I spend a lot less time posting changes and as-builts, but with much more professional results. I also love the time it's cut down on creating our punch lists and tracking the completion of those items.

I love that it can "read" my plans, and help me with my takeoffs. The search function can look for either words or symbols, and is incredibly useful when I'm looking for something specific. The different user type profiles are tailored to show the tools and functions that someone in that role would be more likely to use the most. It's easy to switch between these profiles, even when viewing the same file, so no matter what or how many hats I'm wearing that day, it's easy to find the tools that I need for the job I'm doing. The customizable tool box is great - I can use the existing tools, or create my own! These are handy for posting as-builts, as well as for doing take offs and estimates. I love all the short cut keys!! Instead of using my mouse to select tool options, I can simply use the "G" key to take a "photo" of a certain part of my open file, or "C" to cloud an area. I use these frequently and it really cuts down the time I spend posting changes to our drawings. There are so many tools, functions, and options, that you're sure to find everything you need for seamless and efficient construction drawing management!

At first, it was a bit overwhelming to use. There are so many tools and menus that it definitely took a little time to learn; however, Bluebeam offers hundreds of short "how-to" videos on many different topics. After watching these, and using the software for a few weeks, it got much easier.

A useful tool I've been using since 2016. The private consulting industry has basically embedded this software into their workflow. Sadly, probably due to its cost, the public sector/client dont tend to use Bluebeam or they have the entry level version without all the features.

Bluebeam works perfectly with drafting and producing drawings through Civil 3D. It's quick and convenient to use for engineering drawings. One particularly great feature, is the ability to calibrate your own scale and measure quantities to scale. It is a great tool for producing markups and redlines on PDFs to share with the team. Before the pandemic, we occasionally did the markups and comments by hand, now it's exclusively all through PDF markups.

When they have yearly program version updates, they tend to change the UI around so it takes some time to relearn the Bluebeam features. For the polyline feature, it's annoying having to press enter to finalize the command and save the line drawn (especially if it's not a close polygon). I use this tool daily and it's extremely annoying when I lose my line! I would love it if they made it so a right-click during the command saves and exits so I can complete the entire command with my mouse.

The customer service-technical help is just horrendous. Their 'technicians' are just phone operators, many with very bad attitudes (if I worked for a company with these policies I'd be grumpy too!) but read on... Anything beyond the very basics like opening the program or setting up menus are completely beyond their abilities. To make matters MUCH worse they have no escalation policy at all. Read that again; a SOFTWARE company has zero escalation policy. Who you get, regardless of whether they can actually answer your question, is who you get (I was TOLD this -it's recorded too- by an operator! If they don't know something (most of the time) they put you on hold for 5-10 minutes while they go ask someone who supposedly does. Invariably there is a follow up question (or more likely, they just have the wrong answer) and so they put you on hold for ANOTHER 10 minutes. When you ask to be transferred to the person they obviously keep putting you on hold to ask, you are rebuffed. Ask harder, in fact DEMAND to be connected to a qualified tech often enough and they will revoke your service contract. Read that again, if you complain too much they will FIRE YOU instead of fix their internal problems! Eventually I was able to work out an 'email only' connection to a senior tech who actually HAS the answers, but by revoking my service, they also robbed me of my updates so I can't even benefit from all the work I've put into helping them improve their product.

It is hands down the most powerful PDF editor available today. As of v. 2018.6 they have fixed MOST of the issues that made it crash (but not quite all) and I can operate this software for an average of 9 hours a day without too much cursing at the screen. Takeoff is WYSIWYG and once you learn the product, very adaptable to whatever way you like to work. Another terrific feature is the 'slipped plans' feature where you can slipp addendum plans together with existing plans and transfer all of your current takeoff without loss. No other takeoff software allows this kind of functionality. The ability to automatically generate 'links' within the drawings (from flags to the correct page indicated by the flag) is also very valuable. Other programs DO provide this, but Bluebeam is much more accurate and faster.

The exporting function. Only allows limited functionality (.csv .xml .pdf and print) and Nemetschek refuses to work with us to provide access to the API so we can truly integrate the takeoff with our ERP system. It functions but it could be SO much more. The tech help was TERRIBLE! First, they refuse to help unless you grant them remote access to your machine ( I won't). Then they cant actually do their job. See below for a full description;

Once you understand how to use bluebeam you will never go back to adobe again! I absolutely love all the extra things that I can do in bluebeam that I cannot in adobe. Being able to use this software for more than just a PDF and for estimating projects has made life way easier and help make sure we are not missing items on the estimates.

Bluebeam has an amazing customizable tool box which I find the most helpful! There are certain tools I will use over and over again and having this quick popup with all my tools to grab and use saves me so much time. Also, adding pages into a current document is as easy as just dropping into the place where you want it. If you are using bluebeam more for just PDF purposes, this software will do so much more than adobe and give me cleaner documents. I use it alot to make submittals and I need to markup and add/ move pages alot and this makes it the easiest and fastest way for me to do so. I can remove items off the pages and add notes when needed. I can go on about the list of amazing features this offers, like counting how many outlets I need on the plan, or resizing and signing it. Your options here are endless.

The biggest downside to bluebeam is that it takes time to learn and isn't very user friendly for the average person. Figuring out what each tool does takes some time, and sometimes there are a few you can use for the same thing. Since bluebeam has so many features it can be hard to narrow down or even locate the one you are needing. This is why that custom tool box is so handy.

Never disappointing features. Always available help desk support. Bluebeam Revu is cool.

I would like to pass my special gratitude to the customer support team for Bluebeam Revu. A collection of very resourceful team which understands the software so well. They really assisted me in launching and integration of this software. My emails were replied on time and in the most respectful manner. They made the app easy to use for me and that's why I have recommended it to several friends who appreciates it's work too. Keep up the good work.

With such assistance from the customer support team, I find nothing hard. All the challenges are well addressed.

I am very happy with the software. I have been using it for over an year now and I definitely recommend it to anyone who is starting off in an engineering firm. You will spend a large part of your time working with this software. It has all the bells and whistles and there is literally nothing more than you can want out of it. However, this sometimes makes it difficult to find some stuff. I would like to see an option to toggle between a simple document review option (similar to Adobe Acrobat Pro) and a detailed drawing review option. Otherwise I am very happy and it manages to surprise me everyday with the sheer amount of features available.

Primarily one might feel it's just another PDF reviewer and editor similar to Adobe Acrobat Pro, but this is more catered towards engineering jobs. It's easy to make markups on the drawings, with specific options like revision clouds, grid lines among other things. One can also make some specific markups and save them in their tool box. One neat feature is the ability to compare two documents by overlaying them on top of each other. This is especially helpful to check if their were any changes in different revisions of the drawings which can be easily missed by a normal human review.

Since it's so much loaded with features, sometimes it becomes difficult to find exactly what you needed to do. It is in such times that I miss the simplicity of Adobe Acrobat Pro, where the User Interface is clean. But then again Adobe is catered towards a general document review whereas Bluebeam Revu caters engineering firms. I would like to see an option to turn on and off the detailed User Interface to get a more simplistic Adobe like interface as required.

I have used this software everyday since joining the construction industry. Like every software there are glitches, however the benefits MAJORLY outweigh the pitfalls.

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.

If tour are typical and Adobe or Foxit user, just try the Bluebeam revu. It owns some unique pdf features you will definitely to love.

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.

Excellent, really can’t fault it and will continue to use

It’s an excellent software for so many varying uses! I mainly use it to edit documents.

It needs a large monitor as the tools take up a lot of room on the screen ideally.

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.

It is my preferred PDF editor and I constantly use it to make edits

It is very user friendly and very intuitive. The dashboards are set up similar to acad and I can draw pretty well. The editing features are also top notch.

It is a bit pricey for a PDF editor. You can get adobe versions much cheaper and while it maybe less functional, the adobe programs do work ok.

You will be notified via emails when you have access to project and the file.

When the system fails ,I was not able to figure out , and had to reach out to the Bluebeam team for clarity.

BlueBeam is a comprehensive solution for use in the construction industry that allows you to easily view and mark up plans and drawings.

BlueBeam is a very complex software that has extensive capabilities for creating and marking up PDF documents and it has a lot more options than the standard Adobe products.

There are so many tools available to use in the software that it can be a little hard to learn how to use them all.

It is an excellent tool for reviewing drawings and organizing reports in a clear manner.

Marking up drawings and also being able to create a shared document for multiple users to mark up make this a strong tool that allows AEC professionals to go digital and avoid printing.

Tools that allow me to draw straight lines on documents would help.

Powerful tool to manipulate pdf's. Definitely use Bluebeam Revu as the default pdf tool.

Tool sets make mark up easy. Bluebeam Revu is the best for viewing and manipulating pdf's.

Sometimes customization is a little cumbersome. The process to make custom symbols and color them can be confusing. I do not like the way the audit trail for markups does not stay on the sheet you are working on. Continually have to navigate back the part of the audit trail for that sheet. Combining documents sometimes does not work. Adobe Acrobat is better for basic combining.

It has been a great collaborative tool for the company I work for. We are all in different locations and has made remote working much easier. Supervisors can look over files and redline things while another worker in a different location is correcting the items at the same time. It is also a great file management tool as the Sessions allow to keep document files together that many people can access simultaneously

The features that Bluebeam Revu has are far above and beyond to other PDF reading/editing software out there, especially for those that are in the design/construction industry. It has a slight learning curve when you're used to other programs, but once you learn, there is no going back. The best feature in my opinion is the ability to collaborate in real time. When files are uploaded to a Session, multiple people can be in the same file at the same time. Someone can be marking up and making comments while others can be seeing these comments and revising things on their end at the same time. There is no need to wait for a person to finish marking up a file and send it in an email, it can be done simultaneously.

Honestly, there are not many cons about this software. The only issue I had with the program was the learning curve of how to use it, as I had to learn on my own.

My overall experience was stellar. To import plans was so easy and other softwares this is not the case. Many other software would take 2-4 additional steps just to import blueprints. Where as Bluebeam is basically one step. The software runs rather fast with hardly resizing delays , I have used similar softwares after acquiring Bluebeam and on the same computer I experienced resizing delays on the similar software, where Bluebeam had no issues.

The most important part of this software was the complete ease of use. With no experience with estimating software, I was able to jump right in and get to work without any training, videos or someone else to teach me the basics. The original layout and key icons made everything simple but necessary.

The first major issue I incurred was learning how to compile all of the data at the finish of gathering the take off( sq ft measurements) this portion of the software was slightly less user friendly when it came to compiling the lists of rooms/areas with the details .eventually after some months of use I began to become familiar with the steps of the software sorting the sq feet and labeling the areas

Bluebeam Revu is my to go app for pdf viewing, editing and take offs.

Bluebeam Revu gives you more level of control over pdf's than you can imagine. The number of tools and features are extensive. Take offs and commenting is the least you can expect from Bluebeam.

Although Bluebeam Revu has a very good take off facility, the labelling could have been better.

Overall one of my favorite tools to use daily. This tool makes my job fun and helps me manage my team and project with less stress and difficulty for me.

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

It is a daily use and I could not do my job as effectively without it

Markup tools, Editing, Color Highlighting, Clouds

Having to scale drawings to get dimensions

Overall I think Bluebeam Revu is a wonderful program. It is easy to use and difficult to make mistakes that aren't easily fixed. I think it is a necessity for anyone dealing with official documents, editing PDFs, and working in the architectural/construction industry.

There are so many pros about this program. My favorite tools would be the calibration tool for verifying and editing architectural plans, the stamp and markup tools for approving and commenting on official documents, and the comparison tool for overlaying revised documents to see design changes. I love that Bluebeam Revu is simple yet sophisticated.

One con is that whenever I lose network connection, my stamp folder loses the path to my stamp folder. It would be helpful if there was a way to save the default stamp folder so when I regain connection it will automatically connect. Another issue is with flattening. It would be nice if there was a password or something users could share with a team in order for everyone in the team to have access to flattening and unflattening. Perhaps there could be a way to choose whether to only have the user who flattened be able to unlock it or to give access to teams.

It makes checking drawings and communicating changes a lot easier. The markup tools are much better than any other similar software I've tried.

I'm constantly amazed by how many features bluebeam has packed in. The markup tools themselves have a lot flexibility. Being able to scale drawings and generate dimensions and areas is a huge plus. Creating new elements and adding them to your tool chest for future use is also a nice feature to have. The OCR tools are fantastic helping us create bookmarks and labels to navigate large PDFs. We also routinely use the hyperlink tool to create linkable details that make navigating a large drawing set even easier. (I believe this feature is available only in the "Extreme" version). There is also an option to take two versions of a document and compare changes between two versions. Beyond that being able to use blue beam sessions to collaborate with your project team on common markups is a great bonus.

I would really like the software to have the ability to create preset profiles that automatically set defaults for markup styles and colors.

Good price, easy to use. I had been using this software for almost two years, and when it was time for me to buy a PDF editor and after testing a couple, I had no doubt to go for this.

It seems a bit slower to start than acrobat but that didnt stop me from buying it

Aside from licensing issues, I love it, and it's miles ahead of Acrobat if you're doing any kind of construction or architectural work. My clients love getting a clean PDF where the page label matches the sheet name and details and sections are hyperlinked to go to that sheet. I work with architectural plans from other sources and it's great to be able to clean up my own PDF for reference.

Being able to rename page labels automatically, set architectural scale for each sheet for accurate measurements, being able to batch hyperlink my shop drawings before I send to clients. Very stable, I can't remember having any crashes.

Licensing scheme is twenty years out of date. In 2023 I should be able to use my license on my desktop and laptop or home computer without purchasing an additional license or mess around with authorizing and de-authorizing my license. Allow 2 or 3 machines to be activated on one license or go to a log in scheme like Autodesk uses now. The strict licensing only irritates your honest customers, most companies figured this out a long time ago.