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Civil Design Suite for TurboCAD 2026 — Quick Start Guide

Civil Design Suite for TurboCAD 2026 — Quick Start Guide

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Download: this guide as a PDF (for printing or reading offline).

Civil Design Suite adds surface modelling and site tools to TurboCAD. It turns survey points and lines into a terrain surface called a TIN (triangulated irregular network). From the TIN you can draw contours, profiles and cross-sections, check slopes and water flow, and build a TurboCAD surface or solid. It is a plug-in that runs inside TurboCAD.

1. Check you can run it

  • TurboCAD 2026 64-bit (2026.1), Deluxe, Professional or Platinum. The same installer (Civil Design Suite x64, version 6.0.0) also installs into TurboCAD 2021–2025 64-bit.
  • The Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2019 (x64) runtime. The installer offers to install it. Allow it.
  • Your Civil Design Suite license key from your order. It starts with the letters CDP.

2. Install

  1. Close TurboCAD. If you installed this plug-in before, uninstall it first in Windows Settings ▸ Apps ▸ Installed apps (your license stays activated).
  2. Run the installer, CivilDesignSuite_TurboCAD_2026.exe.
  3. If Windows asks to install the Visual C++ runtime, allow it.
  4. If the installer asks which TurboCAD to use, pick TurboCAD 2026.
  5. Enter your license key in the installer’s activation step. Copy and paste it from your order email.
  6. Finish the installer, then start TurboCAD.

The plug-in’s tools go into your TurboCAD folder. The Import Points program, the full Surface Modeling Users Guide and a set of sample data go into C:\Program Files\Dynamic Chaos Incorporated\Surface Modeling.

3. Find it inside TurboCAD

Open a drawing. The ribbon now has a Civil Design Suite tab. Its tools, left to right:

Tool What it does
Create Triangles Builds a TIN from the selected points, lines or 3D data. Most other tools need a TIN.
Select Triangles Makes the selected triangles the active surface.
Switch Diagonal Flips the shared edge of two triangles, to correct the surface.
Create Surface Turns the TIN into a TurboCAD surface.
Cross Section / Profiles Draw cross-sections and a ground profile along a selected polyline.
Create Contours Draws major and minor contour lines from the TIN.
Map Point to Surface / Slope at point / Create Flow line Drop points onto the surface, read the slope at a point, trace a water-flow line.
Create image map Drapes a colour image map over the surface.
Settings Defaults for points, profiles, cross-sections, slopes and flow lines.
Create Solid Creates a 3D solid from the triangles.
Import Points Imports survey points from a text file.

Tools that need a TIN stay greyed out until you have one.

4. Your first surface: points to contours and a profile

New to the tools? Unzip SampleData.zip from the Surface Modeling folder (section 2). Its Text Files folder has point files for step 1, and its other folders have DXF, DEM, SDTS, E00 and Shape samples.

  1. Bring in your survey points. Click Import Points. The Import Points window opens. – Choose File ▸ Open and pick your point text file (for the sample, Text Files\Munds1.txt). – In the import wizard, pick the delimiter your file uses (the samples use Space), check the column preview, click Next and then Finish. The points are listed, all ticked. – Choose Create Geometry ▸ Points, then click Done in Filter Points to keep every point. – Wait until all the points are in your drawing before you close Import Points. A large file takes a minute or more. Closing the window early stops the import part-way.
  2. Select the data: the points, plus any lines. A line in the selection is used as a break line, so its segments become triangle edges.
  3. Click Create Triangles. In Surface Model Properties, enter a Name and Layer, leave Arc Error as it is, and click OK. The triangles are drawn and stay selected.
  4. Click Select Triangles while the new triangles are still selected. This makes them the active surface. Until you do, Create Contours, Profiles and the other surface tools stay greyed out.
  5. Click Create Contours. In Contour Settings, choose Divided Range and set Number of levels, or choose From Datum and set the Interval. Under Graphics To Create, leave Segments selected, check the layer names for major and minor contours, and click Ok.
  6. Draw a polyline across the surface where you want a profile, and select it.
  7. Click Profiles. In the Profiles dialog, set the Station offset distance, keep Create geometry checked, pick a Layer and click OK. Check Plan View for a plan-view version, or Copy Data to Clipboard to paste a Graph or a Station Elevation Table into another program.
  8. Optional: click Create Surface to turn the TIN into a TurboCAD surface. In Surface Type, choose Triangles or Triangulated Grid.

Five things worth knowing early

A TIN comes first Contours, profiles, cross-sections, slopes and flow lines all work on the active TIN. Select the triangles and click Select Triangles to make them active: after Create Triangles, and to switch between several TINs in a drawing.
Fix a bad triangle Long, thin triangles along a ridge or valley usually mean the wrong diagonal. Fix them with Switch Diagonal.
Contour accuracy In Contour Settings, a smaller Length under Segments gives smoother contours. A larger value is faster but less exact.
GIS data The plug-in adds BIL, DEM, E00, SDTS, ESRI Shape and LandXML to TurboCAD’s file types. Open them with File ▸ Open and pick the type under Files of type.
More tools Road surfaces, side slopes, cutting a surface with a polygon, cut/fill volumes and contour labels are covered in the full guide.

If something goes wrong

“The installer will not continue.” It needs TurboCAD 2021–2026 64-bit already installed. Install TurboCAD first, then run the installer again.

“My key is invalid.” A Civil Design Suite key starts with CDP. Paste the whole key with no spaces. If it still fails, contact support with your order number.

“A tool is greyed out or does nothing.” Most tools need an active TIN, and Profiles and Cross Section also need a polyline selected. Run Create Triangles, then select the triangles and click Select Triangles.

“Some of my points are missing.” Import Points was closed before it finished. Delete the points, import again and leave the Import Points window open until the point count in your drawing stops growing.

“Import Points shows a Microsoft Silverlight message.” Ignore it and close the small WebMap1 window inside Import Points. It belonged to an online elevation-data service that needed Silverlight, which Microsoft retired in 2021. Importing points from files is not affected.

Where to go next

  • The full Surface Modeling Users Guide (Surface Modeling Users Guide.chm in the Surface Modeling folder from section 2) covers TIN editing, break lines, solids, slope arrows, flow lines, image maps, road surfaces, side slopes, road corridors and cross-sections, cutting with a polygon, volumes, and horizontal and vertical curves. ImportPoints.chm in the same folder explains the Import Points program.
  • Support: email [email protected] with your order number and the exact text of any error message.

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