README: what FieldCraft does today, and the current status

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01NmAttHhUZTokgPeEJia8sm
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# FieldCraft
An open-source, clean-room CAE modeling application in pure Rust: geometry to analysis-ready
finite element models, with robust tetrahedral and hexahedral meshing, solver decks for Abaqus,
Nastran and LS-DYNA, and its own linear static and modal solver. Desktop, browser and AI agents
drive the same commands.
An open-source, clean-room CAE application in pure Rust: from a parametric SolidCraft part to a
verified finite element analysis, with tetrahedral and hexahedral meshing, its own implicit,
explicit, thermal and lattice Boltzmann solvers, and decks for Abaqus, Nastran and LS-DYNA. The
desktop app, the command line and AI agents (over MCP) drive the same commands.
**Status:** early. The workspace, quality gates, the FE model, the command engine and the
geometry boundary (SolidCraft's kernel and tessellator) are in place; meshing is next. See
[ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.md).
**Status:** early but working end to end — open a part, mesh it, define the analysis, solve,
see the results. Hex meshing is the centre of gravity; the next large step is the nonlinear
implicit solver that contact, elastomers and composites need. See [ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.md).
![An AI agent analyses an I-beam cantilever in FieldCraft over MCP: open, hex mesh, steel, clamp and tip load, solve, von Mises contours, the deformed shape and an orbit round it](docs/media/ibeam-analysis.gif)
@@ -17,6 +17,34 @@ solves, and shows the von Mises stress and the deformed shape (tip deflection 0.
theory with shear 0.177 mm).
[MP4](docs/media/ibeam-analysis.mp4) · regenerated by [tools/demo-video](tools/demo-video/README.md).
## What it does today
- **Geometry in:** SolidCraft designs (`.solidcraft`) with persistent face, edge and body names,
and face-tagged 3MF meshes; surface checks (weld, manifold, orientation, self-intersection).
- **Meshing:** constrained Delaunay tetrahedra (tet4, tet10) with exact predicates and a
certified validity gate; structured hex by sweeping, revolving and mapping (hex8, hex20; 16 of
the 21 corpus parts mesh all-hex); 2D quad and tri meshes; quality metrics per element and set.
- **Elements:** solids (tet4, tet10, wedge6, hex8 with incompatible modes, hex20 full and
reduced, hybrid u–p for near-incompressible materials), plane stress, plane strain and
axisymmetric, trusses, Timoshenko beams, MITC3/MITC4 shells, springs, dashpots and point masses.
- **Model:** sets bound to geometry names, so they survive remeshing; isotropic and orthotropic
elasticity, J2 plasticity, Johnson–Cook damage, thermal properties; fixed, displacement,
symmetry and temperature conditions; forces, moments, pressure, gravity, centrifugal and heat
loads; reference points with kinematic and distributing couplings; undo, redo and a
text-diffable `.fieldcraft` file.
- **Solvers:** linear static and frequency (supernodal Cholesky, block Lanczos); steady and
transient heat transfer and coupled thermal stress; explicit dynamics with plasticity, damage,
erosion and rigid walls; D3Q19 lattice Boltzmann flow with forces on the part's faces. Results
never depend on the thread count.
- **Decks:** Abaqus, Nastran and LS-DYNA writers, each refusing by name what it cannot express.
- **Results:** contours of stress, strain and displacement with a legend, deformed shapes, mode
shapes, explicit frames, probes and reaction sums; the analysis setup drawn in the viewport.
- **Verification:** every capability is checked against closed forms and published benchmarks
(NAFEMS, MacNeal–Harder, Scordelis–Lo) in [`tests/oracle`](tests/oracle), with results frozen
so they cannot drift: [docs/oracle.md](docs/oracle.md).
- **Driving it:** a desktop app in the Craft family's layout, a CLI, a JSON control channel and an
MCP server; every capability is a command ([docs/features.md](docs/features.md)).
## Build
```sh
@@ -32,6 +60,8 @@ Rust 1.95 or later, with the `wasm32-unknown-unknown` target for `cargo xtask ci
## Documentation
- [Architecture](docs/architecture.md): crates, layers and the meshing pipeline
- [Element library](docs/elements.md) and [verification and validation](docs/verification.md)
- [Capability checklist](docs/parity.md) and [roadmap](ROADMAP.md)
- [Libraries and licences](docs/adr/0001-libraries.md)
- [AI agents (MCP)](docs/mcp.md): `claude mcp add fieldcraft -- /path/to/fieldcraft-cli mcp`
- [Control protocol](docs/control-protocol.md): driving the desktop app