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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Civil 3D

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/AAutodesk's Civil 3D is a computer aided design (CAD) application designed to support a variety of civil infrastructure projects including rail, roads and highways, land development, airports, drainage, storm and sanitary, and civil structures.

    $335

    per month

    Blender

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ABlender is a free and open source 3D creation suite available in under the GNU General Public License. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline. Blender Cloud is a related service accessible via subscription, and is a training and content platform providing access to expertise from the Blender Institute for advancing one's use of Blender.

    $11.50

    per month

    Pricing
    Civil 3DBlender
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Blender Cloud Membership
    $11.50
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Civil 3DBlender
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsCan be licensed monthly ($305), Annually ($2,430), or every 3 years ($6,560).Available free for one year on a student license.—
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    Civil 3DBlender
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Autodesk Maya
    Score8.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    MicroStation
    Score6 out of 10
    Navisworks
    Score9.1 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Navisworks
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Civil 3DBlender
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    9.9
    (25 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.1
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Civil 3DBlender
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Autodesk
    Civil 3D is best suited for medium to large-scale projects, as it may be overkill for small projects. It is very efficient in design and drafting work, as well as creating reports. It also helps in creating surfaces using external data and building assemblies, as well as providing drainage for infrastructure projects. It can also provide outputs as DWG files to be directly used in the AutoCAD application.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    Blender is an excellent tool for everything from simple to complex 3D animations, the creation of 3D images, etc. It performs excellently in all of these areas. In the realm of 3D modelling, animation and rendering, there is very little that Blender is not suited for.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Autodesk
    • We use this software for the optimal and advanced design of pipelines and complex structuring, or it can also be said that we use it mainly for a geotechnical model, due to its high definition of the large proportion of the works that are carried out through of this application, since the tasks that are used with Civil 3D require extreme patience, precision and a lot of time to develop a model in its entirety, but we managed to acquire all the necessary and strategic points, to establish and start the production of a prototype digitized in particular.
    • Easy to export to normal AutoCAD or collaborate with most Autodesk products.
    • Vehicle Turning Simulation and Stormwater analysis is great addition to the package. Ability to use the all familiar AutoCAD tools, as well as LISP and SCR to automate some processes is one of the greatest advantages of the software.
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    Open Source
    • Creating complex polygonal geometries is very easy in Blender.
    • Edit Mode and Sculpt Mode helps in creating non uniform surfaces for objects like rocks, surfaces, terrains etc.
    • Blender can use various external plugins to make it work in more smoother way. For example to import any 3d object one can use sketchfab plugin and easily import the free assets from web after logging in.
    • Blender has a better rendering engine known as Cycles, it is far more better than any other stock rendering engine which can generate realistic lightning, shadows and reflections.
    • The animations can easily be generated with blender animation toolbar and also it incorporate any other animations made in any other software.
    • The bone generation and its behavior of animations can be achieved easily in blender.
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    Cons
    Autodesk
    • I think I need more experience in using Autodesk Civil 3D as it is a huge jump from the previous software that I had been using
    • Some functions could take less steps to complete
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    Open Source
    • It's really a hard question, but it could be: a game engine. Older versions used to have it; I would use it to simulate machines game-like.
    • I'm struggling to find another one; maybe the fact that it is so powerful and has so many features that learning it can be daunting; better documentation WITH examples and/or a map of Blender capabilities would help to know where you are in terms of knowledge and the planning the roadmap to where you want to go.
    • Precision modeling. Coming from CAD and using Blender as part of my design workflow, I'd love to be able to model inside Blender as I model with CAD tools. At this moment, it's simply impossible.
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    Usability
    Autodesk
    It is one of the most standard Designing and drafting tools for infrastructure projects and is the go-to for including it with the Autodesk ecosystem. Its strong collaboration with GIS and Other tools helps us to create a software workflow as a digital twin platform as well. The Drawings and plans generated can be easily imported into other applications, allowing for full control over the workflow.
    Incentivized
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    Open Source
    Because while it's a pretty good piece of software, the default built-in commands, the interface layout, and certain functions aren't as logical in their way of being arranged and executed. This, of course, doesn't diminish its use or effectiveness in your field of work, but it is quite awkward at first. A big advantage is that Blender lets you customize the interface however you want as well as keyboard shortcuts and several general program parameters.
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    Support Rating
    Autodesk
    They have a vast open community, which has helped us understand Autodesk Civil 3D from the beginning. They have provided many templates and tutorials videos to our team due to that we can learn every new feature from them. Autodesk Civil 3D has also helped us to interconnect all its software in an internal bridge, which helps us switch between software as we need.
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    Open Source
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Autodesk
    As mentioned before, using Civil3D got its own pros such as creating different profiles that are interactive such if you change any level, the profile will be updated automatically while in AutoCAD you will suffer by updating them manually. In addition, creating models that also are interactive and help in clash detection for different utilities in a project.
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    Open Source
    We've only used the consumer (non-pro) version of SketchUp, which we love, but is very limited in features and output capabilities compared to Blender. While Blender's learning curve is MUCH steeper than SketchUp, it feels like truly complete, professional design software.
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    Return on Investment
    Autodesk
    • positive: saved us time on setting up sheets/sheet set manager
    • positive: saved time and effort on cutting profiles
    • positive: saved us money on printing, since it is easy to bind the dgns it creates
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    Open Source
    • As it is a beginner-friendly software with increasing demand in the animation sector again, it positively impacts the business.
    • Except in some specific cases, no one will use Blender on their own at a professional level.
    • When I was a beginner, it took me a lot of time to learn, consequently designing the creation. But if we want to learn to master Blender, we can do it. As long as we have time and a lot of willpower, since, we repeat, it is not a simple program and hides thousands of tools and possibilities.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Civil 3D Screenshots

    Screenshot of Civil 3D - Infrastructure Software from AutodeskScreenshot of Civil 3D - Rail Alignments