Kunming Survey, Design and Research Institute of China Hydropower Engineering Corporation (commonly known as “HydroChina”) was established in 1957. With a development history spanning over 55 years, our core expertise lies in design, supervision, and EPC general contracting for water conservancy and hydropower projects, as well as municipal engineering. Our primary markets include southwestern China and international regions. Currently, we employ more than 1,500 staff, 90% of whom are engineers. Kunming Institute has successfully completed numerous outstanding water conservancy and hydropower design projects, such as the Xiaowan, Nuozhadu, and Lubuge Hydropower Stations. These projects have garnered various national awards, with Xiaowan Hydropower Station recognized as the world’s first concrete hyperbolic arch dam.
Over the past five decades, Kunming Institute has undertaken more than 400 national survey and design projects across large, medium, and small-scale water conservancy and hydropower developments. Our work spans 13 design and production departments. These achievements have earned unanimous praise, establishing Kunming Institute as a leader among domestic and international design institutes. This raises the question: how does Kunming Institute maintain such strong engineering design capabilities?
Cao Yinan, Deputy Chief Engineer of Kunming Institute, Director of the Science and Technology Information Management Department, and Director of the 3D Design Supervision Department, shared his insights. He emphasized that Kunming Institute places great importance on informatization, especially in production modernization. The core feature is the informatization process itself. The institute was an early adopter of the advanced Building Information Modeling (BIM) concept, which has significantly elevated our overall digital capabilities.
Image: Rendering of the Huangdeng Hydropower Station on the Lancang River in Yunnan Province
Introducing the BIM Concept
Statistics show that the use of BIM technology in design projects abroad is growing annually by 30% to 40%. In China, design firms in cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are more active in adopting BIM, reflecting rapid growth rates. However, in other regions, BIM remains at an exploratory stage. Cao Yinan remarked, “The key driver behind BIM adoption is market demand, specifically recognition by investors and owners. If design institutes wait for owners to impose BIM requirements, it may already be too late. In terms of BIM application, we are at the forefront.”
Although Autodesk introduced the BIM concept in 2002, it has only been adopted in China within the last few years. Cao Yinan recalled his first experience with BIM in 2008, describing it with six words: shock, fear, and anxiety. He explained, “The shock was inevitable; the anxiety stemmed from seeing others advance ahead of us; and the fear was that without BIM, being outcompeted was only a matter of time. Which design firm still uses pencils to create drawings nowadays? Such methods have long been obsolete.”
Image: Realistic rendering of Huangdeng Hydropower Station on Lancang River in Yunnan Province
Since embracing BIM, Cao Yinan has led the introduction of the concept at Kunming Institute, making it one of the earliest Chinese design institutes to apply BIM. Since 2008, over 20 projects have been planned and executed using BIM, earning widespread acclaim from owners and industry professionals. Today, Kunming Institute holds a leading position in BIM application in China, supported by a comprehensive research and development plan.
The Pinnacle of BIM Application
Upon receiving the Huangdeng Hydropower Station project, Kunming Institute committed to fully implementing BIM throughout all phases—from design through to construction. The project’s construction timeline spans 81 months, intertwining design and construction phases, which demands high efficiency from both departments.
Image: Structural Model of Huangdeng Hydropower Station Dam on Lancang River in Yunnan Province
Traditional two-dimensional design methods often faced significant challenges that tested designers’ efficiency. With the shift to three-dimensional design, many of these issues are easily resolved. As a result, Kunming Institute has actively promoted 3D design across traditional fields.
Yang Hongbin, Deputy Chief Engineer of Kunming Institute’s Construction Branch and Manager of the Construction Professional 3D Design Project Department, stated, “In the Huangdeng project, 3D design was integrated into every stage—from construction layout, buildings, and roads, to slag yards, material yards, various construction factories, and internal subsystems.” The entire design cycle employed 3D design, reducing the timeline from planning to final design completion to just over two months—a remarkable improvement over traditional methods.
During the Huangdeng project, more than 20 professional departments collaborated, involving 40 to 100 personnel from 43 departments. The project’s complexity and workload were substantial. However, BIM enabled enhanced parallelism and productivity, significantly shortening the production cycle.
Engineers worked across multiple disciplines and software platforms, such as Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk Infrastructure Modeler. Efficient coordination was necessary to manage diverse software and design outputs. Kunming Institute adopted a “point and surface” split management approach—a new, efficient method that relies on a unified data storage platform. When design changes occur, only specific parts are updated, preventing disruption to the overall project. This streamlined process impresses even project owners, delivering “shocking” results. From 3D design to overall project management, BIM has driven a qualitative leap for the Kunming Institute design team.
Finding Common Ground Between BIM and Reality
How did Kunming Institute achieve such success with the Huangdeng project? Cao Yinan explained, “We had already begun focusing on comprehensive project engineering management, introducing a full life cycle management concept for water conservancy and hydropower projects. While many design firms focus solely on 3D design, we start there and extend into comprehensive project management.”
This full life cycle management approach enables designers, owners, constructors, and supervisors to share a unified model. This transparency enhances mutual understanding and communication, improves construction quality, and ensures timely progress.
Full life cycle management encompasses every phase—from construction initiation to the end of the building’s lifespan. Kunming Institute not only presents design and construction data to owners but also assists them in long-term maintenance and management, often spanning decades to centuries. This makes owners the greatest beneficiaries of BIM-enabled design.
Driven by BIM, many software vendors have launched management tools. As Kunming Institute promotes full life cycle management, it continuously explores compatible design tools and platforms. After thorough research, Autodesk software was chosen as the BIM partner. This decision was based on Autodesk’s widespread use of AutoCAD, familiarity among designers, and Autodesk’s global leadership in 2D and 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software. Autodesk’s AutoCAD Civil 3D and Revit series meet Kunming Institute’s BIM design requirements, showcasing Autodesk’s strengths.
Image: Model of Construction Camp Layout for Huangdeng Hydropower Station on Lancang River in Yunnan Province
BIM technology has revolutionized design concepts within enterprises, greatly improving design efficiency and quality while providing intuitive and effective visualization. The potential applications of BIM are expansive. Regarding BIM’s future, Cao Yinan noted, “Our society is moving toward cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Everyone uses smart devices like PDAs and smartphones. BIM captures and manages engineering information in a way that aligns perfectly with this trend, encompassing data collection, transmission, and utilization.”
As BIM adoption deepens, survey and design firms, knowledge-intensive industries, and technology innovators must embrace this trend or risk obsolescence. Continuous improvement and deeper BIM integration into practical workflows are essential. In an era marked by cloud computing, IoT, and the proliferation of smart devices, design companies must prioritize BIM adoption to maintain a competitive edge.
Image: Realistic rendering of Huangdeng Hydropower Station on Lancang River in Yunnan Province
Must log in before commenting!
Sign Up