Documentation

The manual for the Pencil Code is available in PDF (3.9M).

Hint: We also have a Quick Start guide for beginners.

Supplements

Axel Brandenburg gave a general presentation on the Pencil code in Oslo (2003): The Pencil Code: multi-purpose and multi-user maintained. (html, PowerPoint).

Wlad Lyra has written a tutorial for setting up global accretion disk simulations.

Wolfgang Dobler wrote Git Getting Started (Jun 10, 2016) and Git Best Practises guide (Jun 10, 2016).

Deepen Garg wrote Instructions for MacOS installation (Sep 29, 2024).

Responses to a problematic git check-in and how to avoid it by Hongzhe Zhou (August 24, 2022), Philippe Bourdin (November 4, 2022 and December 4, 2022): How to commit without "Master Branch Merge"?.

Matthias Rheinhardt presented a talk about the Yin-Yang mesh (10 Aug 2016) and the GPU acceleration in the Pencil Code using Astaroth: Introduction to PC-A [pptx] (25 Sep 2024)

A Python introduction can be found here: Python with the Pencil Code.

In her teaching material from the Barcelona User Meeting, Jennifer Schober explains How to simulate turbulent dynamos with the Pencil Code (Sep 25, 2024).

Scientific usage of the Pencil Code.

Tests and timings

For information how to do benchmark tests and timings, see the benchmark page.

Teaching

The code has been used for teaching on a number of occasions. Some online material with exercises is available through the Numerical Experiments page.

FAQ

For code problems, please check this automatically generated excerpt from the manual with FAQs.

Wiki

Some helpful information are available on our project wiki.

Newsletter

Since July 2020, the Pencil Code community has a newsletter to inform the users about recent developments, events, and opportunities. Back issues are available here.