Adjust Civil 3D surface style for display in Object Viewer and Model Viewer

Model Viewer, introduced in Civil 3D 2026, enables users to visualise 3D models during the design process. However, some clients have raised questions about why surfaces sometimes do not appear in the Model Viewer, or how to modify the surface colour.

To adjust the surface appearance in Model Viewer, you need to edit the surface style. Select the surface in the model space, right-click and choose Edit Surface Style:

Go to the Display tab, View Direction Model and change the Triangles visibility and colour:

When a surface is displayed in Model Viewer, the triangles style from the model view direction is applied. You may also consider using the Shaded visual style:

For more details, watch the following video:

The video is also available on our Training Videos webpage, Surfaces and Survey channel:

https://www.devotechgroup.com/surfaces-training