The Ultimate "Start Here" Guide for Owner/Operator

Construction Leaders · 2025-07-09T19:37:10+00:00

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I purchased Bluebeam. I'm co—owner of a small civil contractor. I'm multifaceted; project management, estimator, and sometimes superintendent.
We bought Bluebeam for the following reason: "Systematically increase our ability to bid and win projects". Right now, it feels like there is too much to learn in Bluebeam. What are the learning paths you recommend?

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Doug McLean

start with Bluebeam University. Its basic, but it will get you going.
I would HIGHLY recommend a full on Training Course by a Bluebeam Certified Instructor.
Check with your local Construction Association to see if they have anything.

There will also be courses at Unbound if you want to make that trek.

lderk

I also agree that Bluebeam University is a good start. Revu Help is also easy to navigate (https://support.bluebeam.com/online-help/revu20/Content/RevuHelp/Dashboard.htm).

I was hired at my current job because of my Bluebeam experience and have created several instruction manuals based on the Revu Help website. Hiring a certified Bluebeam instructor can get pricey, but if you can get customized one-on-one training, it is well worth the cost. I have been using Blue beam for well over a decade and it is a powerful tool to bid faster and more accurately.

Good luck on your journey!

Josh Gebelein

Ask yourself what would help you more quickly and accurately create bid estimates and bid documents. Write a short list. Look up ways to use Bluebeam to specifically do those things and test a few out on a project you previously bid or a new simple one. For example, you might look at how to do quick material takeoffs and export that data to excel.

Ruben Corrales

If you have access to LinkedIn learning, there are great short courses for different starting levels

Doug McLean

and if you really want to see what you can do with markups exported to Excel can do for you, come see my course on Super Charging your Revu Data with Excel using Power Query at Unbound.

Luke Shiras

These are good suggestions, and you should follow up on them. I'm an architect, so my needs/experience will be very different than yours, but you're probably looking for some practical tools to help you get started. Here are some tools you should learn more about, as they will likely become an integral part of your workflow.

Dynamic Fill
Visual Search
Overlay Pages
Compare Document
Count
Statuses
Studio Sessions

I'm sure there are plenty more tips and tricks others can suggest, like custom line types, but I'll leave that to those more aligned with what you do.

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