Powerful features
and easy to use

Site3D Features

Site3D has an extensive feature-set.

Click on each item below for more detailed information.
For a brief description of Site3D see the overview page.

Design features

[+] Automatic model recalculation means everything is always up-to-date: BIM

Each design operation automatically updates the entire model in an efficient and accurate way. Only what needs to be updated is altered meaning all design changes can be performed in real-time. This makes "tweaking" a design easy and fast because each change is shown instantly. Building Information Modelling (BIM) comes built-in as standard.

[+] Design freehand, snap to imported layouts, create construction lines and arcs with the inbuilt tools or simply input known coordinates manually.

Every engineer has their own style and requirements for design. Site3D allows for a variety of input methods so that the engineer can work the way they want. The result is high productivity, less stress and a happier engineer.

[+] One-handed navigation in plan, profile, cross section and 3D view allows for multitasking.

Panning, zooming and rotating are the main ways to navigate your designs in 3D, plan and section. To make this as easy as possible it can all be done with the mouse.

[+] Profile, cross section and 3D views automatically update after every design change.

Multiple views can be open at any one time. When a design change is made in one view, the other views will automatically update in real-time, meaning all windows always show the live model.

Design roads, footpaths and cycleways

[+] Flexible centreline design with straights, arcs and curve transitions.

Using intuitive point and click design tools, it's easy to draw and modify the centrelines of your roads and pathways. The same tools that work with the horizontal design also work similarly for the vertical alignment design. The result being easy-to-use tools that allow the engineer to do what they want in super fast time. These tools work in a similar way to other tools so it's very easy to learn and even easier to master.

[+] Flexible vertical profile design with straights and parabolas.

The intuitive tools that work for horizontal plan design also work in a similar way for the vertical design. This means the engineer can work seamlessly between horizontal and vertical without any adjustment issues. It also means the engineer can pick up the software and start running without much (if any) training.

[+] Automatic proposed surface creation.

All surfaces are created intelligently and automatically. The engineer should never need to do anything like name a triangulation or even know what a triangulation is. This allows the engineer to get back to engineering rather than tedious number crunching.

[+] Always up to date proposed surface contours.

Like all other features of Site3D, surface contours are kept up-to-date through all design changes. They are even updated live on the 3D view whilst you are editing a road's vertical alignment in a profile view.

[+] Easy adding of super-elevation around horizontal curves.

A horizontal curve can be super-elevated by using the vertical channels tool. This allows the channel to change in grade over a set distance before and after the curve.

[+] Create custom non parallel carriageway channels that can flex with the road.

As is the norm with most urban road designs, the channels at the road edge are rarely just parallel. They tend to meander towards and away from the centreline in a curved manner. Site3D allows these difficult designs not only to be added but also to be accurate to standard offsets and radii. They also remain flexible with the road if the centreline is moved.

[+] View automatic cross-sections.

Cross sections showing the grade across the carriageway, kerb and footway can easily be shown at any required interval. This view is automatically kept up-to-date as the site is designed.

[+] Change the crossfall / grade of the road along the drivers' path.

Using the vertical channel tools, the grade from the centreline to the channel can be altered along the road. For example, the start of a road can be designed at a crossfall of 1 in 40 but change to 1 in 36. This allows for tight drainage strategies as well as tying in to existing roads.

[+] Setting-out tables which automatically stay up-to-date.

Like all other features of Site3D once you add a setting-out table for a centreline it is kept up-to-date, even if the road is moved in horizontal or vertical, or lengthened or shortened. This is a key feature of BIM as the documentation is gleaned directly from the model.

[+] Create grading slopes with multiple steps to interface to existing surface.

At the edge of your designed roads, Site3D calculates slopes to interface precisely to the existing ground surface. This is can be a simple matter of grading a 1 in 3 slope, or in more complex sites, a series of stepped grades may be specified. You can add as many steps into the grading on Site3D as you like.

[+] Automatic 3D junctions.

Junctions are made easy in Site3D. All you need do is move one road end onto or near the edge of another road and Site3D will automatically offer a 3D engineered junction between them. Moving a junction is just as easy; use the mouse to select and re-position and Site3D will recalculate everything for you.

[+] Automatic 3D roundabouts.

Roundabouts can be a daunting manual 3D design task, but Site3D makes them easy to create. Simply move two or more road ends together at a single point and a roundabout will be offered. A fully 3D engineered roundabout can be created in seconds compared to days or weeks. They can also be modified just as easily, meaning the engineer can get the best design rather than the first that works.

[+] Calculate proposed cut and fill volumes.

Cut and fill volumes between the proposed surface and the existing ground can easily be generated. A volume is shown for the whole site and also broken down to individual roads.

[+] Create speed tables.

Speed tables can be added to parts of roads, whole roads and even across junctions. The vertical profile annotation of each road is also updated to show the speed tables.

[+] Create drop kerbs.

Drop kerbs, also known as pram crossings, can be placed with ease to specify pedestrian crossing points.

Design 3D roundabouts

[+] Flexible horizontal and vertical design.

Using intuitive point and click design tools, the engineer has full control over the position, angle and level of all incoming roads to a roundabout. The rest of the roundabout is automatically calculated based on these control points giving the engineer power to easily control the entire roundabout. These tools work in a similar way to other tools so it's very easy to learn and even easier to master.

[+] Automatic proposed surface creation.

All surfaces are created intelligently and automatically. The engineer should never need to do anything like name a triangulation or even know what a triangulation is. This allows the engineer to get back to engineering rather than tedious number crunching.

[+] Always up to date proposed surface contours.

Like all other features of Site3D, surface contours are kept up-to-date through all design changes. They are even updated live on the 3D view whilst you are editing a road's vertical alignment in a profile view.

[+] Automatic Inter-junction crown lines.

Crown lines between the entry of one arm and the exit of the next are automatically generated where necessary to remove adverse camber. They engineer always has the ability to override these automatic decisions where they have troublesome designs.

[+] Automatic dead area reduction.

Site3D automatically adjusts its roundabout design to remove design issues like areas between roads that would never be driven on. These 'dead areas' if left in would tend to build up with stones and debris over time and so Site3D automatically looks for these issues and attempts to fix them where possible. As with most automatic features, the engineer has final control and can decide how they would like the design.

[+] Easy to add apron.

Overrun strips, otherwise known as aprons, are extremely simple to add and edit. The engineer only need decide how wide it should be and the rest is done for them.

[+] Additional lane width between junction arms.

Site3D makes it easy to widen a roundabout between two arms. The engineer has control over the width and the grade.

Design drainage systems

[+] Flexible storm and sewer horizontal and vertical run design.

Using intuitive point and click design tools, it's easy to draw and modify drainage runs. Connecting runs together is easy, the manholes automatically snap together when close enough. Moving the manholes vertically is just as easy, the engineer has the choice to set the manhole or pipe invert or they can simply grab the manhole invert with the mouse and move it lower or higher live on the vertical profile view. These tools work in a similar way to other tools so it's very easy to learn and even easier to master.

[+] Automatic pipe and manhole collision / conflict detection.

One of the biggest difficulties with drainage runs is calculating when two crossing pipes collide or are too close. Site3D automatically calculates closest distances between pipes and warns the user using "design alerts" when they are closer than a set distance or when they physically collide.

[+] Automatically updating manhole schedules.

Like all other features of Site3D, manhole schedules automatically update with any design changes.

[+] Automatic cover levels.

Manhole cover levels are automatically calculated. This means that if the manhole is under a proposed road and the road centreline is modified vertically the cover level is instantly updating and all corresponding annotation is updated as well. It is still possible to manually specify cover levels if the engineer deems it necessary.

[+] Export directly to flow calculation software.

The manholes and pipes added Site3D are intelligent objects and this gives the drainage system a lot of power. The drainage networks can be exported to a variety of software for pipe flow calculations.

[+] Easy tool to set gradient between any two connected manholes.

Site3D has many tools to help the engineer, one of which is the tool to set the gradient between two connected manholes. It's as easy as it sounds, pick two manholes and tell it the grade you would like between them.

[+] Section between any two connected manholes.

Site3D has many tools to help the engineer, another one of which is the tool to set show the vertical ground profile between two connected manholes. It's as easy as it sounds, pick two manholes and it will show the section of the ground along with the drainage run pipes and manholes annotated.

Design ponds and general earthworks

[+] Flexible feature line design tools.

Using intuitive point and click design tools, it's easy to draw and modify the feature lines that make up either an earthwork or pond. These tools work in a similar way to other tools so it's very easy to learn and even easier to master.

[+] Rotate / translate full earthworks or ponds.

The entire earthwork or pond can be rotated and or translated giving the engineer valuable tools to "tweak" their designs. Like all other features of Site3D once moved, the whole model is intelligently and efficiently updated keeping everything up-to-date.

[+] Create custom grading with multiple steps to existing surface.

At the edge of your designed earthwork or pond, Site3D calculates slopes to interface precisely to the existing ground surface. This is can be a simple matter of grading a 1 in 3 slope, or in more complex sites, a series of stepped grades may be specified. You can add as many steps into the grading on Site3D as you like.

[+] Automatic cut / fill and water volumes.

Even whilst designing earthworks or ponds, Site3D shows you the current cut and fill volumes. In cases where you are designing a pond and have set a water height it will also show you the current capacity to that level. This is automatically kept up-to-date through out the design so the engineer can "tweak" the design to improve storage and / or balance cut and fill volumes.

Existing surface

[+] Automatic surface creation.

All surfaces are created intelligently and automatically. The engineer should never need to do anything like name a triangulation or even know what a triangulation is. This allows the engineer to get back to engineering rather than tedious number crunching.

[+] Automatic boundary creation and trimming.

When the surface is created it is automatically trimmed to remove obvious unwanted triangles. The result is a surface that is cut back to the limits of the survey provided. The engineer always has manual control over this and can increase or decrease the level of trimming if they feel it necessary.

[+] Easy to use intelligent 2D to 3D survey conversion.

We know it's not always possible to start with a 3D survey on some sites. If you only have a 2D survey with text levels it is now possible to convert that to 3D intelligently with the click of only the "Convert Now" button. This is a very powerful tool and can mean cost, time and accuracy savings.

[+] Calculate existing surface contours.

Like all other features of Site3D, surface contours are kept up-to-date through all design changes. They are even updated live on the 3D view whilst you are editing a survey points level or adding a breakline on a different view.

[+] Calculate existing surface height colouring.

Contours are great but it can sometimes be a little hard to read, this is where height colouring becomes useful. The existing ground surface can be shaded between two colours easily by pressing just one button. The result gives an instant view on high and low points and the general land formation between them.

[+] Calculate surface-surface cut and fill volumes.

With the click of only a few buttons you can import multiple surfaces and perform a cut and fill volume calculation between them.

[+] Calculate simple sections across existing and proposed surfaces.

Using intuitive point and click design tools, it's easy to draw and modify the path of a simple section to show the existing and proposed surfaces. Like all other Site3D features the profile shown is automatically kept up-to-date if the surfaces change or if the section path is moved.

[+] Add manual breaklines to control how surface triangles are formed.

Using intuitive point and click design tools, it's easy to draw breaklines between 3D features. When adding breaklines Site3D automatically guides you to the appropriate 3D point using intelligent snap tools. As soon as the lines are added the existing ground surfaces are automatically recalculated and all views updated so the engineer can see the effect straight away.

Boreholes

[+] Import from AGS file or add manually.

Manually typing in borehole data can be time consuming and prone to human error. This is why we allow the import of *.ags files which contain all the borehole information in one place.

[+] Automatic creation of substrata surfaces.

All surfaces are created intelligently and automatically. The engineer should never need to do anything like name a triangulation or even know what a triangulation is. This allows the engineer to get back to engineering rather than tedious number crunching.

[+] Automatically added to all road, path, cycleway and simple sections.

Like all other Site3D tools, as soon as the boreholes are added, all relevant vertical profiles and simple sections will update to show any substrata surfaces underneath.

Construction tools

[+] Variety of snaps.

To help the engineer with accuracy matching either existing surface point, lines and arcs or matching proposed layout features, Site3D has several snap tools to latch onto relevant features giving the engineer the confidence to work quicker and improve design quality by getting it exactly right.

[+] Variety of construction lines, arcs, etc...

There will always be sites where there are no relevant features with which to snap. This is where the engineer can use the powerful construction line and arc tools to create the features with which to snap. They are very easy an intuitive to use.

Layers

[+] Easy to use layer manager where layers are automatically grouped by imported file / model.

Layers are an important part of any model, they allow the engineer to hide, show and highlight. This tool gives the engineer easy control over how the model looks.

[+] Ability to hide or highlight individual files / models.

Layers in Site3D are grouped by the file from which they were loaded. The entire group also has the ability to be turned off / on as well as a colour for the whole group.

[+] Automatic creation of new layers where required.

When designing new features, layers will automatically be created in the design model. This means the engineer can get on with the engineering rather than CAD based issues.

Import / export

[+] Ability to import multiple layouts / surfaces.

A useful feature is Site3D's ability to import multiple files. The engineer can over time import multiple versions of a layout and be designing to the latest version, yet still show previous versions to highlight what has changed.

[+] Direct push to and pull from AutoCAD requiring no intermediate files.

When moving data directly to AutoCAD, Site3D can use its push and pull features. This allows for the transfer of information between the two programs without the need to save a file in one program and load it up on the other. This saves the engineer time, but also saves the creation of lots of old design files over the course of a job.

[+] Import and export with a large range of file formats.

Collaboration is key when working as part of a group. With this in mind Site3D allows the design, surfaces and other features to be imported and exported in a variety of file formats.

Import from:
  • Autodesk DXF Files (*.dxf)
  • Autodesk DWG Files (*.dwg)
  • DTM Comma Separated XYZ (*.csv *.xyz)
  • DEM Files (*.asc)
  • ESRI Shapefile (*.shp)
  • GPS-NMEA Logs (*.log)
  • Lidar LAS Files (*.las)
  • Google KML Files (*.kml)
  • MX Genio Files (*.gen *.mos *.inp *.txt)
  • Ordnance Survey GML Files (*.gml)
  • Land XML Files (*.xml)
  • 12D Ascii Files (*.12da)
  • NTF Files (*.ntf)
  • AGS Files (*.ags)
  • Microdrainage Files (*.mdx, *.sws, *.fws)

Export to:
  • Autodesk DXF Files (*.dxf)
  • Autodesk DWG Files (*.dwg)
  • Industry Foundation Classes (*.ifc)
  • Google Earth (*.kml)
  • DTM Comma Separated XYZ (*.csv)
  • GPS Systems (*.gpx)
  • LandXML (*.xml)
  • 12D Ascii Files (*.12da)
  • Microdrainage Project (*.mdx)
  • Microdrainage Storm (*.sws)
  • Microdrainage Foul (*.fws)
  • Hydroworks (*.dsd)