--- title: Civil 3D Reviews meta_title: 'Civil 3D Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 305 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Civil 3D works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.4 review_count: 305 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-08' parent_category: name: CAD url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad --- # Civil 3D Reviews **Vendor:** Autodesk **Category:** [Civil Engineering Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/civil-engineering-design) **Average Rating:** 4.4/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 305 ## About Civil 3D Autodesk® Civil 3D® software is a civil engineering design and documentation solution that supports Building Information Modeling (BIM) workflows on civil infrastructure projects, including roads and highways, rail, site development, airports, and water. Civil 3D helps civil infrastructure professionals improve project delivery, reduce risk, errors, and omissions, and respond faster to project changes. Additionally, users can streamline time-consuming tasks such as corridor design, (road and rail), intersection design, parcel layout, site grading, and piping design with specific tools and customizable design standards.  Civil 3D pricing starts at $275.00 per month, per user. Civil 3D does offer a free trial. Flexible subscription options available. Talk to sales at: (818) 797-9909 ## Civil 3D Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users praise the **exceptional design capabilities** of Civil 3D, highlighting its unlimited functions for civil works. (2 reviews) - Users appreciate the **customizable tools** of Civil 3D, enhancing speed and accuracy in civil engineering projects. (2 reviews) - Users value the **versatility** of Civil 3D, leveraging dynamic modeling and precision for accurate construction documentation. (2 reviews) - Users value the **customizable designs and tools** in Civil 3D, enhancing efficiency in civil engineering projects. (1 reviews) - Users value the **road design and feature line modelling functions** of Civil 3D for their efficiency and effectiveness. (1 reviews) - Users value the **precision of geolocation mapping** in Civil 3D, ensuring accurate site positioning for construction projects. (1 reviews) - Intuitive (1 reviews) - Modeling (1 reviews) - Powerful Fun (1 reviews) - Software Power (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users often experience **data loss** issues with Civil 3D, particularly when handling multiple files or large projects. (2 reviews) - Users face **performance issues with large files** in Civil 3D, causing slowdowns and workflow disruptions on less powerful devices. (2 reviews) - Users face **performance issues** with Civil 3D, particularly when working on large projects, causing slowdowns and crashes. (2 reviews) - Users face **slow performance** with Civil 3D, particularly with large files, impacting productivity and work efficiency. (2 reviews) - Users report that **app stability issues** arise when using multiple grading tools, causing Civil 3D to crash frequently. (1 reviews) - Users face **export issues** with Civil 3D, often needing manual copy/paste for data analysis in external software. (1 reviews) - Users find the **high hardware requirements** for Civil 3D challenging, affecting performance and stability during projects. (1 reviews) - Revit Compatibility (1 reviews) - Slow Loading (1 reviews) - Software Instability (1 reviews) ## Civil 3D Reviews ### 1. Civil 3D Review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chad V. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like the ease of use of the tools provided. It makes it very easy to draw shapes, lines, circles. The help option is very useful for executing a command that one maybe unsure of. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The commonality of some of the work spaces. It's very easy to be working and forget what workspace you are in. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Make sure your compute is a 32-bit machine at minimume. It requires a lot to run. Also can be tricky if working between previous versions of Civil 3D to most current version. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ability to draw lines, check asbuilts, track vehicle/aircraft movements. ### 2. Civil 3D **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Graydon S. | Civil Engineering Intern, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like that it enables me to do everything I need quickly. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** It can be clunky at times unfortunately. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am designing site plans and other designs for clients. It helps the workflow go quickly. ### 3. he software's capability to handle complex civil engineering tasks efficiently. It offers a wide range of tools for designing, analyzing, and visualizing infrastructure projects, making it an essential tool for professionals in the field. Additionally, its integration with other Autodesk products enhances its functionality and allows for seamless collaboration across different disciplines. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Julio A R. | Projects Engineer, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** What I like the most about AutoCAD Civil 3D is the approach to projects from topography, earthworks, parceling, spaces for roads, housing, and urbanization pipes, which greatly accelerates project execution times and reduces budget margins close to zero. Everything in this program is excellent. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** There are very few things that I do not like about AutoCAD Civil 3D, among them is the large number of pre-established layers for project execution. However, they are editable, so we must be very attentive to the work being done. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** First, the recommendations I can give to others regarding the use of AutoCAD Civil 3D is to ensure the accuracy of the specifications introduced in the terrain model, because if there are faults in the survey, it will lead to problems in the results of urban project planning. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** problems have been resolved regarding the surface areas of plots in a development for 40 homes, which includes the plots, roads, and sidewalks, in Venezuela. Profiles were also made for the layout of a 72-inch pipeline in a hydroelectric complex in Ecuador. An evaluation of sedimentation in navigation channels in low water rivers was carried out, which affects the dredging of navigable channels. The water drop tool is constantly used to determine water discharge on slopes. ### 4. Make Designing Easier **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 04, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Ease to use , it makes designing work easier and can easily make revision to your plans if you are looking for a great product to use for your surveying / engineering designs this suits for you. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Lock of flexibility to rotate and twist the view easily its hard to navigate and also Maybe the availability of blocks , inserting or finding readily made items can make it more convenient . **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** If you are looking for a better experience in 3D making this not suits your need, but if you attend some training to use this product it may help. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Benefits of this products are to view details in meeting easily and can make plans look more easier. ### 5. Only in the Name: Civil3D **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 22, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** AutoCAD has more superior on annotation function than other major CAD software. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Most of big companies are using it on the cloud and Civil3D is not design for the cloud. It need to be changed. In addition, AutoCAD Help is so not get to the point. For example, Google search is more easier than searching help in AutoCAD Help. It is like going inside of the maze. Autodesk knows what Civil Engineer does (You know the civil engineer's work flow), why CAD Help show how to do Profile, how to do grading, how to do surface, etc... Most importantly, even the professional Civl3D instructors who we hired to train us also lost in the process (steps). **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** We use AutoCAD Civil 3D to design subway train line, tunnel and underground train station. The benefit is Civil 3D get along with Revit which is our Architect use. ### 6. Easy Engineering Program **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I enjoy the functionality of it all. It's easy and simple to understand. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** How many features that are unused. There are too many. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Watch many tutorials on Current updates as Civil 3D is always coming out with new features. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Typically I am using Civil 3D to cleanup issues that surveyors make. Such as incorrect block references. ### 7. AutoCAD is a highly commanded for design and drafting's work **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 20, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I really like the functionality and commands of the software. An usr can improve project performance, maintain consistent data, follow standard processes, and respond faster to change. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Nothing much to say about the dislikes of software **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** I would highly recommend any engineer to use AutoCAD civil 3d software to work on civil, structural design and drafting projects to simplify the work. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** AutoCAD Civil 3D helped us to resolve the civil and structural design and draftings work, mechanical drawings, and structural drawings from complex sketches, notes, layout. ### 8. Not a Fan **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Trey G. | Project Manager, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The grading tool is about it, other than it beat drawing with pencil. I'll never be convinced that C3D is a better product Carlson. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Not enough characters, not much I like about the software. The surfaces are cumbersome and are difficult to use, especially when doing earthwork. No tool to use dview twist easier. No reason to use UCS if in Civil/Survey business except for very special cases. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Look at Carlson, better product and easier to use. If you really use the product to do more than draw lines and circles, honestly think there are better options for civil design and surveying. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** The only benefit is not doing drawings by hand. I'm not at all a fan of Civil 3D and wouldn't use it if company used another software package, ### 9. Autocad Civil 3d - Modern Software for modern needs **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Environmental Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I love that autocad civil 3d has a very intuitive and easy to use design, all while appearing very modern. Some other softwares look outdated and are not nearly as intuitive. I also really like the compatibility with many different file types and the fact that you can export your drawings to many different file types as well. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I think sometimes civil 3d could make it a little easier to link files with geographic information, as I sometimes have trouble lining up my drawings geographically and it can take some time to figure out where the issues lie. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Make sure that you take advantage of the many online resources that exist to help in guiding you through the software as well as troubleshooting. The various forums often have answers from Autocad engineers and software developers that are up to date with the latest software versions. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mapping of natural resources. ### 10. Good product, but a little moody **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 05, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I really like the dynamic objects and the method used for changing styles. The GIS capabilities are excellent. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** This application lacks major development for nearly a decade. It is very difficult to manage from an IT/Support side. Installations are a bear, and the uninstalls are a hot mess. This application does not differentiate Feet from Survey Feet, and mixing units is a disaster. The idea of each file being its own "island" is 3 decades old, and the recent "improvements" to this end are meek. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** This application solves the usual issues of needing to create projects. It's sister application, Infraworks, is showing greater potential to this end. It is obvious that Infraworks gets the development time. ### 11. AutoCAD Civil 3D **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 26, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** A great way of developing civil site designs! It is pretty user friendly and has all the tools needed for design development. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Sometimes crashes for unknown reasons. The commands are not always easy to find if its a new command to use. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am solving design needs with this program. It has helping with timely completions of projects. ### 12. Senior Designer **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 12, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I can create sewer profile after completing sewer plan **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** it is difficult to visualize my design job **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Visualization **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** infrastructural design ### 13. Great program for Civil Design **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Justin R. | Engineer II, Design, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I really like all of the tools to create Civil engineering plans. The dynamic typing of different commands is great. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I wish sometimes it were a little easier to learn because there are so many options. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Take time to get to know the different commands way to accomplish the same goal. Learn from others and their tips and tricks. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** It helps me create Civil Engineering plans for clients. ### 14. I have worked with AutoCAD Civil 3D since 2009, for land surveying functions. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** At first, this software was actually dangerous for land surveyors to use, and the developers heard about it. Autodesk has done a fantastic job of adapting their product to the needs of surveyors and civil engineers so that it is beneficial to both design and survey. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The more automated survey functions become, I fear the less skilled surveyors will become, thus devaluing the profession. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Make sure you have an IT staff that understands it fully and can set up the standard templates to make it work as effectively as possible. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are able to use this software in a way that minimizes 'maptraps' and other forms of error in land survey drafting. That is a great benefit. ### 15. easy to use for the inexperienced CAD user **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 15, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** When I started using Autodesk products 15 years ago, I knew nothing about CAD. It has been easy to use to return to when I take breaks from using the software as well. Updates to make it more compatible with ArcGIS products is a bonus. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I would like a way to easily export all the layers involved in an MXD to their own shapefiles quickly - not just what has been selected or turned on/off, but to easily say "export all lines to shapefiles according to their Layer name. So linework on a Roads layer would be exported to a Roads.shp, etc. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ease in measuring lines and providing a drawing with specific dimensions. ### 16. Highly functional **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joseph A. | Civil Site Designer (EIT), Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 30, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like that you can treat it as a regular CAD with polylines and "dumb" objects but you also have the capability to do pipe networks, surfaces, corridors, intersections, etc... **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** It has not updated much since I started using it and a lot of the same errors are still there. It also has a tendency to crash often when using the smart features. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it mostly for grading a construction site. I love how easy and visually appealing AutoCAD makes it. ### 17. Excellent software, greatley recomended **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The great thing about this software is that you are able to switch between paperspace and modelspace very eisily. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The main problem i have encountered with Civil 3D is that Batch Plot is far too complicated to use. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** For anyone struggling to work out how to use Civil 3D, make good use of all the online training provided. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** In Civil 3D it is really easy to add multiple x-ref's upon eachother in the same drawing. ### 18. acad c3d 2018 **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 24, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** new and updated tools, love the new stuff **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** it still crashes, this still drives me crazy **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** speed ### 19. Using application for survey tasks **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Rich functionality, features from AutoCAD and AutoCAD Map 3D **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Difficult to find some important tools because there is so many menus, tabs and so on. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** It is powerful tool used for design, documentation, dynamic modelin in area of civil engineering. It has special features to make your design precise with standarts support. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Integration of workflows. ### 20. Very useful **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** It is a helpful tool to show Plan & Profiles in drawings. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** It takes some time to learn the steps and processes to make the Civil 3D functions work. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** The product creates great profiles if you know how to use it properly. It is a great tool for checking storm pipes and drainage calculations. It is most helpful when you have someone that knows the program to help explain the functions to you. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is an extra check to make sure Storm Pipes are placed properly and have adequate drainage. ### 21. Civil 3D review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 08, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like the ease of editing a pipe network and not having to edit my sections or profiles **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Not having older saved drawings be compatible when open with a newer version **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Take the time to use the tutorials and learn all that the software can do. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Not having to manually draw profiles and cross sections. ### 22. Civil 3D not for the faint of heart **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Alignments, profiles cross sections all being linked to one another such that a change in one that affects the other is automatically updated **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Styles have so many items and layers associated with them it sometimes makes it hard to modify one of those aspects **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** 1. Expect a learning curve for beginning users 2. Access the many videos and forums online when encountering a problem. They are often very helpful. 3. Don't be afraid of the machine. Push the buttons and find out what it can do. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Design of Airports, Roadways ### 23. President **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Scott G. | President, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 30, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Ability to customize everything with styles. Also can change the user interface and create new commands. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Ability to customize everything takes a long time to learn and implement. I do not think I will ever complete this task. I am always changing or revising something. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** TAKE THE TIME TO LEARN HOW TO CUSTOMIZE **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Create a Record of Survey with all the record and measured dimensions on all Lot lines can create a migraine. With Civil 3D and a lot of up front customization, each Record of Survey is produced is very short order. ### 24. Great, useful product **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Wireless | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The ribbon on top makes it easy to find commands you use often, making productivity quick and easy. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Missing some basic commands, like the ability to update linetypes in a drawing xref when it's changed within the xref. 3D is a bit difficult, compared to Solidworks. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Definitely a useful product for 2D and basic 3D design. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Allows drawings to be created and updated quickly and more efficiently ### 25. Lots of capability **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I use civil 3D a lot to build top surfaces and pipe modeling for engineering design. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** It crashes when surfaces are large. When I sent error reports, I never get feedback from Autodesk. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Civil 3D allows me to see potential conflicts during the design stage of a project and not the construction stage. ### 26. Robust but Buggy **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Alex F. | Civil Engineering/Drafting Technologist, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 25, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The versatility of the software is fantastic. You can have one file with multiple alignments, grading groups, drawings. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The setup of multiple sheets (pertaining to alignments) is convoluted and very painful. Point clouds are a fantastic addition to the program but when building large surfaces the program thins the data and doesn't use all the points. I don't mind this as using all the points would be taxing on a PC and make a file unusable, my problem is that it does this without telling the user. All that I'd like to see is a little warning triangle pop up on my screen telling me that the surface is large and not all points will be used. Or give me the option to force to use all the points. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Formal training is most definitely required for this product. It has a very steep learning curve which can't be reached without a fair amount of training. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Industry standard for civil engineering. Most of our clients and contractors know Civil3D and we are able to exchange files with little difficulty. ### 27. Short, fast and to the point. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saad S. | Assistant Project Manager, Construction, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 04, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Its best for all trades from Civil, Landscape, MEPs, you name it because it has many different options for users to use. Some of the best options is that it is simple to use and easily to learn. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** What I dislike is that its hard to get family like Revit and have objects that are ready made to place on the drawings. You have to go towards something like Revit which has actually doors and window sizes so you can visualize your building more clearly. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating floor plans for hotels, libraries, and also floor plan for schools. I've realized Civil 3D is not universal but the fact that its under AutoDesk allows it to be compatible with all of AutoDesk other products. That's the beauty of it if you cant get certain things in one software you can get it in another and transfer it. ### 28. civil engineering for contractor **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 27, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** a powerfull all in one program for civil engineering. alignements, grading, corridors **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** pretty heavy to mastering all the function. need minimum a 3 days of training for a minimum knowledge. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** very complete **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** evaluating earthworks ### 29. AutoCAD Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 27, 2018 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** This program has many application and can easily learned. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Using shortcuts are necessary to more quickly on a project and these can be tidious to learn. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** It’s capability to design complete structures. ### 30. AutoCAD for Civil **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Architecture & Planning | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 05, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The ease of manipulation and customization. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** No warning when a referenced file has been updated. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** No problems. Just design. ### 31. Road design using Civil3D **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Fernando F. | Transportation Design Technician, Government Administration, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 08, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like the fact that Civil 3D is constantly updating and bringing new tools and capabilities. It's used world wide and their user base is huge. It has a great variety of tools to get your job done. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I still dislike a bit the corridor modelling. I think it's still a bit rigid. You need an alignment, a profile and an assembly to create a corridor but after built, I'd like to see more flexibility in individual corridor feature lines manipulation and fine tunning. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Worldwide used. Almost an industry standard. Lots of training and support available. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I work for a municipality and we are constantly challenged to creat cost-effective designs in constraint locations. Civil 3D has helped me achieving such designs. ### 32. Best of both worlds **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 23, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Civil 3D is able to model civil designs very efficiently. We use it to show variance reports on where grade is designed and how it is actually installed in the field. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The interface can be tough to find specific settings. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Variance drawings of what is installed in the field vs what’s installed ### 33. IMMERSED IN CIVIL 3D **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like the versatility of the product and I'm always learning after even 19 years working here. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I dislike others' inability to see the grasp the software's abilities. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Learn all you can from as many sources as possible. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Using this software I help solve land development survey of engineering problems. Civil 3d produces objects that are interactive with each other. A change in one can project through to another. ### 34. A great all around civil design platform. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 10, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Dynamic civil features for site grading. Dynamic labels that auto update with change in design. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Files with multiple roadway corridors and multiple data shortcuts are become susceptible to crashing, even when corridors are set to not automatically process. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Processing speeds and crashing. Projectwise compatibility. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Roadway design and site design for local and national clients. ### 35. Civil engineer **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 01, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Its dynamic features and utility design. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** sometimes there is a lack of control by the designer when civil 3d uses its own rules to design certain things. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** earth take-offs. Civil 3d makes this process much easier and automatically updates as you change things in your layout. ### 36. Powerful, but Complicated **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** This program is very powerful and is great for numerous applications. I use it to create building plans and topographic surveys, as well as to perform various calculations in a more timely manner than calculating by hand. An example would be the calculation of volume between the existing topography of a site and the designed topography. The detail that creating a surface can get into is quite extensive, which makes it powerful, but also makes it difficult and time-consuming to troubleshoot errors. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** My issue with this program is that it can be very complicated to figure out and often times is slow. It needs to be reworked for usability, intuitiveness, and efficiency. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Get Microstation, much easier workflow. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use it to create building plans and topographic surveys, as well as to perform various calculations. Often times, it is significanty more efficient than calculating by hand. ### 37. Powerful Program for All Civil Projects **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mining & Metals | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I appreciate the tools they've provided to easily change and adjust alignments and profiles. Once you figure out the styles for one feature, many of the other features will feel similar. I also enjoyed working with surface tools and adjusting existing surfaces is a lot easier. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I do wish they fix some of the crashing issues in the program. Sometimes the drawing can get really bogged down by blocks and Civil3D has no tools to pinpoint these troublesome blocks/shapes/features. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am currently involved in designing roads and civil3d makes adjusting the alignment and corridor extremely simple and intuitive. ### 38. AutoCad Civil 3D for Site Design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Environmental Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Quick left hand shortcuts, intuitive user interface, added features of drawing surfaces, corridors, pipe systems, etc. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Slow processing times when using large files **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Civil site design. Drafting, modeling, calcs ### 39. Powerful design/CAD software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Eric D. | CAD Manager, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 02, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** C3D has powerful features and tools to be used for design and CAD production. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Everything is driven by styles, so it takes a long time to dig in deep to get the content and data to display correctly. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Create design/engineering content ### 40. Bread-and-Butter for Transportation Engineering **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jake P. | Traffic Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 31, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** For most civil engineering projects, AutoCAD Civil 3D is a number one choice for alignment design, corridor modeling, quantity calculation, sheet plotting, and many more. I have not lived the days when drafting was done by hand, and I almost take for granted how easy and money-saving this software is for engineers. The recent version of the software has had positive improvements such as highlighting objects as you hover over them, showing dimensions of the objects when you lock into the pick box, etc. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The software itself and the file can be very large in size, so it may get unstable and crash at times. Civil 3D has become better at saving the latest copy of the working file in the event of a crash, but still can improve more. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** If you are in this business, there is no other software that matches this capability. Even if you are not in this line of work but curious about drafting and 3D modeling, this is a great software to try out. With some online tutorials, you can learn this software quickly. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** As an engineering consultant, I provide engineering services and solutions for my clients in both private and public sectors. I use Civil 3D for the entirety of the roadway design projects. It is one of the few programs that I always have turned on when I am working. This software literally makes my work possible. ### 41. AutoCAD Civil 3D an essential tool **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** John K. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 31, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Dynamics this is the main reason, everything is in real time, so you make a slight or a large change, everything is updated. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** There are a few things, but which software doesn't. have a down side. If I had one to choose, it would be stability issues that tend to be the biggest and this changes with every new version that comes out. I think AutoDesk needs to concentrate on these types of issues and have fewer new releases. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Setting, styles and implementation, and of course having someone keeping it updated with the current installs. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Saving time is the number one thing, able to make changes are a lot less effortless. ### 42. I have more then 7 years experience in Cad. **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The speed of commands that the keyboard has, and how you can customize them. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I dislike how non-integrated some windows are when you get one option, you have to go through 3 more windows before you get to the final option that you wanted. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** There are numerous platforms for Cad, Civil 3D is a more advanced version that may be overkill **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Civil planning. The integrated abilities between one user and another. ### 43. AutoCAD Civil 3D Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2017 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The ability to see the real world in a computer program and be able to manage it in a way that makes the most sense. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Can be tricky and there are countless buttons and tricks to use. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solving land development issues through stormwater, utilities, and permitting. AutoCAD is very helpful in the 3D realm of grading and pipes. ### 44. Used for earthworks quantity take offs foundations **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ruiqing (Ray) P. | Engineer - Kiewit Energy Canada, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** The ability to represent foundations and excavations on topographical drawings allows a great ability to accurately quantify the necessary quantities for construction. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The program is a little obtuse without very detailed and specific training. Very difficult to "get up and go" **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Make sure that your organization implements a robust training program for the end users of the software. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** The tool is used to accurately perform foundation and excavation take offs. It allows for easier visualization for the work which allows for better execution planning. ### 45. Constant Fatal Error **Rating:** 1.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Michal K. | Technician, Design, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 03, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Its cheaper than Bentley equivalent. Its very complex and dynamic tool. I like integrity with AutoCAD. You can easily use CAD environment within Civil without additional hassle. In latest version I like ribbon the best. However i got use to type in commands - it's much quicker this way. Its a great tool to work on different aspects of civil design. From surfaces to cross sections - easily manage any sort of sketch out of it. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Due to its dynamic nature it also has a lot of flaws. Fatal Error is very common. I can't say for sure for latest versions, but it was the main reason I never considered picking it up as a main tool and went with Bentley instead, BUT! now with Openroads it will be very similar workflow and I think it might be step back for Inroads in future design thus making Civil more likely pick in a market again. I really don'r like when after an error pops out most of the recent work is probably lost in like 50% of cases. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** For large scale design consider dividing it to manageable chunks. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's hard to describe problem solving where this software wasn't picked because exactly of that it gave us additional problems to solve. Sometimes errors were appearing in exactly the same spots and it was impossible to move on rather than make things in CAD. We have the software installed optionally, so we can operate on imported files. ### 46. Civil 3D is essential to landscape architects **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jared P. | Wellness Coach, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 28, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Surface creation and earthwork estimation. It's a broad toolkit to design and plan landscapes. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Immense and hidden tool sets. Takes time to navigate. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Great started product to model site work and civil design. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Land planning and landscape architecture/design. We have leveraged time saving benefits by being able to block common landscape features like soccer fields. ### 47. Absolutely love the efficiency of the tools within Civil 3D **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aaron P. | Senior Technical Specialist, Computer Software, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 03, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Civil 3D is by far the most efficient and productive civil engineering and land surveying software available. With its ability to update 3D objects once one of its counterparts are revised, makes life a lot easier. For example if a roadway alignment changes, the user can make the alterations to the alignment and its profile, corridor and any other associated 3D object will adjust a well. Even the annotation! The “Field to Finish” survey feature is a time savers as well. Once you have the survey data base setup, you can import your field points and the program draws the line work for you using survey figures. The survey figures can be used as line work in your drawing and break lines for your surface. I could go on and on about all the great productive and time saving feature included in Civil 3D. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** As much as I love Civil 3D there are always improvements to be made. Creating custom subassemblies can be overwhelming and the initial setup of styles and templates does take some time. Pipe Networks and Pressure Pipe Networks are constraining. The generic parts and pipes that come with the program are not always what the local agency or client are looking for. There are work arounds though. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Commit to it and you will never look back. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** As-built drawings are more efficiently created with the dynamic of Civil 3D objects. Time is money and being able to create civil engineering and land survey plans within more than half the time it used to take is a huge benefit. Keep up the great work Autodesk. ### 48. AutoCAD Civil 3D **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jeremy J. | Cad Operator, Civil Engineering, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Corridor Modeling is among the top on my list. It is very intuitive and fairly easy to debug. The dynamic abilities between corridors and displaying cross sections makes for clean construction documents without a massive headache of having to label everything. It generates a surface for you that does not require very much maintenance. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** Pipe networks are finicky. There a whole bunch of issues associated with Pipe Networks that starts with displaying pipes in profiles. It is not the most intuitive and changing pipe slopes is a long difficult process. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** There is lag time with doing certain functions so a strong processor should be sought after to handle the work load for Civil 3D. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are solving business problems associated with plan review and approval. The tools we have with Civil 3D allow for shorter analyst time charged to projects while maintaining the consistency across construction plans. The result is shorter reviews and expedited construction. ### 49. Excellent, full-featured civil engineering software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** KaDe K. | Senior Technical Specialist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** Civil 3D's annotation and labeling tools are the best in the industry! Additionally, the relationships that are automatically built between the various object types (surfaces, alignments, pipes, corridors, cross sections, etc...) significantly reduce the amount of work needed to create a plan set. It is relatively easy to transition AutoCAD users to Civil 3D since it is built on the AutoCAD platform. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** The eTransmit tool needs to be updated for use with Civil 3D, it doesn't always handle data shortcuts and files with issues properly. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** I recommend hands-on training with the software, along with an expert mentor working with your employee on specific project needs as you ramp up. I also recommend that you have at least two people in your organization that can "manage" the implementation of the software, including managing the Civil 3D styles and template. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Civil 3D reduces the amount of time needed for drafting and design on Civil Engineering projects. The amount of time needed on design iterations is drastically reduced. ### 50. Cadd Manager C3D review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jason H. | CAD Manager, Management Consulting, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2016 **What do you like best about Civil 3D?** I like the dynamic abilities of the software. Everything is linked and if one object changes everything associated to that object updates as well. The Flexibility of to have so many people working on a project at the same time. I like that it is incorporated into AutoCAD. **What do you dislike about Civil 3D?** I don't like that it is a graphics, memory and processor hog. If you have a larger drawing it can boy down the machine. Autodesk 360 interferes with some of our networking software. I has a steep learning curve even if you have used Land development Desktop for years. It take time to lean how to set it up to use the software efficiently. **Recommendations to others considering Civil 3D:** Use an outside consultant for the transition. Follow the recommendations as much as possible. Leaning the tools, and having training guides on hand helps. Practice, Practice, Practice. Only use the tools necessary to get the job done. Some of the tools can be overkill for smaller projects. **What problems is Civil 3D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Keeping files sizes down and separating things civil 3d objects into smaller chunks of data utilizing more external references and data shortcuts. We are working on our drawing structure and file management. The smaller the drawing size the better the software works. ## Civil 3D Discussions - [how to get civil 3d software training?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/47606-how-to-get-civil-3d-software-training) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Filter the tiles of LiDAR](https://www.g2.com/discussions/filter-the-tiles-of-lidar) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What is Civil 3D used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/civil-3d-what-is-civil-3d-used-for) - 1 comment - [Is Civil 3d free for students?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-civil-3d-free-for-students) - 2 comments - [Is Civil 3d a BIM?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-civil-3d-a-bim) - 2 comments - [View Civil 3D pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/civil-3d/reviews?page=5§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-08+20%3A20%3A55+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=a15297a5-21ab-45ac-a8f7-fe247df60164&secure%5Btoken%5D=0142c657fda294c1e638be1983838ce2dd0f27944e97891c0d0ed4b5dd11ebeb&format=llm_user) ## Civil 3D Integrations - [AutoCAD](https://www.g2.com/products/autocad/reviews) - [Bluebeam](https://www.g2.com/products/bluebeam/reviews) - [GeoHECHMS](https://www.g2.com/products/geohechms/reviews) - [GeoHECRAS](https://www.g2.com/products/geohecras/reviews) - [Revit](https://www.g2.com/products/revit/reviews) ## Civil 3D Features **Design** - Visualizing - Rendering - Drawing - Editing - Dynamic Updating **Plan** - Documentation - Annotate - Collaborate **Collaboration** - Multi User - File Import/Export - Annotating - Secure Data Storage **Design** - 3D Modeling - 3D Rendering - Drawing - Editing **Construction** - Grading - Earthwork - CAD Tools - Collaboration Tools **Construction** - Grading - Earthwork **Engineering** - Hydraulic engineering - Hydrologic engineering - Transportation engineering **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization - AI Text-to-3D - Generative AI **Additional Functionality** - Mechanical - Process Control - Access Controls/Permissions - Product Data Management - Configurable Workflow - Manufacturing Design Data - Collaboration Tools - 3D Imaging - Data Import/Export - Civil - Customizable Fields - Data Capture and Transfer - Design Management - Version Control - Presentation Tools - Configuration Management - Document Generation - Compliance Management - Change Management - Electrical - Mechatronics - Project Management - AI Copilot - Design Analysis - CAD Tools - Document Management - Bills of Material - Generative AI - Visual Analytics - Data Visualization - File Management - Reporting/Analytics - Project Templates - Content Library **Common Data Environment (CDE) - Building Design and Building Information Modeling** - Role-Based Access - Centralized Data Management - Change Management - Subcontractor Management - Project Management - Task Management - Bid Management - Workflow Management - Offline Access - Mobile Access - Contract/License Management **Cost Estimation - Building Design and Building Information Modeling** - Lifecycle Cost Tracking - Quantity Takeoff & Cost Estimation - Issue Tracking - Conflict Tracking - Project Tracking **Electrical & Circuit Design - Building Design and Building Information Modeling** - Clash Detection - Electrical System Modeling - MEP Coordination - Load Calculation & Analysis - Interoperability with BIM & CAD - Circuit Design Integration - Third-Party Integrations - Design Modeling **Additional Functionality** - Access Controls/Permissions - Scheduling - Audit Trail - Search/Filter - AI Copilot - Customizable Templates - API - For AEC Industry - Project Accounting - Version Control - Activity Dashboard - Estimating - Reporting & Statistics - Real-Time Updates - Real-Time Notifications - Data Visualization - 3D Imaging ## Top Civil 3D Alternatives - [SketchUp](https://www.g2.com/products/sketchup/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,299 reviews) - [MicroStation](https://www.g2.com/products/microstation/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (407 reviews) - [Archicad](https://www.g2.com/products/archicad/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (287 reviews)