We're looking to invest in some estimating software and was just wondering whether Bluebeam is capable of doing what Planswift does
I use Bluebeam because I can easily manipulate drawings, customise markups to clearly detail what has been measured, add custom columns so my markups can be allocated to sections of work, etc.. I looked at several other packages but none of them offered me the flexibility that I needed to create different workflows for different trades.
@Peter Jury, I had a similar question on comparisons because PlanSwift is much more intuitive but the things required by Bluebeam to do takeoffs are hidden in tabs and tables where in PlanSwift I could make folders to store all my QTO takeoffs and the legends were much easier to customize.
What did you end up learning?
I don't use it for estimates but if that's a focus of your workflow, I would think you could make a custom profile where the tools you need are set to be easier to find. From custom Tool Sets to custom toolbars.
I have different profiles for measuring different trades - I even have several profiles just for measuring groundworks including foundations, external works, retaining walls, drainage, etc..
This is because not only do I only need certain tools for each workflow but I also have custom columns which collect specific information which I need in order to complete my tenders.
My tools are easily accessible but also many of them automatically generate the information for custom columns e.g. a sewer run from an internal SVP (foul drainage) will self populate with the fact that it starts with an SVP, it will be 100mm diameter pipe and in UPVC and the trench will have as dug back fill. For this item all I will need to do is enter the details of where it ends such as a manhole or joining onto another drainage run.
That sounds impressive @vfrench maybe you should make a how-to video.
Hi @Luke Shiras
This is a link to a video where I demonstrate the drainage workflow. You'll see as I am marking up much of the information required in the custom columns is prepopulated leaving the absolute minimum of manual input where there are 'variables'.
There are also a few 'bonus' bits in here such as exporting to Excel, copying markups from one scale to another, using the lasoo tool, etc..
Very nice, @vfrench!
Most of that went over my head but I could see how useful it was, @vfrench. Thanks for sharing.
In our environment, we have "office workers" who predominantly have Adobe licenses and "field workers" who all use Bluebeam. I've recently been told when one of the office workers marks up/makes notes on a PDF with Microsoft Edge, this cannot be seen by the Bluebeam users. I've tested this and the notes can be seen in the…
Hi All, I would like Bluebeam create Page Labels and Bookmarks from the bookmark meta data in my PDFs. However in their PDF exports AutoCAD includes a Sheet and Views bookmark above the sheet number and description one. This seem to mess up Bluebeam's ability to create the labels automatically. I would use Page Area option…
As I understand it, Revu for iOS will be removed from the App Store at the end of this year. Users are recommended to use Cloud instead, which imo hasn’t caught up with Revu for iOS, yet. Furthermore Revu for iOS could be used by users for editing in Studio Project without a subscription. Will Cloud also support this? I’m…
In the past month or so, bluebeam has been crashing when editing text boxes. Doesn't always happen, but this is extremely frustrating. It's also been buggy with properties menus disappearing or showing properties for a markup that I didn't select.
How do I erase a mark up I did on a drawing?
I remember seeing/hearing at Unbound that you could click on a measurement mark-up and change it to a different kind. i.e., change a polyline sketch to a volume. Is that a feature that is coming or something that is already possible?
Hi All, I have single PDFs of my Arch., Struc. and Civil drawings. I would like to Slip Sheet new revisions of individual sheets into these plans separately and still have access to the previous revision's sheets. Is this best done through Sets or is there another way. Sets seems to be used to combine single PDFs into…
Is it a setting I am missing or do the sheet labels not show up in Bluebeam cloud? Below same project in Cloud and Client.
Hello Everyone, I am looking for help because some of the symbols, while using the "Arial" font, turn into squares. What could be the issue? Thank you in advance!
Does anyone know if there is a quick way (or any way) to do a bulk 'Find & Replace' on a markup? For example, I have x number of yellow widgets on a markup but the specification changes and I need to replace all the yellow ones with red ones instead. I want to be able to tell Revu to find all the yellow widgets, delete…
