Bentley OpenSite Designer 2026: Comprehensive Civil Site Design Software

OpenSite Designer 2026 is Bentley's integrated application for civil site and land development workflows, supporting the entire project lifecycle from conceptual design through detailed design and construction documentation . It combines terrain modeling, site layout, stormwater drainage, underground utilities, and visualization into a single 3D modeling environment .

Key New Features in 2026

Bentley Copilot Integration

New context-aware AI assistant providing conversational guidance directly inside OpenSite Designer, using official help and local project documents to help users move forward faster and with confidence . This is a Technology Preview feature that must be enabled during installation .

Terrain & Modeling Enhancements

• Terrain from Cesium World Terrain: New tool creates terrain for any project site without additional license or cost

• Grading Solver Improvements: New tie-in enhancements for the grading solver

• Enhanced Contour Display System: Improved controls and performance for contour visualization

Site Layout & Design

• Smart Line Tool: New drawing tool for efficient site layout

• Parking Space Manipulators: Direct control over parking bay geometry

• Spot Elevation and Slope Measurement Tools: New measurement capabilities

Drainage & Utilities

• Precise Drainage Node Placement: Place nodes along edges with greater accuracy

• Pond Properties Enhancements: Volume analysis and export capabilities added

• Full Capture Calculation Option: Override inlet capture to analyze pipes accommodating all approach flow

• Formula UDX Enhancements: Now support Enumerated fields as input; new Text (Formula) UDX field returns text strings

Export & Interoperability

• LandXML and DXF Export: Export design data using industry-standard formats

• DWG, DXF, and LandXML Export: New export functions added

• Geotechnical Integration: Interoperates with Plaxis and SoilVision to bring soil bearing capacity, stresses, and displacement information into site plans

Automated Workflows

• Automated Contour Label Placement: Streamlined annotation workflow

• Select all Edges and Vertices: New selection tools for efficient editing

• Civil DGNchecker: New tool proactively detects civil-specific DGN data issues causing iModel sync failures and downstream instability