One desktop platform for unified CAE — import, model, solve, and visualize, extended by you.
Dependency Graph
The Extropian CAE Workbench is the platform product of the Extropian ecosystem: a desktop app where an engineer opens a model from the unified CAE IR (machine recipes, or OBJ/STL/Gmsh adapters), inspects it in a model tree and inspector, manipulates parts with gizmos in a full-window 3D viewport, and configures a solver run from typed schemas. Solver work runs on a worker thread with live post-processing — velocity and pressure fields streamed from the running solver rebuild slices, streamlines, and particle clouds every stamp, and parallel design studies optimize over real variables.
Architecturally it is the exd::workbench library plus one reference app. Every user action is a command on a CommandBus (named and undoable); cross-system notifications are typed events on an EventBus; panels read ECS state, dispatch commands, and subscribe to events. The UI is staged on Extropian Spatial UI widget trees with UI-agnostic content dumps underneath, so panels can re-render elsewhere without touching services. Everything consumes — never reimplements — the ecosystem mirror (extropian-cae, render, physics, geometry, viz, optimization, spatial-ui, mcp).
Extensibility and automation are first-class platform promises. Users register custom gizmos, solver backends, and styles against an unconditional extension API; a JSON command surface (socket/CLI/event-stream, plus a tiny wb shim) lets researchers drive the workbench from any language; workflow recipes orchestrate multi-step studies; in-process Lua covers interactive niches; and AI agents talk to the same surface via extropian-mcp.
Core capabilities
Unified CAE host: open, inspect (model tree + inspector), and manipulate models with gizmos in a 3D viewport
Schema-driven solver run configuration on a worker thread with live, per-stamp post-processing
Parallel, deterministic design studies over real solver physics
JSON command surface + `wb` shim for automation from any language, workflow recipes, in-process Lua, and MCP agents
Extension API for custom gizmos, solver backends, and styles; savable JSON project state
Technical foundation
Mirrors and consumes the Extropian ecosystem: exd::cae, exd::render, exd::physics, exd::geometry, exd::viz, exd::optimization, exd::spatial-ui, exd::mcp
CommandBus/EventBus platform nervous system over an ECS core (exd::core)
Source Available (PolyForm Shield)Binary Distribution (Proprietary)Internal Use (Proprietary)
Licensing is negotiated around the software, deployment model, scope, and ownership requirements of each project — whether Extropian CAE Workbench is used as-is, customized for your workflows, or embedded in a larger system you are building. I prefer perpetual licenses per major version: one fee licenses the version you chose for as long as you use it, with maintenance updates included within that major version.
Source Available (PolyForm Shield): view and build from the source under terms that prevent offering it as a competing product or service — no license fees or royalties.
Binary Distribution (Proprietary): one-time license to use and distribute the software in binary form, including inside products you sell.
Internal Use (Proprietary): one-time license for ongoing internal use of the software as delivered — no distribution, no recurring fees.
