I had the same ('IBPlatformToolFailureException', reason: 'The tool closed the connection (AssetCatalogSimulatorAgent)).
The cause was an SVG I had created in Sketch. It was a simple shape with a fill and an inner shadow.
I removed the inner shadow, re-exported the SVG, and re-added the SVG to my asset catalog, and the app now builds.
As @benjamin_g mentioned, other effects (gaussian filter) in SVGs might trigger this build error as well.