[Doug McLean]

Hey Nic, all great questions.

#1 yes. Click on the end node to select the tool, Rt. Click (right click is your very best friend btw) and then click Resume.

#2 Try applying your custom columns first. If that doesn’t work, check your tools to see if they have built in layers

#3 You can change the column layout (pretty much works like Excel in dragging columns) and you can change the sort order, but that’s about it. You can also set custom filters if that works for you

#4 Open the Legend Properties. You can do all of that there.

#5 in a word no…but… you can apply the same scale to multiple pages at the same time.
I have a trick for this to select them quickly. It should be under the Tips and Tricks forum.

Hopefully I helped a little

[Vince]

Great reply @Doug McLean !

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks for the feedback Doug! A few thoughts in Bold below

#1 yes. Click on the end node to select the tool, Rt. Click (right click is your very best friend btw) and then click Resume.
That works great, thanks!

#2 Try applying your custom columns first. If that doesn’t work, check your tools to see if they have built in layers
Will try.

#3 You can change the column layout (pretty much works like Excel in dragging columns) and you can change the sort order, but that’s about it. You can also set custom filters if that works for you
Bummer, but no biggie.

#4 Open the Legend Properties. You can do all of that there.
Not so sure this solves my problem…I’m attempting to move individual lines further up in the Legend. Seems to me it always sorts alphabetically. Picture attached below shows what I’m trying to do.

#5 in a word no…but… you can apply the same scale to multiple pages at the same time.
I have a trick for this to select them quickly. It should be under the Tips and Tricks forum.
Right on, I’ll look this one up.

Screenshot-2023-03-16-162039.png 36 KB Image File - Click to view

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[Doug McLean]

I was also thinking maybe multiple legends might be a solution.

[Troy DeGroot]

This is awesome Doug, Thanks for helping!

[David Cutler]

One thought for your order issue @Nic_Bitting would be to add a custom column with “sort order” values.

Assuming they stay consistent between estimates you could have the sort order value pre-populated in your custom tools. If I was to do this I’d probably use a 4 digit number and then increment them by the “10” value so that you can add other items into the order later if needed.

This would definitely give you an ability to sort in the markups list, but I’m not positive about the legend. I don’t use legends very often and lately I’ve found them to be very finicky…

[Troy DeGroot]

Sorting the legend would work the same as the Markups List. Great questions and solutions guys. I love learning from you all! I wish we could sort by a custom column and still hide the column (I’d have to test it, pretty sure we can’t)

[Troy DeGroot]

Great suggestion @David Cutler , definitely some experience built into that answer.

@Nic_Bitting you could name it “Line Item” or something that would be helpful as a reference down the road on a call. I like the idea of building these into the tool so they always sort correctly. You could always tweak it from project to project if the standard doesn’t fit exactly.

As for the Layer issue, make sure you add the layers to the markup before you save them to the Tool Chest. This is another reason why I build all my tools on a worksheet so I can go back, quickly update, and replace the toolsets. You’ll find something new every other day as you apply them to projects.

Just a note of warning for everyone, Layers will NOT create if the drawing is in a Studio Session. That is a document level change, which Sessions don’t allow (only markups). To get around this, you have to load the Layers into the document before you upload them.

[David Cutler]

Good thoughts there @troy-degroot . I need to make the time to update my tools worksheets as they have gotten out of date. I like them for building bulk new tools, but I tend to “add on the fly” and am not disciplined about adding them to my worksheets…

One new discovery this week was the ability to add layers to tools that are currently in your toolbox by simply right clicking on the tool in the toolbox and selecting “layer”. They don’t provide a dropdown in this option so you have to ensure you get the spelling/capitalization correct, but it does save you scrolling through 100s of CAD layers if you are lucky enough to have them. @Vince you might find this helpful for re-establishing layers when they “disappear”…

[Troy DeGroot]

That is always a great option if you forget. But like you said you have to be disciplined to update your worksheet. Just my process, it’s not for everyone.

[Vince]

@David Cutler – I did start using the method of adding the layers directly to the tools in the tool chests but have given up on that now as I know they will disappear the first time I use the tool.

Hopefully Bluebeam’s fix will be released very soon!

[Don Walke]

As far as sorting goes, I use a prefix number on my tool subject names so that when i sort by subject, the markups will be in a specific order and not alphabetical.

[David Cutler]

Mine are setup similarly @dhwalkellc using the “Activity ID” from our estimating software. I get a 2 for 1 out of using this system….

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks! That makes good sense.

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks for all the feedback so far, I truly appreciate the help I’m finding here. I’m going to keep this thread open by asking a few more follow up questions I’ve run into over the past couple weeks.

• When I create a custom column, (for example a specific Part Number) can I then assign that text to show up as a Caption on my takeoff? Right now when I enable Show Caption and click Edit the only options I see are Label, Length, Depth, Wall Area, Rise/Drop – can I add any other values to this pickable list?
• Several times after completing my color coded takeoff and printing to a color PDF in Bluebeam when I open the resulting file it shows up as Greyscale in Bluebeam, but in other PDF readers it shows up color as expected. Any thoughts on why this is happening?

[Liz Larsen]

I’m gonna tag @Doug McLean and @Vince because I feel like they’re the most likely to have run into these before.

[Doug McLean]

When I create a custom column, (for example a specific Part Number) can I then assign that text to show up as a Caption on my takeoff? Right now when I enable Show Caption and click Edit the only options I see are Label, Length, Depth, Wall Area, Rise/Drop – can I add any other values to this pickable list? – Most likely not. These are embedded tools in Revu, I don’t see a way to add them. Maybe a feature suggestion?

Several times after completing my color coded takeoff and printing to a color PDF in Bluebeam when I open the resulting file it shows up as Greyscale in Bluebeam, but in other PDF readers it shows up color as expected. Any thoughts on why this is happening? –

Why are you printing to PDF after you’ve done your markups? It’s not necessary.

[Vince]

I agree with @Doug on both fronts.

The in-built menu doesn’t allow any flexibility to add the details from custom columns unfortunately.

And I’ve never had the need to print to PDF after completing my markups. I sometimes save a new version of a drawing with flattened markups to send to a client but that is it.