PLAXIS 2D 2024.2 and PLAXIS 3D 2024.2 are offered in three flexible options to tailor to the different needs of any geotechnical engineer.
PLAXIS 2D and PLAXIS 3D offer all the essential functionality to perform everyday deformation and safety analysis for soil and rock, which does not require the consideration of consolidation analysis, groundwater or thermal flow analysis, creep, or other time-dependent effects.
PLAXIS 2D and 3D Advanced offer all the essential capabilities from the PLAXIS 2D and 3D tier extending it with geotechnical capabilities to deal with steady-state groundwater flow, consolidation analysis, creep, pseudostatic analysis, and degradation of soil due to cyclic loading.
Only for PLAXIS 2D, it includes steady-state thermal flow as well.
PLAXIS 2D and 3D Ultimate offer everything from PLAXIS 2D and 3D Advanced and extend that with functionality to deal with the most challenging geotechnical projects. It includes features to analyze the effects of vibrations in the soil, like earthquake and traffic loads, or time-dependent variation to water levels, model & soil boundaries to simulate complex hydrological conditions.
For PLAXIS 2D Ultimate functionality is available to analyze the effects of time-dependent heat flow on the hydraulic and the mechanical behavior of soils and structures.
PLAXIS 2D WorkSuite provides you with the full complement of 2D geotechnical analysis products: PLAXIS 2D Ultimate and PLAXIS 2D LE.
PLAXIS 3D WorkSuite provides you with the full complement of 3D geotechnical analysis products: PLAXIS 3D Ultimate, PLAXIS 3D LE, and PLAXIS Designer.
In the tables below, you can find an overview of the features offered in the different Tiers, for e.g.:
| Constitutive Soil Models | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linear elastic | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Mohr-Coulomb | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hardening Soil | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hardening Soil Small Strain Stiffness | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| NGI-ADP | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Modified Cam-Clay | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Soft Soil | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Soft Soil Creep | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Sekiguchi Ohta (Viscid) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Sekiguchi Ohta (Inviscid) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Jointed Rock model | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Hoek-Brown, with Parameter guide | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| UDCAM-S and Cyclic Accumulation tool | ✔ | ✔ | |
| UBC3D-PLM (Liquefaction) | ✔ | ||
| Concrete | ✔ | ✔ | |
| User Defined Soil Models | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| PLAXIS UDSMs | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Clay And Sand Model (CASM)NEW i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Creep-SCLAY1S | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Barcelona Basic: unsaturated soil | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Fluid | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Frozen and Unfrozen Soil2 | ✔1 | ||
| Generalized Hardening Soil i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Hoek-Brown with softening (Strength softening and GSI softening models) i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Hypoplastic model with inter-granular strain | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Isostropic Jointed Rock with Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Masonry | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| N2PC-MCT Rock creep (Norton-based Double Power Creep with MC and Tension cut-off failure surface) i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| NorSand i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| OverConsolidated Clay (OC-Clay) i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| PM4Sand2 i | ✔1 | ||
| PM4Silt2 i | ✔1 | ||
| SANISAND-MS3 i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| SHANSEP Mohr-Coulomb | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| SHANSEP NGI-ADP | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Swelling rockNEW i | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Visco-elastic perfectly plastic | ✔1 | ✔1 | |
| Soil material drainage types | |||
| Drained | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Undrained A | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Undrained B | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Undrained C | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Non-porous | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Groundwater flow material properties | |||
| Groundwater properties | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Soil classification systems (Hypres, USDA etc) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Predefined data sets for Approximate Van Genuchten models (soil) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Thermal flow material properties2 | |||
| Thermal properties for soil | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Thermal properties for structural elements (excl. embedded beam) | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Dynamics material properties | |||
| Rayleigh damping for soil | ✔ | ||
| Rayleigh damping for structural elements | ✔ | ||
| Structural element material types | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mohr-Coulomb for Discontinuities | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Plates: Elastic, ElastoplasticNEW | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Geogrids: Elastic, Elastoplastic & Visco-elastic | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Embedded beams: Elastic, Elastoplastic | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Cables: Elastic, Elastoplastic2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Fixed-end anchors: Elastic, Elastoplastic (with residual strength) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Node-to-node Anchors: Elastic, Elastoplastic (with residual strength) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Calculation types | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initial stress generation | |||
| K0 procedure | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Gravity loading | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Field stress | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Flow only | ✔ | ||
| Deformation calculation types | |||
| Plastic | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Safety analysis | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Consolidation | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Dynamics | ✔ | ||
| Dynamics with consolidation | ✔ | ||
| Fully coupled flow-deformation | ✔ | ||
| Pore pressure calculation | |||
| Phreatic level | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Use pore pressures from previous phase | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Steady state groundwater flow | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Transient groundwater flow | ✔ | ||
| Thermal calculation types2 | |||
| Ignore temperature | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Earth gradient | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Use temperatures from previous phase | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Steady state thermal flow | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Transient thermal flow | ✔ | ||
| Project and model properties | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Selection of imperial and SI units for length, force etc. | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Plane strain and axi-symmetric models2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| 6-noded and 15-noded 2D element types2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| 10-noded 3D tetrahedral element types3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Constants tab in Project properties2 | ✔ | ✔ |
| Geometry creation | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create Borehole tool | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Select, Move, Rotate and Array tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Soil polygon, Soil rectangle tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create NURBS Curve and NURBS surface tools3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Polycurve designer tool2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Combine polygon tool3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Intersect, Combine, Extrude, Revolve around Axis tools3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Loft Polycurve and Blend Surfaces tools3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Point, Line and Surface3 load tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Point, Line and Surface3 prescribed displacement tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Interface tool | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Discontinuity tool | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Plate, Geogrid tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Fixed-end anchor, Node-to-node anchor tools | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Embedded beam tool | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Cables tool | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Line contraction tool2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Surface contraction tool3 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create Well and Drain tools | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Create Groundwater flow boundary conditions tools | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Create Thermal flow boundary condition tool2 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Create Added mass tool | ✔ | ||
| Create Moving point load and Moving line load tools3 | ✔ | ||
| Tunnel Designer | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Reinforcement (Rockbolts) definition | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Reinforcement (Cables) definitionNEW | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Reinforcement (Umbrella arches) definition3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Girder/beam definition3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Definition of excavation sequence3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Tunnel splitting tool3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Automatic Generation of staged construction phases for tunnels3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Time-dependent functions | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time-dependent waterlevels | ✔ | ||
| Time-dependent groundwater flow boundary conditions | ✔ | ||
| Definition of flow functions for head and discharge changes | ✔ | ||
| Dynamic components in x, y, or z3 direction for loads | ✔ | ||
| Dynamic components in x, y, or z3 direction for displacements | ✔ | ||
| Definition of Dynamic multipliers to create vibration signals | ✔ | ||
| Definition of movement functions for velocity changes in time3 | ✔ | ||
| Earthquake signals | |||
| Definition of Dynamic multipliers to create earthquake signals | ✔ | ||
| Scaling tools for earthquake signals | ✔ | ||
| Fourier spectra, response spectra, Arias intensity plots | ✔ | ||
| Drift correction for earthquake signals | ✔ | ||
| Dynamics boundary conditions | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viscous boundaries | ✔ | ||
| Tied degrees of freedom2 | ✔ | ||
| Free field boundaries | ✔ | ||
| Compliant base boundary | ✔ | ||
| All nodes fixity | ✔ |
| Postprocessing & results | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Various ways to display forces, displacements, stresses and strains in contour, vector, and iso-surface plots |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Tables of results with copy, sorting and filter options | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Load-Displacement curves | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Curve manager to plot graphs of various results | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Cross-section tools and cross-section curves | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automatic and manual centerline extraction for structural forces plots of volume plates2 |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automatic and manual centerline extraction for structural forces plots of volume piles3 |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Resulting forces view2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Plot annotations2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Animations | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Report generator | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Printing and saving plots & curves | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Plots and Curves of accelerations and velocities for Dynamics phases | ✔ | ||
| Structural forces envelopes for Dynamic phases | ✔ | ||
| Curve plots of Pseudo Spectral Acceleration (PSA) | ✔ | ||
| PSA: Switch between time and frequency represenatons | ✔ | ||
| Plots and curves of pore pressures for phreatic level calculations |
✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Plots and curves of pore pressures, saturation, suction, and Darcy flux for steady state groundwater flow calculations |
✔ | ✔ | |
| Plots and curves of pore pressures, saturation, suction, and Darcy flux for transient groundwater flow |
✔ | ||
| Plots and curves of pore pressures, saturation, suction, and Darcy flux for fully coupled flow deformation calculations |
✔ | ||
| Plots and curves of temperature, ice saturation and heat flux for steady state thermal flow calculations2 |
✔ | ✔ | |
| Plots and curves of temperature, ice saturation and heat flux for transient thermal flow2 |
✔ | ✔ | |
| Plots and curves of temperature, ice saturation and heat flux for full thermo-hydro-mechanical coupled calculations2 |
✔ | ✔ | |
| Export of results to ParaviewTP i | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Other features, tools and interoperability | PLAXIS 2D/3D | PLAXIS 2D/3D Advanced | PLAXIS 2D/3D Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spatial variation of preconsolidation2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Tunnel deconfinement2 | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Create cluster field stress | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Staged construction | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Automatic regeneration of construction stages | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Design approaches2 | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Pseudostatic analysis | ✔ | ✔ | |
| 1D Site response analysis tool2 | ✔1 | ||
| Generate Stratigraphy from imported CPT Logs | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| SoilTest and parameter optimization tool | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Sensitivity analysis and Parameter variation2 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Multicore and parallel calculation | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Calculation manager | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| PLAXIS 2D LE model import2TP | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| GeoStudio 2D model import2TP | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Export to GeoStudio 2D model2TP | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| PLAXIS 2D to PLAXIS 3D converter | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Soil structure interaction with structural packages through super element3TP | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| SACS-PLAXIS Sucket Bucket Analysis tool3TP | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Command line input (Input, Output & SoilTest) | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Command line autocomplete (Input, Output & SoilTest) | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Commands runner (Input, Output & SoilTest) | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Macro library and running macros (Input, Output & SoilTest) | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Remote scripting for Input, Output & SoilTest | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Scripting reference | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Cloud Services and Connected Workflow | |||
| Seequent Central: read cross sections and material info2NEW | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Seequent Central: import of surfaces3TP | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Projectwise integration: loading from ProjectWise server i | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Projectwise integration: saving to ProjectWise server i | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Bentley Cloud Services: personal & project portal | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| Bentley Cloud Services: project association | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD import and export | |||
| CAD import and export of common formats | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD import: closed polycurves as polygons2 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD: IFC Import of parametric geometric objects3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| IFC supported types: IfcBeam, IfcColumn, IfcFooting, IfcPile, IfcPlate, IfcRoof, IfcSlab IfcWall |
✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD: import point clouds3 i | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD: import parametric and triangulated surfaces3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| parametric geometry: .BREP, .DXF, .STEP, .STP triangulated surfaces: .OBJ, *.STL |
✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD: import Water levels | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |
| CAD: import Borehole top and bottom surface3 | ✔1 | ✔1 | ✔1 |