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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

    Solid Edge

    Score9.2 out of 10
    N/ASolid Edge is a software solutions for product development — 3D design, simulation, manufacturing, data management, and cloud collaboration. Solid Edge aims to combine the speed and simplicity of direct modeling with the flexibility and control of parametric design.

    $110

    per month

    Pricing
    Civil 3DSolid Edge
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Design and Drafting XaaS
    $110.00
    per month
    Foundation XaaS
    $267.00
    per month
    Classic XaaS
    $335.00
    per month
    Premium XaaS
    $481.00
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Civil 3DSolid Edge
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    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
    Community Pulse
    Civil 3DSolid Edge
    Considered Both Products
    Autodesk
    No answer on this topic
    Siemens AG
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    9 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    9 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Civil 3DSolid Edge
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Onshape
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    MicroStation
    Score6 out of 10
    Onshape
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    PTC Creo
    Score7.8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Civil 3DSolid Edge
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (8 ratings)
    8.1
    (16 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.3
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Civil 3DSolid Edge
    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
    Read full review
    Siemens AG
    Well Suited for:
    • Integrated designs performed by multiple designers simultaneously (designs requiring a Product Lifecycle Management system);
    • Designs requiring a high degree of parameterisation;
    • Large companies where specific standards and best practices are applied to all models and drawings created.
    Not Well Suited for:
    • Personal use in designing one-off models and drawings;
    • Small business use where very few of the expensive features are actually used.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Siemens AG
    • It has very good user interface in classic or ordered environment.
    • In 2D or drafting, you can give any Geometric tolerancing and symbols to any dimension. There is a wide range of options available.
    • You can convert any files in step file (.stp) and can open it in other designing applications easily.
    • After converting 3D drawings in 2D you can make changes in 2D drawing by converting it in the draft. You can also add details like cross-sections and detailed view.
    • You can directly make threads without creating holes.
    Incentivized
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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
    Incentivized
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    Siemens AG
    • Being used to 2-key and 3-key commands from the keyboard, it would be nice if this was more robust in Solid Edge. The capability of programming keystroke commands exists in Solid Edge, but it would be more user friendly in that regard.
    • Editing hatches can be a challenge.
    • I'm not a fan of the ribbon bar, but that seems to be a feature across software platforms in Windows.
    Incentivized
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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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    Siemens AG
    As mentioned previously, Siemens Solid Edge is not the most user-friendly of products at all. It requires intense training to make sure that the basics are understood, and after that, there are numerous other training interventions needed to be able to perform expert-level CAD functions. The GUI is not intuitive, as many other packages are, and the features built-in are not well defined. The process to use many of these features is counter-intuitive and requires a mind-shift.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Siemens AG
    I have been involved with support and training of Solid Edge for 24 years. Given that I based my business model on support, and have been successful for all these years, I know excellent support. Siemens support for Solid Edge, "GTAC", is the definition of support for a product in every aspect.
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    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.
    Incentivized
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    Siemens AG
    FreeCAD is often better than Solid Edge 2021 when converting files, but I hope this changes with 2023 NX is overall more powerful, but that is to be expected (and you cant add it above because it is too short for whatever reason).
    Incentivized
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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
    Incentivized
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    Siemens AG
    • It took about 20 hours of use to get the basics of Synchronous Technology, and with just a basic competency I was able to make useful changes to the design. One of those changes was impossible to do our other CAD program.
    • My use lately has mostly been on personal time and self-driven, so learning other aspects and features of Solid Edge has been slower. Creating a drawing for a part required a few hours to learn and do the first time, but luckily there were YouTube videos for examples. With practice, I would expect the time to reflect what it takes in SolidWorks (about 30 minutes).
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Civil 3D Screenshots

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