Autodesk Civil 3D

Subscription Design the Building

AutoCAD-based civil engineering design and documentation platform for grading/surfaces, road and rail corridor modeling, pipe network hydraulics, and survey -- the civil-engineering flagship that turns conceptual InfraWorks models into construction-ready plan/profile sheets and quantity takeoffs.

Made by Autodesk, public (ADSK, $43.8B)

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3.4 /5 composite score
C5 5/5 reflects Revit, InfraWorks, ReCap, Navisworks, and Autodesk Construction Cloud interoperability, while C4 4/5 reflects LandXML plus IFC, DWG, and DXF exchange. C2 3/5 reflects the desktop .NET and COM API without a Civil-3D-specific cloud API or CLI.
Solid

Rubric Scorecard

How we grade →

Criterion Score Evidence
Value for the price 3/5 Subscription, from $2870
Agent Friendliness 3/5 API: .NET API (Civil 3D Managed API) + legacy COM (VBA/unmanaged C++); no confirmed Civil-3D-specific cloud/REST API on Autodesk Platform Services
Ease of adoption 2/5 --
Portability & lock-in 4/5 4 file formats Source →
Interoperability 5/5 5 integrations

Pricing

ModelSubscription
Entry price$2870
Free tierno
Free viewerno
Trialyes
Visit Autodesk Civil 3D →

How we verified this: we checked Autodesk Civil 3D against its live site and an independent source — capterra.com. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-05.

Evidence

File formats

FormatDirectionSupport
DWG native partial -- Native save format, but proprietary AECC objects become disabled "proxy objects" when opened in older Civil 3D releases or plain AutoCAD.
DXF both partial -- Vendor frames DXF export as a lossy fallback, recommended only when other exchange methods are insufficient.
LandXML both unknown
IFC both partial -- Export requires first converting Civil 3D objects (TIN surfaces, corridors, pipe/pressure networks) to 3D solids; IFC 4.3 specifically needs a separate downloadable extension.

Integrations

Revit InfraWorks ReCap Pro Navisworks Autodesk Construction Cloud

Sources

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