Getting started

Installation

PaNTr requires Python 3.11–3.14. The serial core depends only on NumPy, SciPy, Numba, and threadpoolctl:

pip install pantr

Optional features

A plain pip install pantr already includes every PaNTr module, including pantr.viz and pantr.mpi. These two don’t do anything on their own — each needs a third-party backend library, and activates automatically as soon as that library is importable. Until then, calling into the module raises a clear error; nothing else is affected.

The extras below install no extra PaNTr code — they are a convenience that pulls in the backend for you. Installing the backend yourself is exactly equivalent:

Capability

Module

Backend

Install (extra or direct)

Visualization & VTK export

pantr.viz

pyvista

pip install "pantr[viz]" · pip install pyvista

Distributed (MPI) spaces

pantr.mpi

mpi4py (+ an MPI library)

pip install "pantr[mpi]"

METIS partitioning backend

pantr.bspline.partition_graph()

pymetis

pip install "pantr[metis]"

 
pip install "pantr[viz]"        # enable visualization (installs pyvista)
pip install "pantr[mpi,viz]"    # several backends at once

The serial core never imports pantr.mpi, so a plain pip install pantr behaves identically whether or not these backends are present.

Your first spline

A geometry is a function space plus control points:

import numpy as np
from pantr.bspline import Bspline, BsplineSpace, BsplineSpace1D

# A quadratic 1-D space on the knot vector [0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3]
space = BsplineSpace([BsplineSpace1D([0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3], 2)])

# Five 2-D control points -> a planar curve (dim == 1, rank == 2)
control_points = np.array(
    [[0.0, 0.0], [1.0, 2.0], [2.0, -1.0], [3.0, 1.0], [4.0, 0.0]]
)
curve = Bspline(space, control_points)

# Evaluate at 50 parameters spanning the domain [0, 3]
points = curve.evaluate(np.linspace(0.0, 3.0, 50))  # shape (50, 2)

If BsplineSpace1D, BsplineSpace, and the dim/rank distinction are unfamiliar, read Core concepts first — it is short and explains the whole data model.

Next steps

  • Learn by doing — work through the Tutorials, a runnable path from this first curve to NURBS, CAD modeling, approximation, and adaptive refinement.

  • Understand the model — the Core concepts and Spaces, knots & element extraction pages cover spaces, knot vectors, continuity, and representation changes.

  • Visualize — render geometries interactively or export them to VTK with Visualization (needs the viz extra).

  • Look something up — every symbol is in the API reference.