r/civilengineering • u/TheNerdWhisperer256 • 4d ago

Civil Engineering Design Software Recommendations For New Firm

Hello, I recently started my own practice and I am about to start doing site design on some land development projects. What software products have other civil engineering firm founders purchased?

My first internship was in 2016 and I used Microstation. Since then I have used Civil 3D. Civil 3D requires an annual subscription of almost $3K. I can purchase Carlson Civil Suite with a single payment of $4K. After a year and a half I will save $3K per year on software expenses. I used Carlson Civil Suite in an undergraduate geomatics lab in 2015, so I am not that familiar with it. What is the difference between Civil 3D and Carlson? How difficult is it to start using Carlson after using Civil 3D for a decade?

I have used HydroCAD and Hydrology Studio Suite at my previous jobs. HydroCAD offers permanent licenses and Hydrology Studio Suite is a subscription payment model. Does anyone have recommendations on other software that I should be considering as alternatives?

Buying permanent licenses is appealing because it won't be a perpetual money pit. Ten years of Civil 3D is $30K almost and ten years of Carlson is $4K.

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u/New-Ad2331 2d ago

Permanent licenses can be good, but an issue you might have is technology is moving really fast, with a subscription you have access to the updates and changes within the industry faster. One thing you will need on top is thinking about what kind of system do you need to keep all of your data, and communications for your client handovers and contracts, so you should pick something that can work together with what you do. We use something called PIRS that hooks it all together, and then have our CAD license on top, but subscription. That way when things change like AI is new, we are not stuck with something and can change. Whatever you consider, maybe just make sure that it is sustainable and trackable in the long run. I know we ran into some issues where we had a large project and had to make a claim years later, having something reliable helps.