Introduction
Avontus Viewer connects Claude to the scaffold designs in your Avontus Viewer account, so you can get answers from the design itself before the crew starts loading: labor estimates from your own Schedule of Norms, bills of materials, weights, parts by elevation, scaffold units, and a rendered preview of any design, without opening the Viewer app.
There is nothing to download or install. All you do is connect to Avontus Viewer via the Connections tab in Claude. Once signed in you can start asking Claude questions about your designs.
Before you start
Before you start, you will need:
An Avontus Viewer account - the same email and password you use to sign in to Avontus Viewer. You do not need a new account.
An active subscription - Every design this connector reads is either yours or shared with you, and both require a live subscription — see Subscriptions.
A Claude account on Claude.ai, Claude desktop or the Claude mobile app.
In Claude, you will enter two values. Both are the same for every customer — there is nothing account-specific here, and are not unique to the customer.
Connect from the Claude directory (recommended)
Avontus Viewer has been added to the Claude connector directory. This means it can easily be added to your Claude AI.
To do this:
Select Customize
Select Connectors
Select Discover
In the Search bar, search for Avontus Viewer
Select the Avontus Viewer Connector
Click Connect to Claude
Sign in with your Avontus Viewer account
You will be connected to Avontus Viewer.
To use Claude in a conversation, click the + button, choose Connectors, and switch on Avontus Viewer.
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You will also need to ensure Always Allow is set for the Avontus Viewer Connector.
If you are already signed in
If you signed in to Avontus recently, the sign-in page shows you're signed in as with your account. Choose Continue to use that account, or Use a different account to sign in as someone else.
Add the Avontus Viewer skills (optional)
The Avontus Viewer plugin adds skills that help Claude estimate labor with your own Schedule of Norms and present design data consistently. The connector works without them.
- Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add avontus/avontus-ai-scaffold-connect
/plugin install avontus-viewer@avontus-ai-scaffold-connect
- claude.ai and Claude Desktop: the plugin will be available from the Claude directory. Organization Owners can also add it for their whole organization.
Testing Claude
Once connected, ask Claude things like:
List my Avontus Viewer models and tell me which one is the heaviest.
Give me the bill of materials for my Warehouse North scaffold, grouped by part type, and total weight.
How many standards and ledgers are in my Tank 4 model, and what's the working surface area?
Compare the part counts of my last two iterations of the same model and tell me what changed.
Sort the bill of materials for my pipe rack scaffold by elevation, bottom to top, then split it into 10,000 lb truckloads
Troubleshooting
Sign-in fails right after clicking Connect.
The most common cause is a missing or mistyped OAuth Client ID. Open the connector's settings and confirm Advanced settings → OAuth Client ID reads exactly “viewer-connector”, with the Client Secret empty. Without it, Claude has no way to identify itself and the sign-in is rejected.
Sign in failed or the wrong models appear.
Confirm you signed in with the same Avontus Viewer account that owns the models. Disconnect and reconnect the connector to sign in again.
Claude says it can't find a model.
Ask it to list your models first — model names in Claude match the names in Avontus Viewer exactly.
Metrics are unavailable for an older model.
Models exported by older versions of Avontus Designer don't carry metrics data. Bills of materials still work. Re-exporting the model from a current version of Designer adds metrics.
Claude says a subscription has expired.
For your own models, your Avontus subscription must be active. For a model someone shared with you, the owner’s subscription must be active. Claude names the model’s owner so you know who to ask.
The connector doesn't appear in a conversation.
Enable Claude per conversation via the + button → Connectors.
The connector icon looks wrong or generic.
Cosmetic only, and it does not affect the connection. Claude derives connector icons from cached data and refreshes them on its own schedule.
Support
Questions or problems: contact Avontus support at support@avontus.com.