Product guide

HuskyBIM for Catenda BETA

HuskyBIM for Catenda connects Claude Desktop to Catenda Hub — the openBIM common data environment (formerly Bimsync) — through Catenda's open buildingSMART BCF/OpenCDE and REST APIs. With 29 tools you can coordinate BCF issues with viewpoints and snapshots, import or export whole BCF files, query the processed IFC data, run quantity take-offs, manage documents with shareable links, and mint viewer links — all in plain language.

Beta. This connector is new and built against Catenda's published API specifications. It is still collecting its first real-world mileage — if something surprises you, tell us via the contact page. Beta feedback shapes v1.0.

Delivered as a Claude Desktop extension (.mcpb). No installer needed. Download from your account page, open it in Claude Desktop, and enter your HuskyBIM License Token plus your Catenda API credentials.

Requirements

• Claude Desktop — download at claude.ai/download
• A Catenda account with access to at least one project
• A Catenda API application — a client id and secret, issued by Catenda Support (see below)
• Free HuskyBIM account — sign up

Catenda API credentials

Catenda API access is enabled per application. Per Catenda's developer guide, you create an application by contacting Catenda Support ([email protected]); they issue a client id and client secret. Ask for the redirect URI http://localhost:8080/callback.

You then sign in once via OAuth to obtain a refresh token: open the authorization URL in a browser, approve access, and exchange the returned code. The connector handles Catenda's refresh-token rotation automatically from there.

Installation

Download the extension

Install in Claude Desktop

Open Claude Desktop. Go to Settings → Extensions and click Install extension. Select the downloaded .mcpb file, or drag and drop it onto the Extensions panel.

Enter your credentials

In the extension settings, enter your HuskyBIM License Token (from huskybim.com/account) and your Catenda client id, client secret and refresh token. Restart Claude Desktop and the tools are ready.

What you can do

HuskyBIM for Catenda provides 29 tools across BCF issue coordination, IFC model data, documents and libraries, and viewer access.

Issues — BCF topics, comments and viewpoints

List, create and update topics with OData filtering

Read and write comments

Create viewpoints with camera, snapshot image and IFC-GUID selection

Import a whole .bcfzip in one operation

Export filtered topics as BCF, Excel or PDF

Read the board's event feed (audit trail)

Generate grouped status reports (markdown or CSV)

Reference documents from topics

Model data — the processed IFC

MongoDB-style product queries (types, properties, quantities, full-text)

Resolve IFC GlobalIds to objects

Technical sheets — property sets, quantities with units, materials

Quantity take-off per IFC type

Discover queryable fields and suggested values

Upload IFC model revisions

Documents, libraries and viewer

Upload documents (same name = new revision)

Mint 1-hour shareable download links

Create links and classification references

Associate library items with model elements by IFC GlobalId

Mint 1-hour 3D/2D viewer links

Example workflows

Push a clash result set

Import the file clashes-week34.bcfzip into the Catenda project and give me a status report grouped by assignee.

Quantity take-off

Run a quantity take-off for all walls in the Catenda project — total areas and volumes with units.

Share a document

Upload the QA report PDF to the project's document library, reference it from the topic "Facade sealing", and give me a shareable download link.

Troubleshooting

License error on start

Check that your HuskyBIM License Token is correctly entered in Claude Desktop → Settings → Extensions → HuskyBIM for Catenda. Tokens are case-sensitive and must not contain spaces. Find your token at huskybim.com/account.

Catenda authentication fails

A 400 on the token exchange usually means the refresh token has already been used or has expired — Catenda rotates refresh tokens on every use, and the connector caches the newest one automatically. If you re-enter an old token manually, sign in again to obtain a fresh one.

Values rejected when creating topics

Topic type, status, priority and labels must be allowed by the project — ask Claude to check the project extensions first (catenda_get_project_extensions).