# OpenRoads Designer Reviews **Vendor:** Bentley Systems **Category:** [Civil Engineering Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/civil-engineering-design) **Average Rating:** 4.1/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 139 ## About OpenRoads Designer OpenRoads Designer CONNECT Edition, the successor to Bentley’s industry leading civil engineering brands InRoads, GEOPAK, MX, and PowerCivil, is a truly innovative design application, built to address the demands of today’s evolving infrastructure industry. By blending traditional engineering workflows for plan, profile, and cross-sections with 3D parametric modeling, OpenRoads Designer enables the model-centric creation of all your design deliverables. This application supports all aspects of a detailed roadway design including survey, geotechnical, drainage, subsurface utilities, corridor modeling, analysis, and quantification. It is a comprehensive, multi-discipline 3D modeling application that advances the delivery of roadway projects from conceptual design through construction. OpenRoads Designer provides the latest technology and tools you need to efficiently design, model, and produce project deliverables in a dynamic, interactive, and parametrically enabled environment. ## OpenRoads Designer Reviews ### 1. open road designer **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Environmental Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 01, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** lots of manual work can be eliminated if we know how to use it. very helpful if learned the right way. but challenging to learn, Compatible with other advanced versions **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** not easy to learn. Many steps to remember. easily forgotten if we don't stay in touch with it. some videos are available from the supplier but not always helpful. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** learning on own is not a good option, some experience trainer will be required to understand the software and staying in touch is important at the same time. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** drawing cross sections for roadways, vertical, horizontal geometry of the road like profiles and alignment. ### 2. Great for Visualization and Designing **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rohit G. | Consultatb, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 20, 2025 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** I like how reference work very well and reference work out in designing as well as automatically updates all the other dependents. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The main issue is opening the models while working with PW and every time model tries find the reference which does not exist **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves designing tasks when there is very tight design need to be given during those references becomes the basis of information. ### 3. OpenRoads Designer for Transportation Plans **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kevin G. | Transportation Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 07, 2025 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** You can do everything related to transportation **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Sometimes you want to do easy things and it’s complex always **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I do plans in my job and this is the best toom ### 4. This is the most interactive and visual too I have ever used to model roading projects. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Melissa N. | Lead Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 19, 2025 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The capability to have such a visual representation of your 3D view whilst modelling as well as the continued improvements with every version. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Named boundaries not being editable and sheets not updating automatically when doing drawing production. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** My job is to design roads and highways, and that is exactly what this software enables me to do. ### 5. OpenRoads Designer accelerates the development of BIM models. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mike M. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 17, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** OpenRoads Designer provides an efficient solution for delevoping 3D models. Project elements are automatically created in a 3D world on the fly as you work. Giving you the ability to pull together all project elements (roadway, structures, drainage networks, and utilities) into one location. These detailed 3D models of a project allow for users of all levels of experience to visually review a project for issues and omissions. Civil cells allow for duplication of reduntant design elements, such as entrances and pedestrian ramps. Item Types can be used to add addition meta data , including bid item descriptions, specification notes, ect to elements in the model. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** OpenRoads Designer software version are not compatable with each other. Requiring updated resources for each major upgrade. This also creates the need to upgrade long term projects or requires running multiple version of OpenRoads at the same time. Plans production capabilities are still a struggle, but developement of needed resources and capabilities is continually improving. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** delivering 3D elements and data that can be used downstream in estimating, construction, and asset management. ### 6. Openroads - One of the finest Highways Modelling Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shivam G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 16, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The interactive work process, style sets, and Modelling features make the openroads a great Highways design software in the market. Moreover, it has one of the greatest interfaces for handling the point cloud data. You can create very complex models with the help of openroads interfaces very easily. Its interface and BIM Based design tools are the best as compared to other software in the industry. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The area of improvement would be - Process to update the seed file configurations once the design is already carried out either by referencing the properties of the desired seed files. as of now, we need to redesign the model. - In surface creation, on the link is broken, there should be an option to redevelop the link. So, surface is dynamic. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Openroads is helping me as a software to design the Highways and getting the desired outputs for project delivery ### 7. Best software for large roadway projects **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kevin P. | Transportation Project Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 07, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Faster and more stable modeling than SS10. Training guides and online resources are readily available. Client understands the software and works with the consultants to output uniform designs and plan sets. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** As a user we are tied down to a client's workspace. Sometimes bugs come from the customization of the workspace and there is usually a lag behind when Bentley releases a workspace update and when we recieve the latest build from our client. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fast template modeling allows us to make quick design decisions that help projects be successful. ### 8. OpenRoads Designer Backend CAD/BIM Implantation of Standards **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stephen M. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 23, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Openroads Designer makes administraing and applying both roadway design standards and basic CAD/BIM Standards easy with their back end administion and workspaces. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Bugs and undocumnted changes account for a large part of my dislike of the application. The Training site despriately needs to be updated so users can quickly learn relevant content. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** OpenRoads Designer allows users to share 3D Models access different discplines easily using the same file format, DGN. It allows everyone to easily use the same set of CAD Standards using their centerlized Workspace either on ProjectWise or Locally. ### 9. OpenRoads Designer BIM Progression **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Lee B. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 18, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Bentley continues to add enhancements to the software that assist with interaction of other software platforms, thereby streamlining the process, reducing/eliminating errors and improve the sharing of information. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Some of the software operabiity are not yet fully integrated and require some gymnastics to make sort of work **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** ORD is solving the sharing of data and conveying design intent across all phases of assets. This ability allows designers to convey important information that was lost on traditional 2d plans. Contractors are able to supplement asset information in construction. The client can utilize all this rich data for O&M and scheduling projects. ### 10. Great for Linear Corridors **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Peter F. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2024 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The flexability of the Corridor Model for linear models. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Inability to wireframe model ADA ramps easily. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The ability to 3D model Roadways. ### 11. Best tool for model-based delivery.... **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mubashir V. | Senior Highway Designer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** OpenRoads Designer is a powerful tool for road and infrastructure design projects. If someone is looking for model-based delivery, it’s the best tool available in the market for civil design projects. Its dynamic features and the capability to verify template functionality before placement in the corridor save a ton of time. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Needs following Improvements, • There is no option for stacked profiles. • It can be a little challenging for new users to comprehend and adjust workspace folders and configuration. • The tools for producing drawings and designing utilities are not yet developed enough; it will take a lot of work to get them up to the level of legacy products. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** As design progresses, it will offer a three-dimensional representation of the design that helps to address early design faults. ### 12. One of the best Road Design and Modelling Software Packages in the market **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Razmik A. | Highways Engineer, Civil Engineering, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 07, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** I have been using OpenRoads Designer and OpenRoads technology for over six years. What I liked and have learned to appreciate in OpenRoads Designer is the tidy and user-friendly interface. Additionally, I have realised over the years that it is essential to use a reliable design application with powerful 3D corridor modelling capabilities. OpenRoads Designer ticks this box and offers enhanced design functionalities such as the civil cells. The civil cells are essentially graphical macros that can significantly reduce the design/modelling time of repetitive elements within a project. Combined with the added functionalities of Generative Component (an associative and parametric modelling system), OpenRoads Designer is one of the best BIM-compliant design packages. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** It would have been very beneficial if Bentley could provide comprehensive workspaces for each market. The workspace is essentially Bentley's way of managing the design standards and settings. Unfortunately, this is one of the main reasons that hold Openroads Designer back from being widely adopted. Another thing that the potential users need to keep in mind is that even though OpenRoads Designer does now include drawing production functionalities, these might be found a bit too rigid and inflexible, and they require a substantial effort to be set up properly. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The main strength of OpenRoads Designer is its superior modelling capabilities. Surface templates and civil cells can reduce the effort and time needed to accomplish a task. It offers better design control than other design packages, which is essential for detail-design projects. Additionally, OpenRoads Designer offers a solid and effective inherent solution for the asset tagging of the BIM models (ie Item Types). ### 13. Bentley OpenRoads review by longtime InRoads user and OpenRoads Premier Scholar **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Glenn B. | Transportation Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 11, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The ability to coordinate with multiple projects and disciplines streamlines design and minimizes errors due to both communication inefficiency, and presentation or visualization. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** While the capabilities of the program are vast some of the previous user interface used to create project record documents is more cumbersome and menu tree dependent in ORD. Changes created specific to drawings cannot be easily migrated t the workspace for universal use in other files. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Project collaboration and the ability to group teams remotely to provide design in real time provides opportunities across multiple office locations. ### 14. OpenRoads is Excellent Software for Modeling and Collaboration Across Design Teams **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Thad L. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 06, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The ability to work in real-time seamlessly with multiple disciplines across the country and/or world dramatically increases the quality of the resulting design. It creates an efficiency that can't be replicated. Excellent modeling software!!!! **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** I find the frustrating thing about OpenRoads is the difficulty in developing functional workspaces. The software provides fantastic flexibility to leverage model/civil information in plan production, but in the US, having multiple workspace requirements is a considerable challenge as these workspaces are complex and can't easily be spun up for specific project requirements. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Collaboration between different disciplines (structural, highway, utility and drainage) all working on the same platform with the ability to extract actual design data in real-time is remarkable. ### 15. ORD at its Best in Modelling **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** chethan M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 02, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The tools which Bentley offering/develops in ORD is giving lot of efficiency improvements in day-to-day design jobs. The design Intent tool within ORD is excellent and this will be Highway Designer's favorite tool in the coming days. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Sometime Model Crash and Slowness will lead to delay in submissions and causing efficiency. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Visualization of our designs and Inbuilt standards is helping users a lot. ### 16. Professional Highway Engineer with 5yrs of User Experience **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Trevor L. | Highway Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 29, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** OpenRoads Designer is the leading 3D modeling software solution for civil infrastructure worldwide. The power of designing highways in 3D with such a robust scheme in a user-friendly fashion makes OpenRoads Designer an invaluable tool in every roadway engineer's toolbox. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** There are elements of the program when it comes to plan production that are still lacking and in need of further development. The other difficulty DOT's and transportation agencies face is formatting their workspace in such a way to extract the greatest value out of the product and leverage all the available potential. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** OpenRoads Designer affords me as a Civil Engineer the ability to diagnose complex problems and answer in-depth questions by modeling a highway, for example, and looking at it in 4 dimensions - plan, profile, cross-section, 3D - simultaneously. I can use tools like Utility Clash Detection to determine if my 3D corridor model is within an acceptable tolerance of a subsurface utility that can also be modeled in 3D using the tools provided by Microstation CONNECT to create 3D nodes and conduits. When deadlines are looming and effective, informed decisions need to be made. ORD offers the tools necessary to make those sort of calls. Bentley is paving the way with ORD and i-model to equip engineering firms the means for delivering 3D Digital Models as a contract deliverable in lieu of paper plans and PDFs. ### 17. OpenRoads Designer opens new doors for design **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christopher D. | Project Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 14, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The best part of OpenRoads Designer is the ability to see the 3d model develop on the fly. It gives you a clear picture of the design and allows the user to see and fix any potential issues as they arise. ORD also makes intersection modeling a breeze. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The sheet production is still a work in progress. The corruption of a corridor file requires the model to be rebuilt most of the time, so backups of all files are essential. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** OpenRoads Designer is helping provide the client and public with a clearer picture of what is being built, which leads to better feedback from everyone involved. ### 18. Super Time and Effort saver **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** I have liked the design and code checks process since both took at most an hour. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** I have disliked the terrain file application and superelevation application , the reason is not caused by the programme application , it is caused by some bugs whie working on it. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am so glad to use this programme since I have previously used AutoCAD for designing a roadway and its facilities. I have met with the OpenRoads which makes my process super time saving and reduces my effort on it. There is also code checking system for a road speed consideration for a code such as AASHTO. ### 19. User friendly **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Suranjith H. | Design Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The interface is good and easy to learn, even for a new user. As a highway design engineer, I could easily track the methods of creating alignments etc. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Ability to use with other industrial software is somewhat difficult. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used it to design road alignments (horizontal alignment, vertical alignment) ### 20. A good software to design **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The professional way to design an accurate alignment and set its styles. Automatic drawing generation is also quite helpful for the professional use. Hopeint for better things in future. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Sometimes when you are working on the designing of big alignments amd it's profiles. The software sometimes becomes too slow and sometimes file corrupts as well. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The automation of the deisgning which is not that much good in other software is really a benefiting part of this software. It's helps alot in the big projects. ### 21. Quick and Accurate Quantity Calculations **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Transportation/Trucking/Railroad | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 24, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The 3D components created from corridor modelling make calculating quantities a breeze. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Processing speed for larger projects could be improved **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fast, accurate roadway design ### 22. Civil Engineer **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** H. Oğulcan E. | Civil Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 20, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Its interface and BIM Based design tools are the best. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The software sometimes gets closed suddenly. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can design my geometry by using design intent of the software, and when I revise my design, geometry updates itself according to my design intent. ### 23. A great CAD software that is ever evolving... **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jennifer H. | Senior Lead Consultant - Drainage Designer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 14, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** I like seeing the 3D design of each discipline by attaching the appropriate Reference file to my dgn. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Creating profile sheets for storm drain design is more challenging than it should be. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The Bentley Teams are listening to the users and identifying where to focus their efforts for enhancements! ### 24. Great App **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 23, 2023 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** it is easier than ever to deliver your projects **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** i like it alot and i think they did great with the software **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** it helps me to design and execute and model the projects ### 25. Satisfied ORD User **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ron R. | Senior CADD Technician, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** OpenRoads Designer is going in a great direction. Moving away from many external files that house the data and maintaining the data in the DGN is awesome. The user interface is excellent and the way Bentley maintains the same basic look and feel and familiar tools is very powerful and appreciated. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The tools for subsurface utilities could be improved. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are using ORD to accomplish drainage designs currently. We will be using it for Road design very soon. The benefits are the vast tools available to accomplish our designs and drawing production. Its intuitive, stable, and wonderfully consistent with the positive parts of past versions of Bentley products. ### 26. Update 9 And Still Not Ready For Production **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ray T. | Automation Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 15, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Overall, the corridor design interface is an improvement over InRoads roadway designer. Superelevation editing workflow also showing some progress but still has a way to go. Civil cells are a nice idea. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Where to start? No thought for design iteration Terrible clothoid implementation Focus on groups of data rather than the data itself Difficult to get usable construction data Quick sketches not possible without considerable setup Limited data compatibility between updates All design work done in 2D Huge amount of extraneous data retained Challenging to change constraints **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Take a hard look at it and all of the work required to properly configure it. If possible, stick with V8i SS2 versions (Bentley openly confessed that SS3/4/10 were transition products). Take a thorough look at competitors before committing. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've been working on corridor and interchange design. It's been a nightmare. While InRoads SS2 had its issues, it was mature software that allowed the designer to design rather than worry about how the software worked. With ORD, it's a constant battle working around the software's weaknesses and quirks. Bentley's desire to force its users into ORD led them to abandon InRoads, GeoPak and MX before ORD was ready for widespread production. Bentley treats user requests to restore capabilities of older software as "enhancement" requests. It has been a truly frustrating experience. ### 27. Openroads Designer's failures will make you fail. **Rating:** 0.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ronald N. | Sr. Proj Manager **Reviewed Date:** August 26, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** There is nothing I like about this buggy software. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The failures of OpenRoads Design have caused the loss of money, time, and reputation. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The time debugging has outweighed any benefit. ### 28. Very good tool for highway design and 3D modelling **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pavan E. | Technical Discipline Lead, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 29, 2022 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Its dynamic design and modeling capability. How customization of how the elements are defined and displayed. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** When the models become too heavy it is difficult to work with **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves the time taking lengthy iterations of the design and provides the 3d view of the design helping to find out the design flaws at the design level ### 29. OpenRoads Designer is an amazing, powerful CAD Site-Civil/Roadway Design Platform. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Todd H. | Principal Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 19, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Its dynamic functionality. Real-time updates based on design changes and augmented reality rendering capabilities. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** It is somewhat challenging to learn without investing in some training via Bentley Learn Server, training manuals, or Youtube videos. But well worth the investment! **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is a powerful design tool that allows Civil based CADD Technicians/Designers to increease the level of quality and accuracy that they bring to thier projects, just using the software. ### 30. OpenRoads Designer Review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tejsingh R. | Project Manager and Business Development Lead, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 30, 2020 ### 31. Better in Design Modeling, Poor in Model management and Professional terminology **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** pramod kumar g. | Highway Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 17, 2020 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** I think the designing concept and modeling technique is the best part of openroad designers, such as the concept of civil accudraw (based on civil element) , it saves a lot of manual updating the design contents. The next one is the cross section template module, which is a little bit complicated but it is robust and unique way to fulfill the requirements of various fields modeling work. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The model management, specially when you design the big project. there should be alignment and project based model management concept. Another is the report generation, i do not know what the Bentley sees the advantage of XSLbased report generation, which is very difficult to customize, at least i believe no body is using this one in China. The last one, the software terminology is not using the highway engineering professional words, the people who are controlling the Openroads Designer are not highway engineer. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** The road/highway 3D modeling. we are also able to design the road/highway by using the cnccbim which is based on Openroads Designer, and we make ORD all in one (Design, Reporting, BIM model and digital delivery) by custom development. ### 32. Not yet fully functional. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Philippe G. | Technicien des travaux publics, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** There is persistent relationships between features which makes easy to modify terrain model, see the results and find the best solutions. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Every step must be followed carefully, if one is omited, noting will work a the end. One has to start again from the begining and find the mistake. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** It may be a good project to start working with it to be able to use it later, when it will be fully functional. Meanwhile, I recommend to keep working with the software you use. We start to use OpenRoads Designer more than 2 years ago but it can't replace Power In Roads totally yet. I use OpenRoads for design and it's really helpful, but I need Power InRoads to print sheets. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Civil enginering problems. It was easier to share the results and discuss of alternate solutions. ### 33. Corridor Design **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 07, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** There is a lot to like inside of OpenRoads Designer. Bentley has provided the user with (in my opinion) the best corridor design tools on the market. The ability to test template functionality prior to placing in the corridor saves a great deal of time. Civil Cells are another tool that you will not find in any other platform. With Civil Cells you are able to create repetitive standard task in 2D or 3D and repeat them in seconds and not hours. Accudraw is another gem inside of Microstation. If you are a new user, I would put this on the top of the todo list. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** I am still getting up to speed with the new menu layout. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** So far, I have been able to solve some complex bridge modeling for construction layout and build quite a few machine control models for excavation and paving. ### 34. OpenRoads Designer **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 13, 2021 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Not needing to export geometry features to geometry files. such as gpk or alg file. All geometry information in dgn files is available at any time. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** It lacks some basic plan document functions for example, the ability to place unsuitable earthwork or rock material excitation numbers on the cross-section sheets. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using it to produce roadway construction plan documents. ### 35. Design and Model in a single Platform **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 12, 2020 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** 1. Tools and User Interface similar to another modelling software which i used (Bentley CivilStorm) helped me learn this software much easily 2. Integration with Civil 3D and Microstation 3. Allows working online using ProjectWise 4. Can be used easily to prepare Hydraulic Model, 3D model, 2D model and Drawings simultaneously 5. In built library of Pipes and Structures as per UK standards is of very help while working in UK related projects **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** 1. The files are heavier sometimes 2. Heavier files get crashed too frequently 3. You need a separate hydraulic model license such as civilstorm or Sewercad to carry out the hydraulic model **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** If you are looking for a single platform to Design, model and Prepare drawings, then OpenRoads is the right choice. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1. Hydraulic Modelling of Drainage networks 2. 3D model preparation of Drainage networks 3. 2D model preparation of Drainage networks 4. Drawing preparation of drainage networks ### 36. focus on BIM, Civil and Reality modeling **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Himson C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 17, 2020 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** OpenRoads Designer is useful for a Terrain modeling and relative update, and it is also provide many tools for corridor modification to form a roadway model **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** sometimes it is unstable, then it will be collapsed and due to the workflow of civil modeling is too hard, it is not easy to deal with, and the old user is also feel difficult **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** I hope the software run faster and more stable **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** easy to handle the superelevation and V.C. transition, it save lots of time for user compute the value in excel ### 37. Robust and quick in open raid navigation and design. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Felix O. | Civil Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 01, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** This tool helps in the quick and robust way of introducing the best design since its automated ,gives automatic updates and so reliable. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** I have not experienced any challenge while using this tool and therefore no major dislike. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** I would prefer this tool to other tools in road designing for best work . **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Through project wise it has helped to manage store ,access and monitor project work easily ,it has helped us to streamline and come up with the road through way where no roads could not pass through.it has also helped in coming up with more design ,, ### 38. GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Okindo D. | Civil Engineering Technician, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 30, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** It is quicker hence allows me to do my work faster. Helps connecting people and places through construction of passable roads. Provides a good training platform for newly graduated engineers. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** It is difficult for junior roadway engineers to use it because it is more time consuming and the work flow is not user friendly. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** I highly recommend that GEOPAK civil engineering suite is easy to create horizontal plan,profiles, vertical and cross sectional curves with GEOPAK. It also improves work flow. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Construction of passable roads has helped in saving lives as people get easy access to hospitals. Good roads have led to reduced road accidents. ### 39. Bentley InRoads is a great program for transportation professionals! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 23, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Bentley InRoads is easy to navigate (once you learn how to use it) and is very efficient . There are many tool options in the program which are all extremely user friendly. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** There are still many aspects that need to be updated throughout the InRoads program. In addition, while once you learn how to use InRoads it is very easy to use, it is a difficult program to learn at first. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** I recommend Bentley InRoads to any employee working in highway design! Once you learn the basics of this program you will be able to easily navigate this program! **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bentley InRoads allows me to complete highway and drainage design easily and efficiently! ### 40. It makes a better designing and it reduces the time **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Thadshayeni U. | Thadshayeni Uthayan, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 21, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Design seems to be actual and it can satisfy the clients as well as the designers. It has DGN file and data base requirement is no longer.And many structures such as ponds,junctions and culverts can be modified for a better look. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Not much to be disliked but learning up to required level is necessary for the designs. It should be updated frequently to clear the bugs as well. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Users should have the good knowledge before using the software as the time can be managed through the optimum usage of the tools. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Open Road Designer brings a better look in the designing criteria and it is more common in our firm. And designing with this software is more helpful to identify and sort out the issues arising. The tools bring more convenience for the designing. ### 41. Great potential but still very young **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ryan M. | Cadd Manager / Senior Engineering Tech, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 27, 2017 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** I like that everything is contained within DGN files now. No need for extra database files and it's all property driven. It's designed to build the model as completely and efficiently as possible then the plans are actual views of the model. Everything stays tied together and updated as the design changes. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** It's very new yet and still evolving. There is a lot to learn to be able to use the package effectively. It seems to be developing very slowly with new features being added and old problems not being fixed along the way. Until the DOTs are able to implement using ORD it will not be widely adopted by the consultants. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Being a brand new package I don't think it's fully ready for production yet, but it's a great start and a big improvement over InRoads. If you can get it all setup and learn how it functions it is great to get started in. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I'm just starting to learn ORD and not really using it for production yet. I have used it to create terrain models and it is much more efficient at importing and editing them than InRoads was. ### 42. is a powerful engineering tool and visualize road design. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vallary A. | Civil engineering, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 31, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** It is easy to create bridges junctions on a linear road,it provides quick and stable road design. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** I have never realised any problem when using open roads designer and therefore no dislike. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Since it reduces burden of accuracy and visualization in roads design,i would advice other engineering firm to implement the use of open roads designer. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Am trying to reduce the burden for the accuracy and visualization of open roads design. ### 43. Geopak civil engineering suite is fast and reliable civil tool in road design. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bob J. | Civil Engineer, Construction, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 31, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Geopak civil engineering suite is more reliable cost effective and readily helps design roads on lakes oceans and sea. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** For the last three years in use ,I have never experienced any problem with it and so no dislike. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** I would like to implement this for other engineering firms for quick and best road outlook design. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** How to come up with the best road design in lakes and oceans . ### 44. Best drawing tools. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mary N. | Site Engineer, Construction, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Quality drawing tools, easy to edit drawing plan. Effective.file sharing. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** No dislike nor weakness we have come across so far. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Vital to all levels civil engineering. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Has expanded structural engineering competency. ### 45. I've been in GEOPAK Civil Engineering Suite for more than five times. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 23, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** It helps to improve transport of persons and goods through the construction of roads and bridges. It improves trading activities through construction of passable roads. It provides job opportunities to engineers and a nice training platform for the graduates at attachments. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Its operations are time consuming. In case of carelessness it may cause accidents.e.g poor construction of roads and bridges. Use of technology limits the number of employees needed thus low chances of getting employment. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** It is so helpful to the modern society. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hiring only the very proffessional engineers to avoid careless construction of our infrastructures. Allowing the very modernized machines and equipments be used to make work more professional and perfect. ### 46. I have used GEOPAK engineering for about five times. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Construction | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 25, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** It helps in improving the transport systems through the construction of good, passable roads. It helps enhance trading activities through the construction of good roads. It helps add aesthetic value to the country, i.e., good roads and bridges beautify the country. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** It operations are time-consuming. Mistakes during these operations may lead to the destruction of human life, for example, poor construction of roads and bridges. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** It's amazing! **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ensuring that only well-tested and proven engineers are provided with jobs to avoid careless mistakes at work. Partnering with interested companies to assist with materials and capital aid. Properly paying our engineers to prevent divided attention and attitudes towards the work assigned. ### 47. Very effective software for road and highways **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 04, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** Easy to use and convenient and cost effective as compared to Civil 3D. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Sometimes hangs and bit slow so cause annoyance and consume time **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Need update on existing software and should be more Robust **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** I mostly work for highways and infrastructure projects, surface and earthwork modelling. ### 48. Highway Designing Software **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 24, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** It offers complete horizontal and vertical alignment of any road viz it is rural,urban like village roads,State,national highways etc. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Does not offer direct commands like AutoCAD,tedious verical alignment. **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helpful in direct designing of roads,gives reports and full pavement design analysis. ### 49. USER FRIENDLY AND EASIER TO WORK ON **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Libu K. | Assistant Engineer, Highways & Drainage,UK, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 26, 2018 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** MX road is a userfriendly design platform which makes work easier and faster. The main advantage is that once you are familiar with it, its quiet easy with the coding and visualization. The outputs can be backed up and saved. Even if the software crashes we can recover it using the codes. Programme sharing is easier and inputs can be transfered as a simple notepad file rather than bulkier inpurts compared to the other softwares. Both Vertical and horizontal allignment designs can be dome more aaccurately and easily without much glich. Input parameters can be easily adjusted accordingly. Once you are familiar with the software and the coding. its quiet easy to design allignments. Output options are available based on the desired formats. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** The software crases regularly. I had a recent update to windows 10 and the Select Series 3 was crashing whenever i was trying to close the software. I heard that there are some bugs in SELECT Series 4. Not sure whethers its because of teh compatability with Windows 10. SO better to go with Windows 7 itself for those who are working on MX Road. Large space requirements are neeed when you are working on the software. So mostly preferable in heavy systems if you are working on large projects and designing. Better to keep backup on a daily basis of the input files. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Easier to undersad once you are familiar with the coding **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** Road alignment and design. Easier to design once you are used to the coding. Faster and easier to understand ### 50. Glitchy transitional software **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 08, 2019 **What do you like best about OpenRoads Designer?** The grading for roadways to existing terrain is easy and fast. Cross section creation is fast as well. **What do you dislike about OpenRoads Designer?** Glitchy, crashes a lot. Has the tendency to corrupt files making them useless and having to redo work. **Recommendations to others considering OpenRoads Designer:** Start with ORD **What problems is OpenRoads Designer solving and how is that benefiting you?** roadway cross sections ## OpenRoads Designer Discussions - [How do I create a terrain in OpenRoads designer?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-create-a-terrain-in-openroads-designer) - 1 comment - [Which software is used for highway design?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-software-is-used-for-highway-design) - 1 comment - [What is OpenRoads?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-openroads) - 1 comment - [What is OpenRoads designer?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-openroads-designer) - 1 comment - [View OpenRoads Designer pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/openroads-designer/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-13+09%3A55%3A00+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=dd90bf44-7de5-4f26-9e6f-116bb9bce03b&secure%5Btoken%5D=6a1531b963c2b2f72a1cbdbf3f4858e388be935485cf75046d25605b0154e7af&format=llm_user) ## OpenRoads Designer Integrations - [AutoTURN](https://www.g2.com/products/autoturn/reviews) ## OpenRoads Designer Features **Plan** - Documentation - Annotate - Collaborate **Design** - 3D Modeling - 3D Rendering - Drawing - Editing **Construction** - Grading - Earthwork **Engineering** - Hydraulic engineering - Hydrologic engineering - Transportation engineering ## Top OpenRoads Designer Alternatives - [Civil 3D](https://www.g2.com/products/civil-3d/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (288 reviews) - [Autodesk InfraWorks](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-infraworks/reviews) - 4.2/5.0 (36 reviews) - [AutoTURN](https://www.g2.com/products/autoturn/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (46 reviews)