The interface

One ribbon, six tabs, two docks and a live status bar — all over a single shared model.

Tabs

Each tab is a viewer onto the same Document. An edit in one tab updates the others immediately.

The ribbon

Commands are grouped on a ribbon: Home (project, draw, modify, compose), Design (standard, surface, superelevation/widening, grid), Analyze (inquiry, scale factor), View (camera, panels), Output (import/export), Collaborate and Manage. Everything is also in the classic menus. The full list is in the Command reference.

Object Browser

View › Panels › Objects. A tree of every object in the project, grouped into folders (Alignments, Surfaces, Points, Corridors, Assemblies, Junctions, Grids). Clicking a node selects it — highlighting it in 3D and Plan and loading it into Properties. Right-click for a context menu whose entries depend on the node:

• Hide / Show — visibility toggle (propagates to Plan and 3D).
• Rename — inline rename. Delete — remove (with confirmation). Zoom — frame it in Plan.
• Corridor → Properties… (the Corridor Properties dialog — see Corridors).
• Surface → Style / Add Breakline / History / Corridor Surface + Volume.
• Point group → Style / Sub-Group by Criteria / Connect by Feature Code / surface.

In worksharing mode, owner badges show who holds each node (see Collaboration).

Properties

View › Panels › Properties. A field editor that follows the Object Browser selection. It edits the node and its sub-entities; every change goes through the undo system. What you get depends on the node:

• Any node — name, visibility, style.
• Alignment — the segment table (type, start, bearing, length, radius/spiral) and the start station.
• Profile — the VPI table (station, elevation, grade).
• Point — double-click a point to edit its elevation inline.
• Corridor — the region → assembly assignments (the full editor is the Properties dialog).

The same tables also appear in the dedicated Alignment Builder and Profile Builder docks below, which add their own buttons.

Other docks

All docks are shown/hidden from View › Panels (or the View ribbon › Panels group). Each entry there is a toggle — tick it to show the dock, untick to hide. Docks can be dragged, stacked into tabs, or floated. The sections below detail what each one's buttons, columns and interactions do.

Alignment Builder

View › Panels › Alignment Builder. The numeric editor for the selected alignment — see Horizontal alignments for the full column list. In short:

• Segment table — one row per segment (#, Type, Start s, Length, End s, Radius, Params). Length is editable on every row; Radius on curve rows. Clicking a row highlights that segment in Plan (and vice-versa).
• Add Tangent / Add Curve / Add Spiral — append a segment (a small form asks for length, radius/direction, etc.).
• Insert … — splice a segment above the selected row.
• Delete Selected — remove the selected segment (won't empty the alignment).
• Tangent lock (checkbox, default on) — when on, editing a length/radius reflows the downstream segments and grip drags keep the PI tangent; off edits each segment in place.

Profile Builder

View › Panels › Profile Builder. The numeric editor for the selected alignment's vertical profile — see Profiles.

• VPI table — one row per VPI (#, Station, Elevation, Curve L, Grade In %, Grade Out %, K). Station and Elevation are editable on every row; Curve L only on interior VPIs (endpoints are locked to 0). Grades and K are computed.
• Add VPI — append a VPI 100 m past the last (at the previous elevation, curve 0).
• Remove VPI — delete the selected row.
• Row click syncs the highlight with the Profile canvas, where you can also drag VPI grips.

Design Issues

View › Panels › Design Issues. A live list of every alignment that fails the active design rules.

• A Standard selector (AASHTO / RAL / VSS / KGM) and a design speed drive the checks (these mirror Tools › Design Standard).
• Each row is a violation — substandard curve radius, short crest/sag curve, a grade break with no curve, or missing curve widening — with the station and the actual vs required value.
• Double-click a row to select the alignment and mark the station on the Plan / Profile.

Event Viewer

Tabbed into the bottom dock area (also toggleable from View › Panels). A diagnostics log with three columns — Severity (Info / Warning / Error, colour-coded), Category and Message.

• Reports geometry / blend / sweep problems: a region that bakes an empty cross-section, a link referencing a missing point, a corridor that produced no geometry, an assembly whose source library file can't be resolved.
• Identical messages are de-duplicated (a re-render won't flood the list).
• Clear empties the log.

Command line

View › Panels › Command. Type a command and press Enter; some commands then prompt for values inline (a point, a radius). Supported: MOVE, ROTATE, MIRROR, DELETE, plus the prompts raised by the drawing tools.

Profile / Cross Section

View › Panels also toggles the docked Profile and Cross Section views — the same content as the Profile and Sections tabs, handy beside the Plan. The Cross Section dock has a station spin-box / slider / prev-next to scrub along the corridor.

Assembly Library

Docked under the Object Browser. The program-level assembly library (files stored next to the application, shared across projects) — distinct from the per-project Assemblies tab, which shows what you have already imported.

• Double-click or drag onto the Assemblies tab — import a copy into the current project (each import gets a unique name and remembers its source).
• Edit — open the source in the Assembly Designer.
• Import / Delete / Refresh — manage the library list.

See Assemblies & Composer for the import model.

Status bar

The bottom strip shows, live as you move the cursor. The coordinate readout on the left cycles format when you click it:

On the right, three permanent readouts:

• CRS — the coordinate reference system name + definition (or “none” for a local project).
• Scale factor — grid and combined factors at the cursor (georeferenced projects). See Georeferencing.
• Length — the selected alignment's length. Georeferenced: grid … | ground … (Δ mm / km).

View toggles

Next to the readouts sits a Civil-3D-style row of toggle buttons. Each is a live on/off switch for a Plan-view feature; the states apply to every open document tab and persist across sessions:

The ☰ hamburger at the end of the row chooses which toggles are shown on the bar — untick the ones you never use.

Selection cycling & Escape

• Selection cycling (Ctrl+W or the CYCLE toggle): with cycling on, hovering overlapping geometry lists the candidates in the hint line, and a click opens a small picker so you choose which entity to select instead of silently getting the nearest — the Civil 3D pattern for stacked corridors/alignments.
• Escape — cancels the active draw tool; with no tool running it cancels a pending Move, otherwise it clears the selection (the CAD convention).