, in run_setup
exec(code, locals())
~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File “”, line 366, in
File "C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_init.py", line 117, in setup
return distutils.core.setup(**attrs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_distutils\core.py”, line 186, in setup
return run_commands(dist)
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_distutils\core.py”, line 202, in run_commands
dist.run_commands()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_distutils\dist.py”, line 983, in run_commands
self.run_command(cmd)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\dist.py”, line 999, in run_command
super().run_command(command)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_distutils\dist.py”, line 1002, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()
~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\command\bdist_wheel.py”, line 414, in run
self.run_command(“install”)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_distutils\cmd.py”, line 339, in run_command
self.distribution.run_command(command)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools\dist.py”, line 999, in run_command
super().run_command(command)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
File “C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-7_osh60f\overlay\Lib\site-packages\setuptools_distutils\dist.py”, line 1002, in run_command
cmd_obj.run()
~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File “”, line 289, in run
File “”, line 192, in config
RuntimeError: 3
[end of output]

    note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
    ERROR: Failed building wheel for petsc
  Failed to build petsc
  ERROR: Failed to build installable wheels for some pyproject.toml based projects (petsc)
  [end of output]

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: subprocess-exited-with-error

× pip subprocess to install backend dependencies did not run successfully.
│ exit code: 1
╰─> See above for output.

note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.

6

How did you install dolfinx/dolfin/fenics on your system?

7

You can also use devcontainerin vscode with the Fenicsx docker image

something like this

Dokerfile

FROM dolfinx/dolfinx:stable

.....

devcontainer.json

// For format details, see https://aka.ms/devcontainer.json. For config options, see the
// README at: https://github.com/devcontainers/templates/tree/main/src/docker-existing-dockerfile
{
	"name": "project",
	"build": {
		// Sets the run context to one level up instead of the .devcontainer folder.
		"context": "..",
		// Update the 'dockerFile' property if you aren't using the standard 'Dockerfile' filename.
		"dockerfile": "./Dockerfile"
	},
	"customizations": {
		"vscode": {
			"extensions": [
				"donjayamanne.python-extension-pack",
				"ms-python.python",
				"ms-python.vscode-pylance",
				"ms-toolsai.jupyter",
				"njpwerner.autodocstring",
				"ms-toolsai.datawrangler",
				"498.pythonformat"
			]
		}
	}
}