Practical Resources & Complete Guide
2026-08-27 · DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION S042 Hours: Hand-Crafting a Structural Mechanics Solver with AI
From Vibe Coding to Harness & Loop Engineering: How structural engineers build custom analysis tools using AI Agents, Vue 3, Canvas/SVG, WASM, Docker, and Electron.
Session Replay & Live WebApp
NSStructure 2D Mechanics Solver
Built with Vue 3 + Canvas in-place rendering for tension-side Bending Moment Diagrams (BMD) and Shear Force Diagrams (SFD), powered by Direct Stiffness Method FEM core with dual Web container & Electron desktop delivery.
🎯 Bilibili Recording: BV1zxt467EeZ ↗
📐 Solver Project 1 (Skills-based): gitee.com/wx_c3969733c0/structural-mechanics-skills ↗
💬 Solver Project 2 (Prompt-based): gitee.com/wx_c3969733c0/structural-mechanics-prompt ↗
17-Slide Curriculum & Architectural Framework
Paradigm Shift: Tool Users to Tool Makers
- • Slide 01: Title & Introduction
- • Slide 02: Commercial Software Monopolies vs Custom Tools
- • Slide 03: True Vibe Coding: Intent-driven engineering (Humans define physics & limits, AI implements code)
Three Engineering Pillars & Agent Arsenal
- • Slide 04: Harness Engineering: Rule injection & test stubs
- • Slide 05: Loop Engineering: Sense-Act-Observe-Repair cycle
- • Slide 06: Skills & MCP Protocols (USB interfaces for AI)
- • Slide 07: Structural Vibe Coding Arsenal (Guardrails, Visual Eyes, WASM, Subagents)
Core Vibe Coding Best Practices
- • Slide 08: Golden Rules:
1. Incremental rapid iterations;
2. Explicit physical definitions;
3. Separation of Data, Solver, and View.
Modern Full-Stack Mechanics Architecture
- • Slide 09: Vue 3 Reactive State driving structural topology
- • Slide 10: Canvas/SVG Tension-Side Moment rendering & Hermite curves
- • Slide 11: Dual Delivery Matrix (Web & Native Electron .exe)
- • Slide 12: WebAssembly (WASM) Client-side fast compute
- • Slide 13: Node.js + Docker 20MB Lightweight Alpine image
Live Demo, Pitfall Guide & Future Horizons
• Slide 14: WSL 2 × Docker live run & localhost:51674 verification
• Slide 15: Pitfall prevention (CRLF endings, zoom inverse-transform drift, load vector signs)
• Slide 16: 3 Major trends for structural engineers in the AI era
• Slide 17: Concluding remarks & Q&A
Structural Solver Skills Toolkit
Structural Mechanics Solver Skills Bundle (ZIP)
Includes 2D Direct Stiffness Method core, tension-side moment diagram rendering, standard structural benchmark suite, and Docker/Electron dual-delivery configs.
2D Planar Direct Stiffness Method FEM calculation core: Element stiffness matrix, coordinate transformation, master stiffness matrix assembly, and displacement/reaction solver.
Civil engineering drawing conventions & Canvas renderer: Mandatory tension-side bending moments, signless BMD, parabolas, and standard support graphics.
Classic structural benchmarks & automated regression suite: Simply supported beams, cantilevers, and continuous beams analytical comparisons (<0.01% tolerance).
Dual-form packaging & deployment: 20MB lightweight Nginx containerized deployment and offline Electron desktop client scaffold.
Engineered Vibe Coding Prompt Sequences
Copy and paste these prompts into Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex. The full practical project is open-sourced on Solver Demo (Prompt Mode) Repo ↗.
Stage 1: Harness Rule Initialization (`CLAUDE.md`)
GuardrailsPlease create a project-level specification file CLAUDE.md for our 2D Frame Structural Mechanics Solver (NSStructure 2D): 1. Civil Engineering Standards: - Bending Moment Diagram (BMD) MUST be strictly drawn on the TENSION side; - Global coordinate conventions: +X to the right, +Y upward, counterclockwise rotation is positive; - Axial Force Diagram (AFD): Tension and compression in distinct blue/red colors; - Shear Force Diagram (SFD): Plotted perpendicular to element axis. 2. Architecture Separation: - Data Layer (/src/types/ & /src/store/): Pure reactive state for nodes, elements, loads; - Solver Layer (/src/core/): Pure TypeScript Direct Stiffness Method with NO DOM/UI imports; - View Layer (/src/components/): Canvas/SVG coordinate transforms and interactive UI. 3. Unit Test Validation: - All solver edits must pass simply supported beam analytical benchmark cases.
Stage 2: Direct Stiffness Method FEM Core (`/src/core/solver.ts`)
FEM CoreImplement the 2D Direct Stiffness Method FEM solver in /src/core/solver.ts:
1. 6x6 Local Element Stiffness Matrix [k_local] with axial (EA/L) and bending stiffness (12EI/L^3, 6EI/L^2, 4EI/L, 2EI/L);
2. Transformation Matrix [T] using element inclination angle θ;
3. Global Stiffness Matrix [K_global] assembly by degree of freedom indices;
4. Boundary condition enforcement (elimination or penalty method);
5. Solve [K]{Δ} = {P} for node displacements, element internal forces (N, V, M), and reactions. Stage 3: Tension-Side Moment Diagram & Canvas Renderer
RendererRender structural analysis results in-place on Canvas: 1. BMD: Strictly rendered on the TENSION side of members. Under UDL, sample 20 points along member length for quadratic parabola with translucent blue fill; 2. SFD: Render rectangular/trapezoidal hatching perpendicular to member; 3. AFD: Tension in dark blue, compression in orange-red; 4. Deformed Shape: Hermite cubic interpolation with a user-adjustable magnification factor slider.
Docker Containerization & Electron Desktop Client
Deploy locally or on servers via docker-compose:
# Build and run container mapping port 51674 docker-compose up -d --build # Access solver at http://localhost:51674
Package offline desktop client via electron-builder:
# Install deps and build Windows executable npm install npm run build:electron # Output binary located at: release/NSStructure-2D-Setup.exe