Frequently Asked Questions
Products and Pricing
While credit card is the preferred method of payment, we have multiple options to pay for our software including ACH/Direct, physical check, wire and working with our growing list of resellers. Contact us for an invoice for a purchase.
After signing up for a free trial or completing a purchase, you will get an email with a Subscription ID which is used within our products to activate the license. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam or junk folder or contact us. All application downloads include the same full version of the software, which displays watermarks if no Subscription ID is entered. The free trial or paid subscription Subscription ID simply removes the watermarks. Some advanced features are disabled when no Subscription ID is entered.
Each individual license purchase is ‘per user’ and limited to two devices.
Multiple licenses can be purchased with a single email address. Our licensing system only uses the Subscription ID to activate the application, not the email.
Our enterprise plans offer virtual floating licenses, bulk discounts, seat managers, and premium support. For more information about our enterprise licensing, please contact us.
Absolutely. You can purchase a variety of licenses using the same account by adding multiple license plans with the same email.
We also offer enterprise licensing which includes shareable floating licenses, bulk discounts, seat managers, and premium support. Please contact us for more information.
Furthermore, we can also work directly with you to add multiple subscriptions to your account if you would prefer. Just contact us.
The Subscription ID is the 17-digit code used to activate a license and remove watermarks. Your Subscription ID is available in your onboarding emails as well as in your account. To access your account, click the MANAGE ACCOUNT button at the top of the Beyond CAD website. Use your email and the password received upon activation to log in to your account. Within your account you can see information about any subscriptions including plan name, Subscription ID, renewal date, payment information and more.
After signing up for a free 30-day trial or purchasing a subscription, you will receive an email with instructions to download and install our applications. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam or junk folder or contact us. We understand that IT/IS guidelines are different for nearly every company and agency, so we have multiple options for download and distribution.
Yes. You can upgrade or downgrade any subscription within your account by clicking the MANAGE ACCOUNT link at the top of this website. You can also cancel or pause your subscription via MANAGE ACCOUNT.
If you have any issues or need assistance, we will be more than happy to help you. Please reach out to us here.
University students and active military can access any of our plans at a significant discount.
For assistance with these discounts, please reach out to us.
Beyond Typicals
Beyond Typicals is a revolutionary drag-and-drop 3D typical section creator launched in early 2022. Beyond Typicals makes street design and visualization so accessible that you can become proficient in hours and design roads in minutes.
Beyond Typicals is a desktop application available only for Windows devices, though we also offer a cloud-based version accessible through a web browser at an additional cost which also allows for Mac/iOS compatibility.
Beyond Typicals Version 3.0 (BT3) was launched May 1st, 2024 and boasts new features, enhanced functionality, better performance and is built on Unreal Engine 5.2. BT3 is our recommended application for any typical section visualization. If you are still using BT1 or BT2, simply use your same Subscription ID in BT3 to access a much more powerful, user-friendly, and photorealistic visualization tool.
The name of our software development company is Beyond CAD Inc., and Beyond Typicals is our flagship tool. At Beyond CAD, our goal is to make 3D visualization more accessible and efficient for the civil infrastructure projects. Beyond Typicals is our flagship product, and we hope to soon create more tools that offer the same value to the industry.
Our early adopters may also remember our first tool, also called Beyond CAD – a full-featured CAD visualization engine built on Unreal Engine. With Beyond CAD you could import 3D CAD files to better visualize civil projects using photorealistic textures, library assets, advanced traffic and more. Further development of this tool has been paused. Read more here.
With an active Beyond Typicals subscription, our early adopters maintain access to Beyond CAD in its current state of development. Simply use your same BT Subscription ID to activate Beyond CAD.
Beyond Typicals has been designed to be incredibly intuitive, and accessible to transportation professionals of any background – planning, engineering, management, CAD tech, marketing, and more. Many users can figure out how to use most of the functionality just through trial and error. That said, we have plenty of tutorial videos and are always working on adding more as we add new features. We encourage all new users to dive into the Beyond Typicals Tutorial Series when getting started. If you still have questions or run into issues, feel free to reach out and our support team can help
If there is a specific type of section (like a retaining wall, for example) or asset (like street light) you need for Beyond Typicals and it isn’t currently available, please reach out to us. We are constantly working with users to add more sections and assets to make the tool even more versatile and efficient for our user base. We have even had a user make his own sections which our development team was able to add for the next available public patch.
We have plans on our roadmap for a custom section creator, which is not yet in development.
With Beyond Typicals, users can also import their own 3D files including photogrammetry buildings, light poles and more! The Imported Assets function is a great way to build in more customization and realism to your typical section visualizations. See more about importing asset from SketchUp in this video.
Users and potential users of Beyond Typicals are often very passionate and know how powerful this product can be. With this passion also often comes with section, asset or feature requests.
Without this feedback, Beyond Typicals would not be as useful as it is today, so we highly encourage any feedback or requests. We even built a public roadmap where you can see our development plans and even make your own requests.
Beyond Typicals produces high-quality, animated 3D visuals, and is best used on a device with a powerful GPU. To see our minimum and recommended specifications, head to the Beyond Typicals Download page and scroll to the bottom.
Our version release schedule varies. In May 2024, we published a major V3.0 upgrade that was 8 months in the making. There is currently no timeline for a V3.1 or V4.0 update.
All version updates are included at no additional cost to our customers, and users are not obliged to download new versions. Auto-updates can be enabled if the application is downloaded via the Epic Games Launcher.
Technical Support
After signing up for a free trial, you will receive an email with instructions including a link to the Download page with links to two options for downloading and installing: the Epic Games Launcher, and a zipped folder download.
We have hours of tutorial videos available on our website and YouTube channel that are divided into chapters which can answer most questions for our software.
We also maintain a list of program limitations and known issues for Beyond Typicals.
If you still need support, please reach out to us, and we can assist you one on one.
Beyond CAD Inc.
Beyond CAD Inc. is a U.S. based software publisher focused on building better 3D visualization and planning tools for civil and transportation. Beyond CAD Inc. (formerly Beyond CAD LLC and Beyondware) and was founded by licensed civil engineer Sam Lytle, PE.
Click here to read more about Beyond CAD Inc.
Click here to read about or transition from Beyondware to Beyond CAD Inc.
In 2010, Sam Lytle started with the Nevada Department of Transportation as a rotating engineer after graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas in civil engineering. It wasn’t long before he realized that he had spent years studying to become an engineer, only to discover that engineering and computer aided design (CAD) did not excite him and was not what he was hoping for. In 2011, Sam discovered a love for 3D visualization and, with it, a potential opportunity to hopefully get out of design, stay in the industry, and not throw away years of preparation to be a civil engineer.
An opportunity to move beyond CAD.
Beyond CAD is a software publishing company that operates remotely. We are based in the United States with employees throughout the country and plan to continue growing remotely throughout the US in the coming months and years.
We employ software engineers, technical experts and artists. Furthermore, we also occasionally use overseas talent as contractors for one-off projects.
We utilize the latest coordination, planning and development management tools to ensure efficient development and support for our users.
We release updates for our software that include new features, assets and bug fixes. While we have occasionally released updates as often as every month, we have slowed the pace of our patch release schedule starting in 2023.
Here are some of the recent improvements we’ve been excited to announce:
- Version 2.4 (April 2023): A new Photo Compositing feature, enhanced camera controls, render output file naming improvements, and lots more assets and example projects.
- Version 2.5 (September 2023): Introduced the Cloud access add-on option, as well as other improvements like saving paused traffic in place, keyboard camera controls, and automatic backups.
- Version 3.0 (May 2024): New Dynamic Assets for improved customization/realism, enhanced multi-section editing and new copy/paste functionality for faster builds, plus new sloped lane sections.
Civil FX was a 3D visualization studio founded by Sam Lytle in 2014. In August of 2020, the Civil FX brand and visualization services team was acquired by Parametrix Engineering. Sam Lytle retained the rights to Beyond CAD (previously Vision) as well as the development team and started Beyond CAD LLC as a software publishing company to continue the Vision journey. This acquisition not only helped in the funding of Beyond CAD but it also allowed a close relationship with a forward thinking and important company in Parametrix.
Civil FX represented an invaluable opportunity for Sam to learn the needs of the future users of Beyond CAD by working on hundreds of projects and for dozens of clients over the years as well as multiple projects to build and refine the technology for clients that now will be integrated into this software.
Civil FX continues to offer premium 3D visualization services for infrastructure and transportation.
Information Security
Beyond CAD’s underlying security philosophy is to collect as little data as necessary. We only collect names, email addresses, and license access data for license administration. Beyond CAD does not access or store any other information or files, including save files (.btyp files) or rendered outputs (image and video files).
Our Cloud Access option also does not save data between sessions, requiring users to proactively download files to their computers.
Only users of Beyond Typicals have access to the files they create. Beyond CAD does not access or control any customer-created files, such as .btyp files. The software is designed for customers to create section renderings independently.
Beyond Typicals is primarily a PC-first application that users download and install on Windows PCs. A Cloud version is available at an additional cost, which operates in a browser using a ‘cloud GPU’. The Cloud version does not feature file storing or sharing capabilities; users must manually download files after each cloud session.
Currently, Beyond CAD does not hold SOC2 certification but is evaluating the benefits of investing in such compliance. This consideration is based on our minimal data collection scope and the security confidence expressed by our existing customers.
Beyond CAD’s terms are outlined in the legal and privacy statements on our website:
Software License Agreement
Beyond CAD Inc. Website Privacy Policy
Customers can use Beyond Typicals for any purpose without restrictions from us on how the visuals created are used.