The Open System for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (OpenSees) has become a cornerstone for structural engineering, helping researchers and practitioners face complex problems. By offering a flexible, object-oriented framework, its influence goes from high-level doctoral research to consulting, establishing itself as a powerful tool for simulating the seismic response of structural and geotechnical systems. A significant paradigm shift for its community took place with the introduction of the Python interpreter: OpenSeesPy. This transition opened the door to a much broader ecosystem, allowing researchers and engineers to couple analyses with robust Python libraries for data visualization, scientific computing, and machine learning. Nevertheless, it also created a pedagogical gap: the need for a comprehensive guideline to navigate and take advantage of this new environment. Introducción al cálculo sísmico con OpenSees en Python fills this gap. The authors have developed a text that does not merely list commands but builds knowledge through a carefully scaffolded process, moving from the history of the platform to the frontiers of automated design. Although this book is written in Spanish, its concepts and code examples are easily transferable to English speakers, addressing a global community of users. The book is organized into five parts, each one with several chapters that guide the reader from basic syntax to advanced seismic research. The first part lays the necessary groundwork, introducing the OpenSees architecture—specifically the interaction between the ModelBuilder, Domain, Analysis, and Recorder objects—while providing a summarized course in Python programming tailored for engineers. The authors then proceed to a second part that deals with linear analysis, where the focus is on building user confidence. Through examples such as the static analysis of a 2D truss and the modal analysis of a concrete frame, readers learn to define nodes, boundary conditions, and basic elastic elements. These early chapters are fundamental for understanding the workflow of creating a model, applying loads via time series, and recording outputs, setting the stage for more complex simulations. The text reaches its core strength on its third part: nonlinear analysis. This part is particularly valuable because it delves into the specific methodologies required to capture inelastic behavior. The authors begin by distinguishing between material and geometric nonlinearity, illustrating these concepts through the simulation of trusses using corotational formulations to highlight large displacement effects. The book proceeds to compare modeling strategies, demonstrating how to model frames using fiber sections to define complex geometries. Then, it compares force-based and displacement-based beam-column elements, discussing integration methods like Gauss–Lobatto and the importance of mesh discretization for accuracy. For reinforced concrete, the book guides the reader through defining concrete and steel materials to create moment-curvature diagrams and implement elements with distributed plasticity. The fourth part of the book deals with earthquake engineering applications. The authors start by introducing performance-based earthquake engineering and seismic protection systems, then move to the Capacity Spectrum Method, demonstrating how to model lumped plasticity using zero-length elements represent backbone curves from current design codes. This allows readers to perform static pushover analyses and overlay capacity curves with demand spectra. A standout feature in this part of the text is the detailed modeling of protective technologies, including Buckling-Restrained Braces modeled with fatigue materials, viscous dampers for velocity-dependent energy dissipation, and base isolation systems using friction pendulum bearings. This part concludes with chapters dedicated to advanced assessment techniques, including Dynamic Soil–Structure Interaction using impedance functions, and Incremental Dynamic Analysis. The final part of the book showcases the power of the Python ecosystem, moving beyond traditional structural analysis to explore how to leverage OpenSeesPy to generate large datasets of nonlinear dynamic responses to train Artificial Neural Networks. Additionally, they present a framework for metaheuristic optimization, coupling genetic algorithms with OpenSees to automatically refine structural designs, minimizing weight while satisfying seismic drift constraints. While this book is an exceptional first edition freely distributed, there is room for growth in future iterations to fully capture the potential of the Python-OpenSees synergy. A valuable addition would be a more general overview of the synergy between the solver and the broader Python ecosystem, emphasizing how integrated workflows for data management and scientific visualization can enhance the research process. Furthermore, future editions should delve deeper into the ability to store and manipulate analysis responses directly as Python variables within the workspace. This approach eliminates I/O bottlenecks, which is critical when running thousands of simulations. Finally, as models grow in complexity, the book would benefit from exploring the possibilities of running projects in cloud environments, perhaps introducing parallel processing or demonstrating how to execute scripts on high-performance computing platforms. In conclusion, Introducción al cálculo sísmico con OpenSees en Python is a landmark publication for the Spanish-speaking engineering community and beyond. It successfully navigates the steep learning curve of OpenSees by leveraging the intuitive nature of Python and a structured, problem-based pedagogical approach. It possesses all the credentials to become a standard reference for both students and experienced professionals, empowering a new generation of engineers to move away from “black-box” commercial software and embrace the transparency and power of open-source simulation. During the development of this paper, the author used Qwen3-30B-A3B in the LM Studio software for proofreading, grammar, and spelling. The author used this tool to ensure correct grammar, and spelling. The author declares no conflicts of interest. This manuscript contains no data beyond the text itself herein written, as its topic is a Book Review. The reviewed book is freely available at https://doi.org/10.4995/9788413960043edUPV.
Orlando Arroyo (Sun,) studied this question.
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