fers_calculations

The engine of FERS: structural finite-element analysis (3D frames, trusses, plates, Eurocode 3 checks) for engineers and AI agents. It takes a model as JSON and returns the solved document: displacements, reactions, member forces, buckling and modal results, and unity checks. It is compiled Rust and runs on your machine.

Most people want pip install FERS, the Python SDK and fers command, which installs this engine and writes the model JSON for you. Install this package alone to drive the engine with JSON you produce some other way.

pip install fers_calculations      # wheels for Windows, macOS and Linux (x86_64, aarch64)

Usage

import json

import fers_calculations
from fers_core import create_beam  # pip install FERS: the SDK that writes the model

model = create_beam(5.0, "IPE180", udl=5000.0)  # 5 m span, 5 kN/m; SI units: m, N
document = json.loads(fers_calculations.calculate_from_json(json.dumps(model.to_dict(include_results=False))))

case = document["results"]["loadcases"]["Load"]
assert case["solver_diagnostics"]["converged"] and not case["errors_and_warnings"]["errors"]
print(f"mid-span deflection {case['displacement_nodes']['5']['dy'] * 1000:.2f} mm")
print(f"reaction {case['reaction_nodes']['1']['nodal_forces']['fy'] / 1000:.2f} kN")

mid-span deflection -14.92 mm
reaction 12.50 kN

The document is the input plus results: loadcases and loadcombinations by name, each with displacement_nodes, reaction_nodes and member_results keyed by id, plus unity_check_results, solve_failures and load_case_failures. Before using a number, check that its result set has no errors_and_warnings.errors and that solver_diagnostics.converged is true: a mechanism, for instance, is reported as a singular_model error. The engine raises RuntimeError when it refuses a model outright.

calculate_to_file(json_data, path) writes the document to a file instead of returning it, for results too large to hold as one string.

Premium licensing and timeouts

Without a key or token the engine runs at Free-tier limits (100 members) and makes no network call. Two ways unlock Premium limits:

• solve_token=...: a short-lived token signed by FERS Cloud and checked offline, for a machine that cannot reach ferscloud.com. An expired or invalid token raises RuntimeError.
• api_key=...: checked online with ferscloud.com once per solve.

Premium allows 10,000 members per model. An Enterprise account, granted by agreement, allows 1,000,000 through either way.

Because a licence check is a network call, it is bounded. If ferscloud.com does not answer within license_timeout seconds (default 30) the call raises fers_calculations.FersTimeoutError before the solve starts, so retrying is always safe:

import fers_calculations

try:
    fers_calculations.calculate_to_file(
        json_data, "results.json", api_key=KEY, license_timeout=60
    )
except fers_calculations.FersTimeoutError:
    ...  # transient — retry or skip this model

FersTimeoutError subclasses the built-in TimeoutError, so except TimeoutError catches it too. A definitive failure — an invalid key, a non-premium account, an unreachable host — raises RuntimeError instead, since retrying those is pointless.

license_timeout bounds the licence handshake only, not the solve. To put a hard ceiling on a whole solve, run it in a killable subprocess.

Two environment variables are read (real process environment only — .env files are loaded by the CLI binary, never by this extension module):

Licence

From 0.2.70 the engine is licensed under the PolyForm Strict License 1.0.0 (see LICENSE). It is free for any noncommercial purpose: study, teaching, research, hobby projects, and use by schools, charities and public bodies. Models of more than 100 members need Premium limits.

Commercial use, at any model size, needs a paid FERS Cloud plan, which includes the commercial licence. The licence does not allow modifying or redistributing the package.