This paper presents three-dimensional finite element simulations of wooden structures using metal connections that employ an elastic-plastic damage model in order to simulate the nonlinear behaviour of wood. The wood constitutive law relies upon orthotropic material parameters, associated plasticity and continuum damage mechanics (CDM) to take into account the following properties of wood : anisotropy, brittle failure in tension, plasticity and ductile failure in compression. The model used in this paper is implemented as a user subroutine of the finite element software ZSoil. Experimental uniaxial compression tests on small wood samples are utilized to conduct a calibration of the material parameters. This calibration is performed by generating a Polynomial Chaos Expansion surrogate model of the true finite-element model, which is then used for a Bayesian inversion on the experimental data from tests on small wood samples. The constitutive model with the calibrated material parameters is then used to numerically reproduce experimental tests on wooden structures. The results demonstrate the model’s capability to reasonably approximate the nonlinear behaviour of wood along with its interaction with metal connections, opening up interesting prospects for engineers to better understand and optimise wooden structures.