# FieldCraft 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 but working end to end — open a part, mesh it, define the analysis, solve, see the results — with a nonlinear implicit solver (large deformation, plasticity, rubber) now in place. Hex meshing is the centre of gravity. Next: buckling and arc-length, contact, then the wider material and multiphysics library. See [ROADMAP.md](ROADMAP.md). **Want to help?** Pick an issue labelled [good first issue](https://github.com/jyviko/fieldcraft/labels/good%20first%20issue) or [help wanted](https://github.com/jyviko/fieldcraft/labels/help%20wanted) and read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md). ![Claude analyses an I-beam cantilever in FieldCraft over MCP: it opens the part, hex meshes it, sets steel, the clamp and a 1 kN tip load, solves, shows von Mises stress and the deformed shape, and checks the tip deflection against beam theory](docs/media/claude-mcp.gif) *Claude driving FieldCraft through its [MCP server](docs/mcp.md): one prompt, and it opens the part, meshes it, defines and solves the analysis, then checks the tip deflection against beam theory. Real session, waits shortened. [Full video](docs/media/claude-mcp.mp4).* ![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) An AI agent drives FieldCraft over [MCP](docs/mcp.md), each stage captioned with the tool it calls: it opens an I-beam, hex meshes it, defines the material, the clamp and a 1000 N tip load, solves, and shows the von Mises stress and the deformed shape (tip deflection 0.176 mm; beam theory with shear 0.177 mm). [MP4](docs/media/ibeam-analysis.mp4) · regenerated by [tools/demo-video](tools/demo-video/README.md). ## Download [![Download for macOS](https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS-Download-000000?style=for-the-badge&logo=apple&logoColor=white)](https://github.com/jyviko/fieldcraft/releases/latest) [![Download for Windows](https://img.shields.io/badge/Windows-Download-0078D6?style=for-the-badge)](https://github.com/jyviko/fieldcraft/releases/latest) [![Download for Linux](https://img.shields.io/badge/Linux-Download-FCC624?style=for-the-badge&logo=linux&logoColor=black)](https://github.com/jyviko/fieldcraft/releases/latest) [![Try it in your browser](https://img.shields.io/badge/Browser-Try%20it-2ea44f?style=for-the-badge&logo=webassembly&logoColor=white)](https://jyviko.github.io/fieldcraft/) - **macOS:** open the `.dmg` and drag FieldCraft into Applications (Apple silicon and Intel). - **Windows:** unzip and run `fieldcraft.exe`. - **Linux:** the `.AppImage` (allow it to run as a program), or the `.tar.gz`. - **Browser:** [try it at jyviko.github.io/fieldcraft](https://jyviko.github.io/fieldcraft/), no install. - **Command line:** `fieldcraft-cli` ships in every package; AI agents connect to it over MCP ([docs/mcp.md](docs/mcp.md)). Every release lists its checksums in `SHA256SUMS.txt`. Building from source is in [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md#get-it-running-about-10-minutes-on-a-fast-machine). ## Hex meshing a part that does not sweep A filleted L-bracket with a hole through each leg cannot be swept in one piece. Split into 30 cells in SolidCraft, FieldCraft meshes it all-hex as one conforming mesh — O-grids round the holes, graded through the fillet — and its hex20 tip deflection matches a fine tet10 solution to 0.1 %. The same part also meshes all-hex automatically with the octree mesher (`mesh.hex.octree`). | Cells | Conforming hex mesh | Von Mises (clamp and load drawn) | |---|---|---| | ![The bracket split into 30 coloured cells](docs/media/bracket-partition.png) | ![The all-hex mesh with O-grids round the holes](docs/media/bracket-hex.png) | ![Von Mises stress peaking at the hole, with the clamp cones and load arrows](docs/media/bracket-stress.png) | ## 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; Delaunay refinement, smoothing and sliver removal; structured hex by sweeping, revolving and mapping (hex8, hex20), and conforming multi-block hex across a part split into cells (`mesh.hex.blocks`); unstructured octree all-hex for any part (`mesh.hex.octree`); 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 (isotropic and kinematic hardening, Johnson–Cook), Johnson–Cook damage, neo-Hookean, Mooney–Rivlin and Yeoh hyperelasticity, 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); nonlinear static by Newton–Raphson with automatic increments — large deformation (total Lagrangian) on every solid element, follower pressure, finite- and small-strain plasticity sharing one return map with the explicit solver, rubber and thermal strain, with measured quadratic convergence; 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 and nonlinear frames, probes and reaction sums; supports, loads, reference points and couplings drawn in the viewport. - **Verification:** every capability is checked against closed forms and published benchmarks (NAFEMS, MacNeal–Harder, Scordelis–Lo, the elastica, Hill's plastic cylinder, Rivlin's tube) in [`tests/oracle`](tests/oracle), with results frozen so they cannot drift: 170 of 176 quantities pass in 50 cases, the 6 others documented known failures ([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)). ![The FieldCraft window: a clamped cantilever with its supports, pressure, gravity and a coupled reference point drawn in the viewport](docs/media/setup-symbols.png) ## Examples Ready-to-solve samples: open one from **File ▸ Samples** (or the start screen), or start the app with `fieldcraft --sample NAME`, and press **Solve**. Each opens and solves within half a minute and is checked against a closed form or a reference solution ([docs/examples.md](docs/examples.md)).
Drop test
Drop test (drop-test): an aluminium bracket dropped 2 m onto a tilted floor; explicit dynamics, the strike's stress waves		 Rubber seal
Rubber seal (rubber-seal): a Mooney–Rivlin gasket ring squeezed 25 %; nonlinear static, large strain		 Heated bracket
Heated bracket (heated-bracket): a clamped steel bracket heated at one end; steady heat and thermal stress
Hex-meshed bracket
Hex-meshed bracket (bracket-hex): the bracket split into 30 cells, meshed all-hex (hex20), von Mises		 Bicycle crank arm
Bicycle crank arm (crank-arm): an aluminium crank swept all-hex (hex20), a rider's weight on the pedal; root bending within 0.3 % of M/Z		 No picture yet: the viewport does not draw flow results (M12).
Flow past a bracket (flow-past): air past an L-bracket on the floor; lattice Boltzmann flow, the drag and the force on each face
## Build ```sh cargo xtask ci # fmt, assets, licences, layers, clippy, tests, wasm cargo xtask test --heavy # the heavy (ignored) tests and the doc tests cargo run -p fieldcraft-cli -- commands # every command and its parameters cargo run -p fieldcraft-cli -- run script.json # run a command script cargo run -p fieldcraft-cli -- mcp # MCP server on stdio for AI agents (docs/mcp.md) ``` Rust 1.95 or later, with the `wasm32-unknown-unknown` target for `cargo xtask ci`. ## Documentation - [Examples](docs/examples.md): the ready-to-solve samples and their checks - [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 - [Releasing](docs/releasing.md): how a release is built, verified and published - [Contributing](CONTRIBUTING.md) and [agent instructions](AGENTS.md) ## License Dual-licensed under [MIT](LICENSE-MIT) or [Apache-2.0](LICENSE-APACHE), at your option. Notices are in [NOTICE](NOTICE); third-party licences in [THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt](THIRD-PARTY-LICENSES.txt). FieldCraft is an independent project, not affiliated with, sponsored or endorsed by Dassault Systèmes, MSC Software, Siemens or Ansys. Abaqus, Nastran, MSC Nastran, Simcenter Nastran and LS-DYNA are trademarks of their owners and are named only to describe file compatibility.