In this blog, our Principal Consultant Enrique Barriuso explores the latest updates in Autodesk Civil 3D 2026. Building on previous releases, this version brings exciting new features, enhancements, and improvements to elevate your design experience.
You can now reference only the part of a surface that is inside a polyline using data shortcuts. You can select an existing polyline or sketch one during the process. That boundary can be modified, removed, or a new one can be added at a later point.
This partial surface can then be published to Autodesk Docs or exported to LandXML. The workflows for partial surface data reference are also supported in the API.
Model viewer provides a much better experience to view the model in 3D that in previous versions. It's much more responsive and stable than object viewer, and it also has some added functionality.
Model viewer is a modeless dialog, which means that you can leave it open while you interact with the model and make changes in real time, which will automatically display in model viewer too. You can seamlessly add new objects to the view and control their visibility. The display of corridors has been enhanced, displaying the different construction layers without the need to add corridor solids.
Additional features include the possibility to zoom in to a selected item, match the view in model viewer and the drawing or save the view as an image file.
Drainage Analysis has been introduced in Civil 3D 2026 as a Tech Preview, which means it is in development. That gives you the opportunity to provide feedback that will influence the final version of the tool. New objects have been introduced (pond, underground storage, and channel) that can be created both by directly sketching them or from a polyline or feature line. The pond is the object with more features added into it at this point, providing the ability to move its position, level, add or remove vertices, add intermediate slopes, add curves, modify the display style or create and dynamically link feature lines to the pond.
Drainage Analysis uses cloud processing servers to analyse the drainage system. When analysing the network, different rainfall events can be added, and the results can be reviewed and applied to pipe and structure properties.
When you open a Civil 3D drawing in ACC and go to a 3D View, Civil tools are now available that allow you to navigate along the different alignments and profiles, track the chainages, and apply section cuts.
A new Drainage section has been introduced with new nodes for catchments, with functionality to create a catchment by points, define its flow path, time of concentration, or reference pipe network structure among others.
New node to create a feature line from a set of Dynamo points.
Double clicking on an input or output port of a node from the AutoCAD library will trigger autocomplete, that will recommend a list of possible nodes to use. It uses a machine learning predictive algorithm, which means it will get better over time.
New nodes to add section view labels.
Mesh toolkit nodes are now available by default in the Dynamo node library. Dynamo Core has been updated to version 3.4.1
Other new and improved features include:
Civil 3D 2026 brings a host of meaningful enhancements that improve both the depth and flexibility of the design process. From more intuitive surface referencing with partial data shortcuts, to a significantly improved 3D modelling experience with Model Viewer, this release shows Autodesk’s continued focus on performance, usability, and integration. The introduction of Drainage Analysis as a tech preview opens the door to more sophisticated and collaborative stormwater design workflows, and updates across Dynamo and the Autodesk Construction Cloud highlight a growing ecosystem where automation and cloud-based review are becoming the norm. Whether you're a long-time user or just starting with Civil 3D, these updates provide new tools to streamline your workflows, enhance collaboration, and push design capabilities further. As always, user feedback will play a critical role in shaping these features for future releases so explore, experiment, and don’t hesitate to share your thoughts. Civil 3D 2026 is more than just an update, it's a step forward in how civil infrastructure is designed and delivered.
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