[Andrew Veggian]

You should check out Bluebeam’s new Project Rover. It has some great punch functionality and works on mobile devices which is ideal for the field (offline capability also). We’ve been testing it out on a large project and sounds like it is working out well. We don’t use any of the RFI or Submittal features, just punch.

https://www.bluebeam.com/solutions/project-rover

[Andrew Veggian]

I’ll just start by saying I love using layers. Layers in Revu work so much better than any of the other takeoff software I’ve used.

My favorite layer feature is parent-child relationships. This allows me to quickly isolate a single item or a large scope of work. Here’s a screenshot of a concrete takeoff as an example. The right-click>”isolate” or right-click>”show all” also help. The only downside is that tools do not remember parent-child relationships when you start working on a new file.

Another useful feature in some cases, which is kind of hidden, is the “Save Configuration” feature. If you use the drop-down menu on the far right of the Layers panel there are options for “New Configuration” and “Save Configuration”. This saves the current configuration of your layer tree and which layers are currently visible. The “Default” configuration is how your layers are configured when you open a file, and you can create custom layer configurations also. This works great when sharing documents with others and you want them to see specific information when they open the document.

Last layer tip. If you have a preset layer configuration that you use on every project, the easiest way to recreate them every time is to create your layers on a blank page and save that as your template. When you have a new set of drawings copy them into your template file and then delete the blank page. Now your layers are already configured (and will solve the issue I mentioned above).

[Andrew Veggian]

Here is the monitor I have (Dell U3818DW). Combined with the Dell Display Manager it is easy to split your windows into a wide range of configurations. https://www.dell.com/mk/business/p/dell-u3818dw-monitor/pd

I use a Dell Precision 7540 workstation laptop with Intel Xeon E-2286M, Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000, and 64GB ram.

I use the Logitech MX Master 3 mouse and MX Keys keyboard.

Overall, this is a fairly expensive setup but it works great.

[Andrew Veggian]

This is one of my favorite features. I use an ultrawide monitor which gives me plenty of screen real estate to split both sides. This way when I’m working on takeoffs I don’t need to keep flipping back and forth to different panels.

[Andrew Veggian]

Are you sure that this warning still exists? I’m guessing this is a warning that they used to have in an old version but have subsequently removed it. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen this.

[Andrew Veggian]

You can easily modify that without any coding changes.

1. Go into the stamp edit mode by going to Tools>Stamp>StampName.pdf and click the edit icon to the right of the name.

2. Open the Forms Panel. Under Status select one of the radio buttons (Approved, Revise, Rejected, Not Reviewed)

3. Open the Properties Panel. Under Options change Style to “Circle”.

4. Repeat for each radio button.

5. Save the stamp.

[Andrew Veggian]

You could cut it down to one click if you use the built-in Bluebeam scripting function “InsertPages”. This basically allows you to write a script that says insert this template page, in this location of the active document. Then after you write the script you can add it to your toolbar as an icon and then it’s a quickly accessible single click.

Super easy to set up, let me know if you need help.

[Andrew Veggian]

Now if we could only import AutoCAD Line Styles also. That would be nice.

It seems strange we have the option to do it with hatches, but not line styles.

[Andrew Veggian]

This is an interesting idea. I’ll have to try this next time!

[Andrew Veggian]

If you do start your takeoffs and realize later that you forgot to flatten first, then turn on the “Author” column in the markups list. Sort by Author, select all markups that are not yours, then flatten them.

Here’s my list of steps that I always go through to prep my drawings before takeoffs.

1. Delete all viewports (if prompted when I open the file for the first time)
2. Flatten (usually without recovery)
3. Create page labels (using Automark – sheet number only)
4. Create bookmarks (using Automark – sheet number and title)
5. OCR
6. Batch link (using the page labels I already created, and overwriting all existing hyperlinks)
7. Set scales
8. Create spaces (if needed to separate takeoffs)

[Andrew Veggian]

This method is close, but your example assumes that the existing grade is terraced and that your fill is exactly 1′, 2′, 3′, 4′, and 5′ all the way down, but the existing grade is sloped. If you were to draw a cut section through there, it would be a diagonal line, not stepped. A simple solution would be using the average depth between the two lines for your cut and fill. For example, if you’re filling between the 4′ and 5′ line your depth should be the average (4.5′).

Here’s another solution that doesn’t require creating a bunch of tools with different depths. You would need a custom column to enter the depth on the high side (Dh), depth of the low side (Dl), and then a custom formula to calculate the cut/fill. Using this method you could use a single AREA measurement since you have to manually enter the depths each time.

Measurement*((Dl+Dh)/2)

For fill, I would enter positive depths, and cuts I would enter negative depths.

[Andrew Veggian]

I have used JavaScript for making dashboards more dynamic, but I don’t know of a way to automate the creation of hyperlinks. I do have an idea that might work, but it depends on how your files are named. Are the files always named the same thing (Drawings.pdf, Specifications.pdf, etc.) or are they project-specific (ProjectName_Drawings.pdf, ProjectName_Specifications.pdf, etc.) or do they have random names every time?

[Andrew Veggian]

I believe we are still testing on Beta. I don’t know the pricing on it yet, but I believe it is a set monthly cost per project.

[Andrew Veggian]

Of course, but I learned this one from Terry Cline. He even automated the process with a very simple script that he shows in the following video. This would be the ideal setup if you have a client that always uses the same layers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eY0IYljFxs

[Andrew Veggian]

Here is a quick tutorial reference.

https://support.bluebeam.com/online-help/revu20/Content/RevuHelp/Menus/Document/Script/Using-Scripts.htm

And here is the Scripting Reference Guide.

https://support.bluebeam.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Bluebeam-Script-Reference-2019.pdf