🗓️ March 2025 Challenge - Markup Madness!

Marco M · 2025-03-03T16:59:28+00:00

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Hi everyone!

March is here, and that means it’s time for Markup Madness! This month, we’re putting the spotlight on markups. Whether it’s a creative use of shapes, colors, callouts, stamps, or images, we want to see how you bring clarity, efficiency, and maybe a little fun, to your documents.

And since it’s March Madness season 🏀, we’re adding a fun twist! We’ll be collecting markup entries for the first three weeks and then putting the top markups up for a vote in Week 4. The custom markup with the most votes will be crowned the winner and announced in early April.

Please make sure to review our Rules & Guidelines before participating.

📢 How It Works 📋️

Weeks 1 - 3 (March 1 - 21): Submit your favorite custom markup! Share a screenshot and/or description of how you use markups in Bluebeam.
Week 4 (March 24 - 29): The top 10 entries will be featured in a community poll, and everyone can vote for their favorite. If there are more than 10, the Community Team will vote for the best markups to move on.
Winner Announced (April 4): The markup with the most votes wins and gets bragging rights and a $50 Snappy gift!

Monthly Challenge- Markup Madness (1).svg

🎖️ Recognition & Prize 🎁

All members that participate by posting their markup for voting or commenting will earn a special Markup Madness badge and points to level up in the community.
The winner of this challenge after voting will receive a $50 gift through Snappy.

💬 Share & Vote 📊

Post your favorite custom markup. Feel free to include any creative applications. How do you use markups to speed up reviews, organize information, or enhance clarity?
The community will vote on the top entries and the winner will be announced in April!

📚️ Resources 🧠

Customizing Markups

https://youtu.be/WgC24KNBLjw?si=djEp0zs4h6JX2Rpa

We can’t wait to see your markups in action! Let’s make this a month of creativity, collaboration, and competition.

Ready to enter? Drop your favorite custom markup below! ⬇️

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Community Activity

Comments

Ali Shrih

Here is a markup I use to create a color-coded table used to display a short piece of information. The table colors will be matched to line colors used on the pdf.

Note: You are supposed to be able to double-click on any text box in the group and edit the text in it. Unfortunately, the new Bluebeam update 21.4 seems to have broken that behavior. The attached table works on my machine, but I cannot guarantee that it will work on yours.

Table Markup 01_Shrih.pdf

vfrench

Example of a security camera which rotates to display the coverage…

https://youtu.be/7d63y7VzgvY

James Schmidt

I am sharing how I manage markups related to generating RFI's. I have some 360 camera workflows that are also very cool but this is one that I reviewed with Skylar Denney Senior Product Designer at Bluebeam Inc. who was conducting a study to better understand how professionals like us use Bluebeam in our daily work. We talked for a while and this workflow for RFI generation was something that she found to be very helpful for such a task.

Multiple files, containing RFI Questions / Clarifications and Exclusions

Open the files that have the data,
Click Summary / CSV Summary
"Add" Open Files
Load Config (.bcf file) that offers, Subject, Page Label, Comments & File Name and under Include select Markups.

Click "OK" and take the data and paste it in to a pre filled out template that is ready to name and send.

Now the receiving person can see the RFI Questions / Clarifications and Exclusions as well as the Document and Page where they are in the bid documents for ease of use and clarity.

Please see link to video, its a little quiet.

https://youtu.be/DfmxPYQOqc0

Hope this helps.

Happy Bluebeam-ing!

Angela Aff

These are AMAZING!!! It's markup madness!!

Doug McLean

This is something I call, "A better grouped markup".

We actually use several of these in our workflow as it helps us take of the main product, plus the underlying substrate.
The real trick though is to get your markups out of Revu and into Power Query in Excel. Once you're in there, the possibilities are almost endless.
Enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IwemTvMsvU&t=1s

Jorge Contreras

@James Schmidt We use an identical WF for capturing, sharing, and responding to design reviews in our Facilities group.

Would love there to be a Bluebeam option to export using a template to be able to skip the copy and paste step.

James Schmidt

That's outstanding!

There are a couple ways to show it in a PDF Summary and some cool "Forms Tricks" for allowing functionality in other .pdf programs, (for answers or directives) but they just aren't as easy as sending a S.S. …..Everyone I work with knows how to use a Spreadsheet , not everyone knows how to use REVU®. I keep converting people every day, showing them the magic of Bluebeam, and bringing them into the fold.

Happy Bluebeaming!

fnava

Have you tried using the Power Query in Excel? It does everything you're doing, it will just automatically update the all the date when you export from BB.

Doug McLean

Did you check out my video above?
Using Power Query turns your markups into a powerhouse.

fnava

Very helpful video, just wish I had seen it sooner. I am still learning Power Query, but so far it has really blown me away.

bcostlow

You got me interested in learning more about Power Query, so I did a search for "Bluebeam Power Query" and your videos with the guys from Morning Coffee Revu popped right up. I'm watching the first one as I'm typing this. Thanks for the info, Doug.

PS - I thought your name seemed familiar. Aren't you pretty active on the MCR webinars? I've been to about a dozen of them, and I think I remember seeing you participating in them.

bcostlow

When our foremen or project managers begin planning the electrical install, they will start with marking up the single-line diagram. I have been helping to make a company standard profile designed specifically for this part of the takeoff, and within it is a tool chest streamlined for the task. The key tool to this operation is a custom grouped markup for identifying the Run ID, Conduit type, Circuit info, and more.

It is composed of a text box, ellipse, and polyline, with the text box as the top element of the group.

The text box is considered the "Run ID", and so by having it as the top of the group the Run ID can be editied by double-clicking the group or by making the change in the comments property in the Properties Panel or in the Markups List.

As you'll see, there is currently no length. To get that property, they will use customized color-coded polylength measurement tools. On the permit drawings, they will place markups to indicate the first means of disconnect for each conduit run, and then draw a proposed path to follow for the install, using the polylength tool appropriate for that run. Then, the tag used in the single-line is copied to the install drawing and the two markups are grouped together. This grouping sequence gives us a markup length (in decimal feet) to begin the initial conduit order. Added length is an estimated amount used to account for the wire needed to terminate the wires. Model length is manually assigned once a true-tape measurement is made in the field. This is what is used for ordering wire harnesses.

Now, we can export the markups to Excel where all these custom columns are put to great use in creating panel schedules, wire orders, and more.

So, that's my humble little conduit tag. The one shown is the EMT tag. PVC, RMC, IMC, FMC, and FNC are color coded for quick identification. These are actually the old look. I'm working on making them easier to see both on screen and printed, while also making the colors more distinct. Here's a quick look at how things are at the moment with the tool chests discussed. This particular setup is for branch conduit drawings, using a slightly different Profile. The feeders discussed above have similar options but the Layer is Feeder Conduit instead.

Angela Aff

Nice job, @Doug McLean! This is impressive. Way over my head but I know this is a popular topic and I've heard BUG members talk about this before, too!

vfrench

https://youtu.be/LRWPwb7ic6g

So, seeing the chat above about Bluebeam being used with Power Query in Excel, I thought I'd do another quick video demonstrating one of the workflows that I use regularly and which I demonstrated at the London BUG.

This just shows how one markup in Bluebeam can be changed into an endless amount of information in Excel.

Hopefully, this will give a few people ideas for upgrading their workflows!

Doug McLean

It really does turn your markups loose

Marco M

Last week to get your favorite custom markup added before voting! 📊

Marco M

This challenge has officially closed.

There is a lot of good information posted here so we may highlight some of it at a later date! Thanks to all that participated!

I'll be posting the poll for voting on the winner soon. Keep an eye out in the Monthly Challenges section.