Coming from other civil software — CivilCraft help

If you have used Civil 3D, you already know the ideas in CivilCraft: points and point groups, TIN surfaces with breaklines and boundaries, alignments by PI, profiles by PVI, assemblies swept into corridors, grading to daylight, gravity pipe networks, LandXML. What is different is almost everything around them: there is no drawing file, no command line, no styles, no Prospector and no settings dialogs. CivilCraft is a small, focused tool in a browser, and in this build it does a fraction of what a full civil package does. This page maps what you know to what is here.

Workflow map

What you want to do	Familiar way	In CivilCraft
Bring in survey points	Import points with a point file format	Open, then check the column order in Import points (Import survey points)
Sort points	Point groups, description keys	Automatic groups by the first word of the description; no description keys
Edit a point	Point editor, grips	Not available yet: fix the file and import again
Build existing ground	Create a surface, add point groups as data	Automatic: the surface rebuilds whenever its inputs change
Add breaklines	Add breaklines from polylines or feature lines	Set a point group to Breakline, or click points with the Breakline tool (`BB`)
Trim the surface	Outer boundary, hide boundary, maximum triangle length	Boundary (`OO`, outer only) and Longest outside edge
Show contours	Surface style	Display in the left panel: interval, major every, labels, bands, slope arrows
Lay out a centerline	Alignment creation tools, curve and spiral settings	Alignment (`AA`): click PIs, `ReturnEnter`; radii in the PI table; no spirals
Create a profile view	Profile view wizard, bands	Profile (`RR`): one profile view under the plan, always fitted
Design the grade	Profile layout tools	Start from the ground, Add PVIs (`II`), drag PVIs, type Curve L
Build a road	Assembly, subassemblies, corridor, targets, regions	Tick Sweep an assembly along the design profile under the alignment; one symmetric lane, shoulder and side slope
Grade a pad	Feature lines, grading groups, grading criteria	Pad (`GG`): a flat pad with cut and fill slopes to daylight
Compute earthwork	Volume surfaces, volumes dashboard	Earthwork in the right panel, grid method, updates live
Lay out storm or sanitary	Pipe network with a parts list, rules	Pipes (`PP`): click structures downstream; three rules you set; automatic inverts
Exchange with others	LandXML import and export	Open a LandXML file; LandXML to export (Exchange LandXML)
Send linework to CAD	Export to DWG	DWG (2000 to 2018 format) or DXF (R12)
Plot	Layouts, viewports, sheet sets	PDF: one landscape sheet of the plan at a chosen scale
Share work between files	Data shortcuts, references	Not available: one project per file
Undo	Undo	`⌘ZCtrl+Z` and `⌘YCtrl+Y`, 200 steps; display settings are not undo steps

Differences that trip people up

There is no command line. Tools are toolbar buttons and single letters: AA alignment, GG pad, PP pipes, BB breakline, OO boundary, RR profile, II add PVIs, VV select, FF fit. Typing a command name does nothing. See Keys and mouse.

Enter finishes; double-click is risky. Click the last point once, then press ReturnEnter. In this build a double-click finishes too, but drops the point you double-clicked. Right-click does not finish or repeat; it only pans when you drag with it.

Everything is dynamic, all the time. Change a point group, a radius, a PVI or a pad slope, and the surface, contours, corridor, daylight lines and volumes update immediately. There is nothing to rebuild and nothing goes out of date.

Nothing is a drawing object. The plan is a view of the design, not a drawing you can edit with CAD commands. You cannot add your own lines or text, change a layer's color, or explode anything. Export to DXF and finish the drawing in a CAD program.

No styles. Colors, line weights, label sizes and layer names are fixed (see Plan layers). Paper and Model in the app bar switch between a light and a dark screen.

One of each. One existing ground surface, one graded result, one pipe network per project. Many alignments and pads are fine.

Units are labels. Choosing US feet or Metres does not convert anything. There is no drawing scale. A coordinate system is optional: set one under Coordinates and nothing moves, it only says what the numbers mean (see Set the project's coordinate system). Feet are treated as US survey feet when written to LandXML.

Breakline groups join in point-number order. A group set to Breakline becomes one line through all its points, in number order. Shared codes (two flowlines both coded "FL") make one zig-zag line; draw those by hand.

Stations look the same, metres differ. Feet use 100 ft stations (12+34.56); metres use 1000 m stations (1+234.567).

Delete on a Mac. The Mac key labeled delete is Backspace to the browser. Use Fn and delete, or the Delete button, to delete a selection.

Files are downloads. Save downloads a .civilcraft.json file each time; there is no "save over the open file" and no autosave. Opening a point file replaces the points without asking. See Files you can open, save and export.

Rules are yours. Pipe network rules and the corridor assembly start with placeholder values that are not a standard. Set your own before trusting any check.

Volumes are grid-based. Cut and fill come from a fine grid between the two surfaces, inside the daylight lines, with no swell or shrink. They are close to, but not the same as, a TIN-to-TIN volume.

What is missing

Spirals, superelevation, curbs and sidewalks, sloped pads and feature lines, hydraulics, parts catalogs, pipes in profile, cross-section views and sheets, parcels, survey databases, opening DWG, and more. The full list, with what to do instead today, is in Not built yet.