Robot Structural Analysis with AI: model, load, run and check

Why automate Robot Structural Analysis

In a Robot model the calculation is one command. The work around it repeats from model to model:

• Model setup: nodes, bars, a section on every bar, supports with the right fixity.
• Load cases: the loads in each case, self-weight once and only once, combinations with their factors.
• Reading results: reactions, displacements and internal forces, case by case, compared with what you expected.

Each step is a precise operation in Robot’s own API, so an assistant can carry it out on the real model, not on a screenshot.

What the assistant can do in Robot

AEC Pilot gives the assistant named actions inside Robot. Each does one job, and several refuse a request that would quietly produce a wrong model.

• Geometry: nodes and bars. A second node on an existing one is refused (coincident nodes are not connected), as is a second bar between the same two nodes.
• Sections: by Robot’s exact name, such as HEA 200, from the model or Robot’s section database. An unknown name is refused, not modelled as something else.
• Supports: fixed, pinned, roller or any custom fixity.
• Loads: linear static cases (dead, live, wind, snow, temperature, accidental, seismic), self-weight, nodal forces and moments, uniform loads along bars.
• Combinations: ULS, SLS or ALS, from your load cases and your factors.
• Analysis: Robot’s own calculation, without its dialog boxes, reporting whether it completed and, if not, why.
• Results: support reactions with their sum, node displacements, and internal forces along each bar.

Units are SI throughout, with Z pointing up. Ask in kN, and a downward 5 kN/m load goes to Robot as −5,000 N/m.

A worked example: a portal frame under 5 kN/m

This example was run on a live Robot model while the connector was tested. Three bars, one request:

“Build a portal frame: two 4 m HEA 200 columns, a 6 m IPE 300 beam, fixed bases. Add a live load case with 5 kN/m down on the beam, run the analysis and give me the reactions with their sum.”

The assistant creates the nodes, bars, sections and supports, puts −5,000 N/m on the beam in a new live load case, runs the calculation and reads the reactions:

• The calculation completed.
• The vertical reactions add up to exactly 30,000 N.
• The applied load is 5 kN/m × 6 m = 30 kN. The two agree: equilibrium holds.

The assistant made that check itself: it knew the load it had applied, and the sum comes with the reactions. Further checks on the same frame: self-weight of 5,800 N against 5,803 N by hand, and a 1.35 G + 1.5 Q combination of 52,830.5 N, exactly the factored total.

Checking the results: the engineer stays responsible

The assistant builds, runs and reports; the model, the loads and the results remain yours to check and sign. AEC Pilot is built so that a doubtful run is not passed off as a good one:

• Reactions come with their sum. If it does not match the applied load, look for a missing support, a load in the wrong case or kN given where N was meant.
• A run with warnings is not a success. Robot can finish an unstable model and still produce numbers; the assistant gets Robot’s warnings with the nodes and bars concerned and is told not to present those results.
• Stale results are refused when the model changed after the last calculation.
• Conventions are stated: bar forces are in local axes and a positive axial force is compression, as in Robot; the largest moment is the largest at the sampled points, not an exact peak.

When there is no ready action: code against the Robot API

Robot Structural Analysis has a COM API, RobotOM, and every AEC Pilot action is built on it. When a request needs something no action covers, such as a query across the model or a batch change, the assistant writes a short C# method against RobotOM with execute_robot_code and runs it in Robot.

The assistant is told to prefer the named actions. Code is checked before it runs, file, network, process and registry access is refused, and Settings switches the code tool off.

Setting it up

• Robot Structural Analysis Professional 2024 to 2027. On 2025, install Update 1 or later first.
• AEC Pilot: one installer, free for 14 days, one licence for all eight supported Autodesk applications on the same machine.
• Everything is under Add-Ins → AEC Pilot for Robot, because Robot has no ribbon an add-in can extend.

Pilot Chat docks inside Robot and uses your own API key; its health check finds bars without sections, missing supports and missing load cases. Or start the Connector, open Settings → Setup Guide and connect Claude, ChatGPT / Codex, Cursor or Google Antigravity over MCP in one click; the Robot tools appear under the server name aec-robot.

Connect your AI client · Robot Structural Analysis MCP · All MCP guides · More guides

Limits worth knowing

• Most actions need a model open in Robot, and say so plainly when there is none.
• The load cases it creates are linear static, and bar releases and panels have no ready action.
• A calculation still running after about 18 seconds comes back as a job to check on, instead of being started twice.
• Result listings stop at 1,000 rows per call; the reaction sum still covers every node asked for.

Requests to try

• “Start a new 3D frame: a 6 m IPE 300 beam on two 4 m HEA 200 columns, pinned bases.”
• “Add self-weight to the dead load case and 5 kN/m live load on the beam.”
• “Create a ULS combination 1.35 G + 1.5 Q and run the analysis.”
• “Do the ULS reactions add up to the factored load?”
• “Give me the bending moment along the beam at 11 points.”
• “Which node moves most vertically under the live load?”

Frequently asked questions