Bluebeam Revu - Avis

I can't say enough good things about this software using it in the construction industry. I have used multiple different PDF editors but nothing comes close to as how good BlueBeam is. There is not much of a learning curve and you can learn the basics very quickly. It goes about as advanced as you would need and can do almost anything.

Marking up blueprints is straightforward and easy to do. There are multiple different callout shapes and easily input the tag on it. You can have a favorite toolset on a window for the most frequently used items such as your stamp, signature, check mark, etc... Once you collaborate the blueprint you can measure dimensions, surface, and volume.

Bluebeam integrates into most other software such as browsers, Microsoft Excel, and word. It has a quick button in these programs to easily convert it into a PDF inside of Bluebeam. If it does not have integration with the software you can print something and use Bluebeam as a printer to convert it into a PDF inside Bluebeam. You can even set spaces and do punch lists as well.

Everyone I work with loves with the product and nobody has a bad thing to say about it.

The only complaint I have been able to come up with but I'm sure it is user error is that my customized toolbar keeps reverting back to the default. I have locked the toolbar and messed with it but randomly every now goes back. I am unsure why this happens and is pretty frustrating when it does. Other than this no complaints.

Bluebeam is easy to use and has a vast amount of tools available for handling anything you want to do with a document.

The program can be slow on a tablet away from the office.

All the pros of this software are irrelevant because of how bad the support staff is.

Customer support is the worst I have ever dealt with. I bought bluebeam because the explained all of the great things you can do connecting to your employees through their I pad and I phone apps. After looking into it we were excited and bought the program. After the program was purchased they explained to be that I can't use the I phone app unless I purchase the $150 maintenance plan. Felt like I got suckered in but also figured I am new to the program and the added help couldn't hurt. 3 months in and I have one of our foremans I pad that will not connect to Blue beam. I call tech support and they inform that they cannot help be over the phone and that I need to email them. After explaining to them that I have 20 employees sitting on a job site with no plans and nothing to do they inform me again that all they can do is have me email me the problem because tech support over the phone doesn't cover the i pad and the i phone apps. Keep in mind I had to have the tech support in order to use the I phone app??? It has been an hour and a half and I just had to send all of our employees home with no work. I will be leaving bluebeam and moving our company to procore.

Bluebeam is one of the best PDF management programs, particularly in the realm of construction projects, as it allows us to highlight the details of plans and allocate measurements accurately, allowing us to take measurements directly and also calculate areas and sizes directly from PDF files, even if it is a manual drawing. The ability to alter texts is fantastic, and I also enjoy that new elements, symbols, and even pagination can be added with relative ease. It's simple to add a digital signature, which is useful for keeping tabs on who approved and received credit for files that were shared across teams.

Once you get past the initial learning curve, using Bluebeam is simple, but the high annual subscription costs mean that we can't afford to include all of our members.

Every day I am learning about a new feature that makes life even easier in the industry. Love their takoff capabilities, measuring, stamps, and just the general fact that I can view PDFs and manipulate them. I have had VERY few complaints over the many years I have used this software.

Like all softwares, there are glitches. One bummer is the lack of integration on android phones. There was also an issue with integrating the software with an apple update; this was resolved fairly quickly though.

BlueBeam supports many different file formats compared to Adobe Reader. It can open Image files and can open Internet browser through it. This makes it one stop solution station for multiple problems. It reduces workload. BlueBeam allows sessions that can be used by multiple organizations and trades and same time. This save project budget and time.

BlueBeam can not open 2 online sessions at same time. In order to that, you have to exit out of one session to access another. This is time consuming and unnecessary.

There are so many PDf readers and editors available on the market with restricted features, and Bluebeam covers almost each and every feature. Its user friendly for editing ad commenting on PDF & almost can get accurate values for measuring the distances. Text recognizing mechanism (OCR) almost accurate for every scenario. The inbuilt converter helps us to convert our PDFs to other formats hassle-free.

I really dont have any cons regarding Bluebeam revu. It's a fantastic and complete tool for all your pdf needs. It's worth the money.

Manage pretty much any PDF Document. Customizable and user friendly interface.

This program has so many functions I know I am missing out on key and crucial aspects of it. The customer service is a bit non-existent but they will respond to emails. I think that the cost effectiveness if you learn things yourself is great, but asking for $250 for classes at the top end and $100 for classes at the low end is a bit steep.

this software is heaven sent. it cuts time in marking up drawings, making notes and comments.
it has a lot of features and colors that are useful in marking up drawings for multiple consultants.
the ability to reduce the file size is a big factor.

i hope there were more advanced drawing tools and document editing features.

I liked that it worked well with my collaborations.

There were a lot of features I didn't find useful.

After struggling through Adobe for many years, I was introduced to BlueBeam Revu about 3 years ago and it has made my life SO much more pleasant! The features and ease of use (once you have been properly trained) are a Godsend! The ability to relocate text placement more precisely is the most valuable tool for me.

I do struggle with changing the font sizes when creating new text boxes to be uniform to the last but not a deal breaker - LOL!!

any changes in the pdf it can be preserved with the owner with date and time itself. Variety of pdf editing options like text editing . marking highlight and work sharing with others. its can be operated with number of other software's to make pdf and print setting.

nothing much but its taking some time to load file at starting of opening.

I love being able to mark up documents, measure them, sign them all in once place. I use bluebeam every hour of the day and it makes my job easier.

I don't like when their are updates that are taking place and it causes me to not be able to use some functions or certain features stop working correctly due to the update needed.

It is my go-to program to look at and edit PDF's. When one has to measure something, its easy to use and easy to give accurate information to the project managers, vendors, & suppliers. Easy to add notes and clean up PDF's to make them look and say the things you want. Like the fact my toolbox is saved and can be used over and over. While I was filling this out, a sub called and asked a question about a plan. I used Revu to answer the question because its quick and easy to get the information they are looking for.

Learning the way the Revu works takes time. Once you figure it out, its great though. I had to have someone else that had used Revu before set up my toolbox and headers because trying to do it myself was taking so long. Mostly that is my own fault but getting a program tailored to yourself should not be hard to set up.

There is not much I don't like about the this program.

Suited for construction work, not just documents. It lets me do so much so easily. I can overlay drawings and find where things have changed. This works for contracts too. I can overlay the pages and see if the sub revised the document at all. I can easily markup drawings without any CAD experience needed. I can create forms from PDFs.

It takes a little while to learn the program because many icons are unfamiliar at first. And because it can do so much, there are so many icons. But I was able to customize my layout so it narrowed down my available icons to just the ones I use regularly. It's only a con for the first month of learning the program. Same for creating forms. As you start to work with it, you learn the tricks to making them easily, but at first it can be difficult. Most of the functions are similar to Adobe, but the one that I had to get used to was copying pages from one document to another. I used to open two separate Adobe windows and then click and drag pages from one into another. Revu only has one thumbnail view pane available at a time, so I had to modify my steps by copy and pasting pages from one document into another.

Lots of different functions (construction takeoff/room scheduling, document mark-up/review, document creation)
Customization for different users/tasks through profiles
Excel export of markups/takeoff
Cheaper than alternative takeoff software
Easy to share with others (uses .pdf files)
Ability to transition from takeoff to room schedule through spaces feature (big time saver for us as we do lots of air device takeoff)
Easy to combine/compare revised drawings to old drawings/takeoff.

Takes a while to get up to speed on compared to other takeoff software (all the features can get overwhelming)
Takeoff functions are not as polished/fast to use as some dedicated takeoff software (although the latest update fixed some of this)
Certain PDF's can take long to load/render (rare problem, but very difficult to work around when it happens)

This is easy for even the most computer illiterate person to use. I use this on ever team and always have it open on a monitor - every project I have a bluebeam session for. I find that this tool makes my life easier in collaborative review of drawings, markup and sharing of changes and information, directing people to issues or topics for discussion, and using as a tool to sketch together live while in a virtual meeting.

The marking complete feature could be less clunky. The pen tool could be vastly improved. Having a way to know if someone did not get in to review by a deadline, or enter the session at all, would be helpful. All in all minor things

This is an easy to use cloud based document storage that is accessible live by team members to mark up with a robust tool chest. Any type of document management, from idea brainstorming to architectural drawing set review, is easy to do in this program. It is also easy to track others’ or your own mark ups in the document, and set a status to the mark ups like completed or incomplete or in need of discussion. You can also alert a team member to a mark. The bluebeam session feature of revu is simple yet powerful. The bluebeam project feature is similar but is based on the idea of each sheet of a document being easy to check in or out by a team member, and mark up or replace back into the larger document.

I wish there was an easier way to swap out a document or sheet without losing the comments and their properties. I also wish there was a homepage feature for a project that teams could add milestone information, weekly or monthly tasks, and sort your notifications by priority that are within the bluebeam session.

Excellent document markup interface, accurate measuring tools for estimating, OCR fairly accurate and tracking of markups

When integrated with InEight Documents, the time for opening and saving documents is extended. No notification when emailing document if the document is too large. When using print to bluebeam, characters and whole words are not transferred to the Bluebeam version of the document.

EVERYTHING! This software is incredible and to say that you can use it to markup PDF's is just scratching the surface. You can use it as an estimating takeoff tool, estimating database, document control system, cloud document storage and more! Really the list goes on and on for the uses of this tool. I have never been so satisfied by any software as much as I am with Bluebeam Revu. You cant go wrong here, and if you ever do mess something up or think you can't do something, their customer support team is top notch, so you'll be saved by their graces! (Shout out to Amanda Wieting for the impeccable support over the years!)

Honestly the only thing I have ever not liked about Bluebeam Revu was the UI change they made when going to 2018. They changed the colors around and that's the worst thing that has ever happened with this program.

My favorite feature is the ability to set the scale and take measurements of items that are drawn on the PDF sheets. I am an Engineer so this comes in very handy. I also love that I can quickly sketch details to get to my drafter or a contractor who is working on my project. Revu has a tool chest where I can store my most frequently used mark-ups so I dont have to keep redrawing them. This program is super powerful with the ability to insert images, reduce the file size, and create an open session that multiple people can join into and make markups on the same document simultaneously. Lastly, one of the best features are the keyboard hot-keys - just type [L} to draw a line, [C} to draw a cloud, and so on.

Since there are so many options, it can be daunting to learn at first, but with use and time it becomes more and more intuitive.

Revu made giant leaps for editing and processing pdf's when Adobe and other pdf readers had only viewing and basic editing features. When used properly, Bluebeam Revu can make navigating large documents a breeze. With software plugins for Autodesk Revit, sorting and organizing large sets of documents can be automated from the start, saving lots of time. Drawing and marking up documents in Revu are also a serious plus.

Newer versions of Bluebeam Revu come with tons of editing tools and features in "toolboxes". There are so many tools and toolboxes, there is now certainly a learning curve before using it to its full potential. Also due to the large amount of tools, loading time for large files and for graphics to present on screen have become longer.

After taking the time to explore all the many features and how to use them this becomes a great tool to use.
We use this for PDF converting, sales, document markups, flattening, deleting pages, adding pages, simple takeoff's, etc.

There is not much to complain about, this tool works great at its programing limits.

Product makes it easy to make changes to existing PDF's as well as combine PDF's together to create one document from multiple PDF's.

I find that the software takes a long time to load onto my machine whenever I go to open it for the first time each day. Once it has been opened once however, it works well for the rest of the day.

This software is simply awesome, I can edit, overlay, print, compare, navigate, rotate and do whatever I want in a PDF document, a really powerfull software.

I think it if the perfect software, it takes a while to get familiar with the menus when the software gets updated but nothing bad.