The Shanghai Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute is renowned for its expertise in bridge design, having designed nearly all major bridges in Shanghai. However, their projects extend well beyond the city. A prime example is the Ganjiang Second Bridge in Jiangxi Province. This bridge features a unique “fish-shaped” main tower that harmonizes seamlessly with the surrounding landscape. Its structure is complex, combining a steel superstructure, a concrete substructure, and a steel-concrete composite section in the middle. Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology plays a crucial role in defining the responsibilities and coordination among engineers throughout the project.
The bridge design is led by the institute’s team, where engineers from various disciplines collaborate closely. A senior civil design engineer serves as the project manager, overseeing the overall design. Within the team, one engineer focuses specifically on the skeleton design, which forms the foundational framework of the entire bridge. Another engineer specializes in steel structures, while a designer is dedicated to developing a comprehensive component library containing various bridge elements.
By enabling clear task division and coordination, BIM facilitates seamless collaborative design within the institute, ensuring efficient management of the entire project.
During the conceptual design phase, advanced software tools allow designers to quickly model complex curves such as skeleton lines, even supporting digital sketch tablets. Once the skeleton line is established, the component library becomes essential. This library contains intelligent, rule-driven parametric objects—piers, beams, columns, and more—organized into clear categories. Designers select components from the library and place them along the skeleton line, where each component automatically adjusts its dimensions to fit the design. This process generates detailed, fully coordinated BIM models. If the skeleton line is modified, all associated components update automatically, drastically reducing revision time.
To better communicate design concepts, the institute creates animations of proposed solutions. Compared to static 3D renderings, these animations provide richer, more dynamic presentations that effectively convey complex information.
In the construction drawing phase, the CIV module within the software identifies clashes and errors in the design, helping to avoid conflicts before construction begins. Users can input measurements for analysis and optimization, adding an important layer of safety checks that are vital for bridge design and construction.
In practice, this software significantly reduces the challenges associated with design modifications—an inevitable part of bridge projects. Historically, last-minute changes could take as much or more time than the initial design process itself.
Conclusion:
The 3DExperience platform’s municipal engineering construction solution dramatically simplifies design change management, which is critical given the frequent and unpredictable nature of such changes during construction. Previously, handling design revisions was a major source of delays and frustration.
Dassault Systèmes’ 3DExperience platform has provided substantial benefits to the design institute. Known as a leader in the manufacturing industry, Dassault Systèmes is often credited with pioneering innovations that later transform civil engineering practices.
Furthermore, their municipal engineering construction solutions help shorten overall project timelines. It is widely recognized that designers typically spend one-third of their time on design work and two-thirds on design communication. BIM not only streamlines the design process but also accelerates communication, significantly reducing costs.
By partnering with Dassault Systèmes to customize their BIM platform, the design institute effectively addressed challenges in civil design. Overall, the 3DExperience platform proves to be a reliable and innovative tool, driving large-scale industrialization forward.
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