# Carlson Civil Reviews **Vendor:** Carlson Software **Category:** [Civil Engineering Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/civil-engineering-design) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 22 ## About Carlson Civil Carlson Civil provides the most robust automation and ease-of-use of any civil design solution available today, and it does dynamic updating without a single custom object. What might take days with other civil software takes just hours, or even minutes, with the powerful, intuitive Carlson Civil: • Road NETwork. Build all roads, intersections and cul-de-sacs in 2D and 3D with a single click of the “PROCESS” button. • Site NETwork. Elevate your estimating accuracy with this intuitive layer-based surface generator for easy cut/fill and material quantities calculations. • Lot NETwork. Quickly define an entire subdivision of lots based on an outer boundary, interior ROWs or Centerlines, and a simple set of user-defined “rules,” then pick “PROCESS” and the lots appear, defined and labeled. ## Carlson Civil Reviews ### 1. Carlson Software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mining & Metals | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2026 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Price and support. I have used this and other autocad software. For the value I have found Carlson to be the best. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I really haven't found a downside to Carslon. It has served me well for the past 10 years or more. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ease of use for doing standard Civil engineering work. Road and grading designs, are pretty simple and straightforward. ### 2. Innovation of best civil designs with excellent suite **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Harrison B. | Network Administrator, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2022 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** The software enables all the sectors in the organization to track progress of projects and set implementation resources. It is easy to use and strategize efficiently for new civil designs. The given tutorials and manuals provide reliable directions that guide new and used users effectively. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** The robustic performance has enabled the company to plan and design civil projects without any challenge. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Carlson Civil has able planning and decision-making platform that enables team members in the organization to collaborate efficiently. It has advanced civil management tools that can design and monitor design execution. Most set surveys have been completed well with targeted feedback from our clients. The road and house construction networking system has been fully integrated well with the application to stimulate better results. ### 3. Cloud Base Construction Platform. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Christine M. | Arquitecto, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 10, 2022 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Carlson civil is an easy civil engineering solution which helps creat excellent desighs and clean Engeneering drawings. The feature offers best customizing in business management than other softwares. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I have nothing to dislike on this software because has the best road and bridge desighs and the ability to model 3D. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Carlson Civil has the best ability to model 3D and drafting of 2D documents is effective and easy to creat construction plans. ### 4. Carlson Civil Suite is a lifesaver for CAD Techs and Civil engineers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rahul B. | Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2021 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** I mostly use the autocad integration, so that I am able to harness the powerful features of Carlson Civil and integrate them into my daily and familiar Autodesk and AutoCAD environment. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I do not use this as my primary program as even though it has powerful features, it can be too complicated at times. I find Autocad simpler and resort to Carlson Suite only when required. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Through integration with Autocad, I am able to use features in Carlson Civil such as project-duplicate and free extrude, which Autocad lacks and/or can be very complicated to implement in Stock Autocad. ### 5. Effective Robust Automation and Excellent Civil Design Production Solution. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Derrick C. | Senior Project Engineer, Construction, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 26, 2021 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** -Carlson Civil provides effective civil Engineering design functionalities and easy simulation tools and easy for the Engineers to adapt. The solution is suitable for quick and quality Roads, Highways and Roundabout design production. -The CAD capability offered is productive, and excellent free support to the new designers and even the drafting features are very helpful for the Engineering project documentation. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** -No detected issues on the Carlson Civil designing and drawing features or even on the first setting of all the tool designing functionalities and the drafting experience is fantastic. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** -Engineering document and drawing drafting is faster. -Design simulation functionality are helpful. -Roads design production. -Engineering project management. -Engineering information collection and management. ### 6. Highly-Powerful Civil Modelling Package. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wendy D. | Project Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 04, 2021 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** -Easy features to custom. -3D modeling using Carlson Civil is excellent. -Data migration within Carlson tools is amazing. -Great tool for Engineering projects management. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** -Functional design features for any Engineer with basic Engineering design experience to easily manipulat and produce amazing designs. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** -Carlson Civil its the most functional solution used by Civil Engineers to effectively model various required 3D designs for the Engineering project and easy to manage the project. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** -Nice Engineering project design and drawings management. -Civil 3D modeling. -Easy detailing multiple Engineering documents. ### 7. Great Road and Site Design Creation Solution for the Civil Engineers. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joyce W. | Graphic Designer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 16, 2020 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** This Engineering design solution provides clear and real 3D designs and within a very short period of time, and the product price its nice. Carlson Civil has many reliable features for the different functions like Drafting enhancement feature which enables faster 2D documentation. The free support from the team its also helpful and the Dynamic updating capability and i love the fact that Carlson Civil supports other design Tools like AutoCAD. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** For me i have nothing to complain about the Carlson Civil, its an easy design solution and the support its very effective. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** Carlson Civil its a major Civil Engineering design platform, reach of all the necessary designing functions for quick and quality services production and simple to start manipulation. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick Road design creation, Civil Engineering project drawings production and so many tool usage advantages to the user. ### 8. Great solution for Civil designs. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anjali G. | Civil Engineer, Construction, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 20, 2019 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Quite simple product for production of quality Engineering services. This platform can still operate on AutoCAD and the user can easily manage pipe data through its wonderful simple commands. Provision of well detailed assistance headlines for the beginners. Very nice product for creating different types of Civil Engineering drawings. Accessing the tool menu of this tool is quite simple and the support offered by the tea is great. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** The tool is doing the nice job and its functionality and capabilities are the best comparing with the similar products. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** Excellent software with great support team and powerful product for designing and drawing of accurate Engineering designs. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Production of quality Engineering drawings and designs and also presentations to our clients for different projects. ### 9. Carlson Civil Suite vs. Civil 3D **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Trey G. | Project Manager, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2017 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Drafting tools, ease of use, surfaces module, surveying module not too much I don't like about it. Didn't realize how much I liked Carlson Civil Suite until I started using Civil 3D. TWIST SCREEN is SO much easier than DVIEW Twist or using an User Coordinate System (WHY????). **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I don't like my company doesn't use Carlson over C3D. Customizing Spot elevations to use multileaders so they are parallel with the twisted screen. Actually probably and Autodesk problem more than Carlson. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** For me it's a no-brainer to use Carlson over Civil 3D for just the ease of use but every module is just a better product that that of C3D. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Civil site development and surveying. Ease of use and ability of customization is much better than C3D. The drafting tools alone are an enormous benefit compared to other software packages. I will probably buy my one version to use at work so i don't have to design with C3D. ### 10. Carlson Civil And Takeoff for for a civil construction company **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Austin H. | Takeoff Estimator, Construction, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** The ability to work with many different file types from the engineers to the field. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** That more of the surface viewing, modeling, and calculations are not more dynamically linked and smoother to transition between. It can also be difficult for users that don't have CAD experience. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** From my Civil construction experience it is great software for doing Takeoffs and light site modeling, but can be difficult for new users without AutoCAD experience to pick-up **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** We work with multiple software programs with their benefits and drawbacks, We do mostly takeoffs for estimating purposes, and light model building for the field. Carlson is a fundamental piece to our daily activities from pdf linework imports, and CAD clean-up to pad building and site excavation modeling. ### 11. Carlson Civil was exactly what I needed for a start up firm. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bill P. | City Engineer/Public Works Director, Renewables & Environment, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Carlson civil was cost effective and intuitive to learn. My previous experience was with a competitor and when I branched out and started my own firm, I found Carlson for a fraction of the price. What I liked most was that the support was excellent and the modules that I needed came with the Civil Package without having to pay for a lot of add ons. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I really haven't found anything that has given me problems. The support is excellent but I suppose because not everyone uses Carlson my only complaint would be that I wish more training materials were available to compare with high price competitors. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** Give it a shot. You won't be disappointed. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** By using Carlson, as a small business owner I could provide the same services as my competitors at a fraction of the overhead costs. I was also able to be more competitive on hourly rates because I had much less overhead to account for. ### 12. Pleasant alternative to Civil 3d **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 16, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** The ease of use of the Carlson Software is the best part of it. I have found that I can simplify work flows based on this. We use this in Pipelines and there are a ton of simple commands that make pipeline data management easy. Everything from centerlines and stationing. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I don't like the way Carlson has the product set up to check for a license each time you run a command. This needs to be addressed and should just be and Start Up. This would benefit users that move from the office to the field. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** If you are coming from a Civil 3D background there will be a learning curve. Just stick with it in the end you will be overall satisfied. there is also a ton of users out that have multiple help workflows for coming from one software to the next. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Over all cost of the software is better then the competitor. We can use this on multiple computer due to the cost of the project. ### 13. Carlson Civil for Surveying Drawing **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Xutong N. | Associate Professor, Higher Education, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 17, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** This review is about Carlson Civil Suite for surveying drawing. The software is very handy and easy to learn. Some of integrated functions can not only shorten the learning time but also help to speed up drawing time. The way that these commands run follows collection process of field surveying. I like the field-to-finish function. The tutorials in the help documentation really helps as well. Users can follow the step-by-step instructions to learn different aspects of Carlson Software. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** The interface to access feature codes was a little bit of intimidating initially. There are so many settings you can choose and change. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Surveying mapping. Easy to follow and intuitive user interface. ### 14. I use Carlson every day and love it. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Wes M. | Survey Manager, Construction, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** I like the Carlson package with the intelacad drawing engine because I used that previously. The integration with survey works very well. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I’ve had trouble upgrading from 2012 version. I tried 2013 briefly, then 2014 too. Still stuck on 2012. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** It will do pretty much anything you need as far as I’m concerned. Looking into some features I could use now and I’m sure they would work on it if I asked. You can tell by the many, many features that if you want it and they can do it, they will and have done so. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used it for everything in a couple mines from blast pattern design and asbuilts to the complete mine status map calculating all the volumes daily, weekly and monthly. Many various other construction type projects for producing sketches and creating layout points for survey. I have also used the roads program designing and editing roads. Now I am using it for 3d ditch design for installing pipelines. ### 15. Would love to consider Carlson again **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Felton W. B. | Construction Special Inspector, Civil Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Carlson has always been a very good and user-friendly platform to do Civil Design and Land Surveying. I feel that they are lacking in their customer support. I wanted to purchase a updated version prior to getting Civil 3D and I never got a call from a salesman. So I figured my I was too small of an entity for them to support. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** Customer support for me is more important than anything. I'm not particularly fond of internet sales but becoming more comfortable if it involves lower price. Carlson is a company that is hard to contact. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am just me and I need a civil software that is economical and user friendly. I don't do large scale projects and not a lot of road or sewer alignments. I need something less dynamic in scope. ### 16. Land Surveyor **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** The most important reason is the ease of use. The navigation of the menus is easily accessible. With one click of a button you can go from one module to another. No need to have your screen populated with other features that you don't use on a daily basis. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** Accessing point data is a bit cumbersome. Maybe a new window to the side would be helpful. This is where AutoCAD civil 3d is a better product. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** This product is being used to create drawing for civil design. The main goal is to have a product that transitions from different department in a company with ease. Carlson has done just that. ### 17. Carlson Civil **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Gayle A. | Civil Engineering Technician, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 05, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** I like using the Surface, Annotate, Profiles and Section menus the most. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** Not being able to use all the functions that Carlson has to offer, meaning that our company does not work in all areas of Civil engineering. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** Make the switch, besides being a great software tool, Carlson has free support, what can you say about free support. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Benefit: Being able to deliver a quality product to our clients with confidence. ### 18. Carlson Civil Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Evelyn P. | MECHANICAL AND CIVIL DESIGNER, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 17, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Very easy to use. No project necessary. Alignments, profiles, cross sections and surfaces are created independent from a "project" and can be created on the fly. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** The surfaces that Carlson Civil creates are not as accurate and smooth as I would like but they work. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating surfaces, profiles and grading for small power plant projects. Carlson Civil works great for these tasks. ### 19. Great for profile and section building **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dalia V. | diseñador editorial, Newspapers, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 28, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Easy flow from CL design, sectioning, profiling, to even `DTM modeling. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** I ran an older version that was slightly buggy, sometimes you would need to clear the programs memory which would return any customization to default settings. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** Carlson has a large software and hardware database along with lots of support like classes and seminars, all and all a great company. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Some road design, but mostly converting .dwgs to .tin files to be used for layout. ### 20. Carlson Civil plus Mining Modules **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mining & Metals | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Carlson Civil and it's accompanying modules (mining, geology, cogo and hydrology) are easy to use. The help topics are detailed, have step by step instructions and provide detailed examples. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** The software packages are not as powerful as others available, but for the price they get the job done. Does not handle large amounts of data, memory limit and 3D graphics are slow. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** Shop around and understand what your end goal is. If you are looking for an easy to use software package that anyone can pick up and use Carlson is a good choice. There are more powerful software packages available for 3D rendering and modeling. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Surveying, design work for surface and underground mining and mine planning/scheduling. ### 21. Great tool for DTM modeling **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Patrick M. | Surveyor/Field Engineer, Executive Office, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 20, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** I used Carlson Civil for DTM .tin modeling for GPS/RTK layout as well as machine control. Was able to build off of road sections or 3D poly lines the model I needed. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** Older version was slighly buggy and could freeze, it was very rare. **Recommendations to others considering Carlson Civil:** I used an older version, talk with a sales rep they will know the most about this product. Support is great at Carlson. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Model building gps layout. ### 22. Runs on AutoCAD **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dave T. | GIS & Survey Technician, Civil Engineering, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 17, 2015 **What do you like best about Carlson Civil?** Runs on AutoCAD, excellent support. simple to use. **What do you dislike about Carlson Civil?** Sometimes releases are not tested - features in one release are missing or not working in my current version. **What problems is Carlson Civil solving and how is that benefiting you?** Our company uses Carlson for Site Design, processing field-to-finish of topography, volume computations, produce boundary worksheets and record plats, and export ESRI shapfiles. ## Carlson Civil Discussions - [How do you install Carlson?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-you-install-carlson) - [What is Carlson Civil Suite?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-carlson-civil-suite) - [How do you use Carlson software?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/carlson-civil-how-do-you-use-carlson-software) - [What is Carlson autoCAD?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/carlson-civil-what-is-carlson-autocad) - [View Carlson Civil pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/carlson-civil/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-31+08%3A57%3A53+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=4b920dbb-18eb-43e2-b1f0-8a09267987d3&secure%5Btoken%5D=4969a61f0accc8cd8704a3a0b56863344b971676f6d1eddb0c6ab1678455c9af&format=llm_user) ## Carlson Civil Features **Plan** - Documentation - Sequence - Annotate - Collaborate **Design** - 3D Modeling - 3D Rendering - Drawing - Editing **Construction** - Fabrication - Reinforcement - Clash Detection - Grading - Earthwork **Engineering** - Hydraulic engineering - Hydrologic engineering - Transportation engineering - Structural engineering ## Top Carlson Civil Alternatives - [MicroStation](https://www.g2.com/products/microstation/reviews) - 4.0/5.0 (404 reviews) - [Civil 3D](https://www.g2.com/products/civil-3d/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (288 reviews) - [AutoTURN](https://www.g2.com/products/autoturn/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (46 reviews)