Welcome to Autodesk Civil 3D 2026, the newest release to help you improve project timelines, increase accuracy, deepen collaboration, and make data-driven decisions with greater precision. Take advantage of the new features and capabilities—many of which were suggested directly by Civil 3D customers—to transform how you design, collaborate, and deliver more resilient infrastructure. Let’s take a deeper look at the enhancements now available.
Automate drainage design
With the integration of Dynamo, Civil 3D 2026 revolutionizes drainage system design. New nodes for catchments allow you to automate catchment group management, create catchments from boundary geometry, and configure catchment flow path data effortlessly. The new FeatureLine.ByPoints node enables seamless automation in creating basic feature lines across diverse domains. Experience unparalleled efficiency, precision, and control with intelligent automation at your fingertips.
Manage design complexity for rail modeling projects
Elevate your rail projects with advanced enhancements in Project Explorer. This central hub simplifies the review, validation, reporting, export, and editing of complex civil engineering design elements. With support for new RailCANTInfo values and AutoCAD Command Line integration, rail designers are able to address curves as a combination of Speed, Curvature and CANT. With these enhancements, navigating intricate rail projects has never been easier.
Save time with data references
Civil 3D 2026 refines its data shortcut capabilities to enable you to reference and utilize only the surface data you need. In this release, you can define an area of interest and reference only the surface data in that area. This reduces the size and increases the performance of the consumer drawing by eliminating the need to reference an entire, large surface when you only need a portion—saving you time.
Enhancements to the operational Coordinate System Transformation tool
Enhance your project precision with new coordinate systems and an improved Coordinate Transformation tool. Seamlessly change the coordinate system of objects in your drawings for enhanced accuracy, reduced rework, and minimized errors.
Optimize workflows with 3D visualization
Revolutionize your design experience and review with the innovative 3D Model Viewer. This high-performance tool enables effortless 3D review within Civil 3D, providing immediate visual feedback and better context for complex objects. Streamline your workflow and enhance your design review process with intuitive 3D visualization. With this modeless window, you can keep the 3D model view open at all times. Toggle what’s displayed in the viewer easily along with viewer updates to reflect changes in the design space.
Integrate analysis into drainage design workflows
The Drainage Analysis for Civil 3D extension enables you to leverage the powerful InfoDrainage analysis engine directly into Civil 3D without having to install InfoDrainage, now providing a simple, connected workflow. Experience advanced drainage design workflows for ponds, channels, and underground storage, all within the familiar Civil 3D environment. Analyze drainage systems with a variety of methods and validate results before applying them to your model.
The extension enables users to design drainage elements and connect them to other elements (pipes, catchments, etc.) of a drainage system already designed in Civil 3D. With the ability to launch a cloud-based analysis from within Civil 3D, InfoDrainage can analyze the system, and the results of the analysis are returned to Civil 3D where the user can verify the results and then apply them to the objects in the drainage system.
Drainage Analysis for Civil 3D is currently a technology preview with the opportunity for Civil 3D customers to try new functionalities and provide additional insights.
Connect design reviews and collaboration
Connect your Civil 3D designs to the Autodesk Construction Cloud. Manage your design data across projects with the new Civil Tools in Autodesk Construction Cloud. These tools modernize infrastructure design review by enabling seamless model viewing, improved issue tracking, and efficient design validation. Experience better collaboration and improved design quality with real-time communication and intelligent model details accessible from the cloud.
Innovative reality solutions to quickly gather existing conditions for your infrastructure projects
Be sure to explore the latest capabilities rolling out from ReCap Pro 2026 for capturing existing conditions of your infrastructure projects. Significantly reduce time spent managing large point cloud files with the powerful ReCap Viewer supported by the Autodesk Construction Cloud. Also, gain a unified workflow experience by processing photos directly within ReCap Pro (you no longer have to install ReCap Photo separately). Learn more about ReCap Pro 2026.
Partner Spotlight: New plugins now available
Autodesk is also excited to share two new recent plugins available in the Autodesk App store that enhance sustainable design practices and geotechnical analysis.
Reduce embodied carbon with ORIS for Autodesk
According to Autodesk’s State of Design and Make report, 97% of organizations are taking steps to improve sustainability. The ORIS for Autodesk plugin allows civil engineering organizations to perform carbon assessments for roads, highways, and rail projects directly in Civil 3D. Compare low-carbon material alternatives and prevent costly rework with ease.
Make informed design decisions with GeoDin Ground
Understanding underground conditions is crucial for building strong designs. The GeoDin Ground plugin for Civil 3D enables seamless integration of geological data, providing clear visualizations of borehole data directly within Civil 3D. Make more informed decisions with a deeper understanding of subsurface conditions.
See the new updates in action
Sign up for our upcoming webinar to see firsthand how these new capabilities can be applied to your civil infrastructure projects:
What’s New in Civil 3D webinar – Tuesday, April 22, 2025 – 8 am PDT | 11 am EDT | 5 pm CEST
Get started
Take the next step closer to experiencing these features first-hand. Get started with the Autodesk Access application on your desktop. And if you’re not yet a subscriber, be sure to check out a free trial of Civil 3D 2026.
The post What’s New in Civil 3D 2026: Experience New Time-Savings and Performance Gains first appeared on Informed Infrastructure.