Just wondering what everyone is using in the field other than an IPad? Any Galaxy Tab, etc. users out there? If so, have you got any feedback?
Tried using microsoft surface but it's not user friendly. went with ipad instead.
Thanks for this feedback @owen_archmill !
Ipad for the last 8 years.
Thanks @Joel Glanton !
I've been using a Dell 7320 Detachable for a couple of years. The active pen worked well until I lost it. Still need to replace that . . . . I've never used Bluebeam on anything besides Windows, so I don't know if iPad versions work differently or better than what I describe below.
Anyway, I typically use it in full tablet mode while in the field. Bluebeam works decently for me, but it requires some setup to get it right. I use "Full Screen" mode most of the time and laid out the floating toolbar with my most frequently used tools and some other important ones like "save." It's also important to have some good toolboxes e.g. I have electrical devices in a toolbox and I can mark approximate locations quickly as I go.
While it is possible to mark things to exact scale, Bluebeam does not work well in touch mode for that—drawing a dimension or object displays the floating "height" "width" "rotation" dialog.:
At my desk, I can hit the "tab" key and type in exact numbers. There's not really an analogous action on a touch screen. As a result, I tend to place non-scaled objects approximately and put exact dimensions in the item's note.
Text input is tricky. The Bluebeam handwriting recognition does not work well for me, so I like to tap in text/input fields to get the Windows touch keyboard and type that way. You can also just use the pen tool to write directly on a drawing. My handwriting is too awful for that to work very well for me. It could be great for other people.
Photographs can be added in two ways. You can capture a picture and lay it directly on the drawing (messy if you have more than one) or you can capture into the note for an object. With the latter, Bluebeam displays a small camera icon near the notated object. Clicking it opens up the photos. It allows multiple captures as well, so you can take several pictures of the same thing and keep them hidden until wanted.
Most of my other frustrations are hardware related (the PC's camera is terrible, I feel the case is designed upside-down) and could be better with a different machine, but we take what IT provides.
The PC works well enough for what I need to do most of the time. Some things could be easier and some of that is taking the time to get the interface setup in better ways for my workflow.
I recently discovered a bluebeam file which included lines with line style to suit different type of steel sections. The way the line style worked is that if the the page was 1:10 scale and the line weight was 1.0, the line style would produce a side on profile of a given steel I beam to scale. I thought this simplified…
I erased one digit of the original pdf. Then added one character in text box over the erased area. Color is black. When I print, the character prints gray. And it looks gray in my "recents". (see "5" below) Anyone have a clue why?
Following on from a discussion that I was having with someone the other day, how many of you use a custom profile? And, more importantly from my point of view, how many of you use multiple profiles? I have many profiles - different trades, several for measuring groundworks (civil engineering) alone, etc.. I thought many…
I would like a .BTX file with all Electrical and AV Symbols in it. I would like to mark up plans for material Takes.
When using the highlighter to mark completed changes, it often jumps into "text" mode every time it goes over letters, etc. Is there a way to turn this off so I don't accidentally highlight a bunch of text? I know you can hold down the CNTL button, but I'd like something that works more smoothly.
I am interested in understanding how my team can utilize BBM in the field to perform construction punchlist with notes and pictures and how this data can turn into report. Ideally we would like to have a toolkit available. What is the timeline for this functionality?
I am trying to get or develop a way how I could get an automatic distance between two devices taking into account some parameters that I define
If I measure some items several times, and then an hour later find some more to measure, can I reuse the markups I used initially without adding to the Toolbox? I see there is a format painter but this just changes the markup appearance without changing the markup properties such as layer, description, etc. If I added…
I'm using the mobile app for iPhone and my project recently stopped updating all the changes I make on my laptop. I'm currently running back and forth taking pictures of different details and going back to the building to layout work for my guys. Is anyone else experiencing this issue? I hope it's something really dumb…
I am open to purchasing a higher license, but first I want to see if this will work like I am hoping it will. My company adds user data in a spreadsheet (e.g. IP Addresses, SN, etc), and we would like that info to go directly into our as built drawings. The idea being that we would only have to update the information in…
