Product guide · Beta

HuskyBIM for FEM-Design

HuskyBIM for FEM-Design connects Claude Desktop to StruSoft FEM-Design through its open model format and script interface. With 63 tools you build 3D structures — bars, slabs, walls, supports — define loads and combinations, run static, modal, stability and construction-stage analyses, design steel, concrete and timber, read forces, reactions, displacements and utilisations, and bring models in from IFC or from HuskyBIM for Revit and Archicad. Claude sees the model through screenshots.

Beta, delivered as a Claude Desktop extension (.mcpb). No installer. The extension starts its own FEM-Design window when Claude first needs it — FEM-Design has no live API, so the tools work on a model held by HuskyBIM and exchanged with FEM-Design as it goes. Tested on FEM-Design 25 (25.0.1); other versions are untested.

Requirements

• StruSoft FEM-Design 25 — 3D Structure, installed and licensed on the same PC (the Educational edition works; its file format is not compatible with the commercial one)
• Windows 10 or Windows 11 (64-bit)
• Claude Desktop — download at claude.ai/download
• Free HuskyBIM account — sign up

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 extension token

In the HuskyBIM for FEM-Design extension settings, enter your extension token. Find your token at huskybim.com/account under Extension Token.

Start working

Ask Claude to "check the connection to FEM-Design". Then describe the structure, open an existing .struxml or .str file, or import an IFC. FEM-Design opens in its own window when the first analysis or sync runs, and you can keep editing there — ask Claude to pull the model afterwards.

Two copies of the model. Claude edits a model in memory and pushes it to FEM-Design (sync) before analysis; edits you make in the FEM-Design window come back with pull. The tools refuse to pull over unsynced changes unless you say so, so nothing is lost silently.

What you can do

HuskyBIM for FEM-Design provides 63 tools spanning the analysis workflow — from 3D geometry and loads to calculation, design, results and documentation — plus a generic layer that reaches every class in the FEM-Design API. Inputs and results use engineering units: kN, kN·m, kN/m, kN/m², m, mm, MPa.

Model & 3D geometry

fd_create_bar — beams, columns and trusses with catalogue sections (IPE, HEA, RHS…), end releases, eccentricity, tapering

fd_create_plate / fd_create_wall — slabs and walls from points, thickness and material, with edge connections

fd_point_support / fd_line_support / fd_surface_support — hinged, rigid, per-DOF or elastic

fd_materials / fd_sections — the national material and section databases, searched by name

fd_list / fd_get / fd_set / fd_delete — read and change anything in the model

fd_import_ifc — bring a Revit, Archicad or Tekla IFC in through FEM-Design's own import

fd_import_model_json — the analytical model from HuskyBIM for Revit, Archicad or Robot

fd_export_model_json — send the model the other way

Loads & combinations

fd_load_case — dead, ordinary, wind, snow, seismic, shrinkage, prestress…

fd_point_load / fd_line_load / fd_surface_load / fd_pressure_load — forces and moments, variable and projected

fd_load_combination — ULS/SLS combinations with your factors

fd_load_groups — load groups for FEM-Design's automatic combinations

Analysis & design

fd_run_analysis — static, eigenfrequencies (mass from your cases), stability, imperfections, footfall, ground acceleration, excitation, construction stages

fd_generate_mesh — mesh only, for a look before calculating

fd_run_design — steel, RC, timber, foundation, masonry: check or auto-design

fd_apply_design_changes — write designed sections and reinforcement back into the model

fd_design_config — the design settings the modules run with

Results & documentation

fd_results — any of the 55 result types: bar forces, displacements, reactions, shell forces and stresses, utilisations, required reinforcement, eigenfrequencies…

fd_results_on_points — results at exact coordinates on bars and shells

fd_quantities — concrete, steel, timber, reinforcement, formwork and CO₂

fd_stability_results — critical parameters and buckling shapes

fd_interaction_surface — N–M interaction for RC sections

fd_screenshot — the FEM-Design window as an image Claude sees

fd_save_docx — FEM-Design's documentation module to Word

fd_save — .struxml (open exchange) or .str (FEM-Design, with results)

Full API control

fd_types / fd_new — construct any of the 1,500+ classes in the FEM-Design API and add it to the model

fd_call / fd_get_path — call any method, read any path in the model

fd_run_script — run your own fdscript in FEM-Design

fd_windows / fd_click_button — see and answer FEM-Design's dialogs

Example prompts

Build in 3D and load

"Make a 6 × 5 m concrete slab, 200 mm C30/37, on two 3 m walls, fixed at the base. Add 5 kN/m² live load and a 3 kN/m line load along the middle."

Combine and calculate

"Create the ULS combination 1.2 dead + 1.5 live, run the static analysis and give me the line support reactions and the maximum deflection."

Design

"Auto-design the reinforcement for the slab and walls, then show the utilisation per shell and the required reinforcement where it is highest."

Bring a model in

"Import C:\Projects\office.ifc into FEM-Design, list what came in, and run the eigenfrequency analysis with 30 % of the live load as mass."

Troubleshooting

The first analysis takes a while

FEM-Design starts a fresh window on the first sync or analysis (10–20 s). It stays open for the rest of the Claude session and closes when the session ends.

"The in-memory model has changes that were never pushed"

You asked to pull the model from FEM-Design while Claude still holds unsynced edits. Sync first, or tell Claude to discard them.

Eigenfrequency analysis returns no modes

FEM-Design needs a mass conversion table. The tools build one automatically from dead load (×1.0) and ordinary loads (×0.3 by default) — pass liveMassFactor to change it. If none of your load cases is a dead load, add one.

A tool times out and FEM-Design shows a question

FEM-Design asked something that needs a decision. Answer it in the FEM-Design window — the tools show recent dialogs with fd_windows. Purely informational messages (including the Educational notice) are dismissed automatically.

License error on first call

Check that your token is entered correctly in the extension settings. Get it free at huskybim.com/account.