[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?

[Nic Bitting]

Yes @lizlarsen that presentation was chock full of goodies, especially for a newbie like me. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with the community.

[Nic Bitting]

Hi John,

Perhaps you’ve already found a resolution to this issue, but if not maybe this tip will help: see the attached image and description for Applying Markup to All Pages.

Sounds like its worth a shot!

[Nic Bitting]

Recently I’ve seen drawings from several design firms where all the line work is high contrast black and grey scale, and all callouts/notes are red. The legibility of these drawings is impeccable. This approach creates a clear hierarchy of information as there’s no mistaking a red arrow for a part of the building.

I suppose it complicates the “redlines” process (bluelines anyone?!), But in my mind it’s worth it for the enhanced legibility.

Here a good example of the drawing style I’m describing, the overview starts at 8:42

https://youtu.be/24rnfO8s0hU

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks all for the feedback. Ultimately I’ll be exporting all my takeoffs into a csv file, then Excel workbook, so I’m playing around with the best way to name and organize the takeoffs with that end goal in mind.

@troy-degroot yes, part of my logic is to save space in the tool bar by having the tool name quickly visible. Using the Subject as the tool name could work well, my only concern is the Markups list getting too splintered as a result of many different Subjects, but will plan to test drive this approach soon.

@Doug McLean I’m curious about the use of power query in Excel, I’d like to better understand the process to see how it might enhance our workflow. Sounds like you’re the guru – is there any way to view your Xcon presentation on the subject from last year?

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks for the question @ChrisRiley and the response @dhwalkellc

I’ve been trying to sort out the same thing and it looks like this will be a slick solution. Cheers!

[Nic Bitting]

Great feedback @Doug McLean . I’ve done macros for Excel before, and this will definitely be a handy one to set-up for Bluebeam. My workflow will hinge on these custom columns.

This seems like a odd blind spot for Bluebeam – surely it can’t be that hard to have a pop-up when opening a new PDF that asks if you want to:
1) Use your own custom columns
2) Use the existing columns within the document
3) Use the Bluebeam default columns

On that note, how do you power users go about providing feedback to Bluebeam? Have you ever made feature suggestions that you’ve seen incorporated into the program? I had some success previously lobbying Planswift for a few updated features, wondering what the feedback loop is like for Bluebeam?

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks @David Cutler I’ll dig into those resources.

[Nic Bitting]

Thanks! That makes good sense.

[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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[Nic Bitting]

Awesome to hear that you’ll be presenting on this topic in the summer @Doug McLean . It’s good to know as this’ll give me some time to review the resources you mentioned and envision how this technique can best be applied to our workflows. Hopefully I’ll be up to speed by June!

Thanks for sharing.

[Nic Bitting]

OK, since last week I’ve updated my Toolset, using Subject as the specific tool name and Label as the general category. This give a much better user experience and seems to be working well for our team. (See Picture 1) Thanks for the suggestion Troy.

Now my Markup list populates in a logical fashion, so I can see everything grouped by Takeoff, then the specific component. (See Picture 2) I’ve also started to build out the custom columns for our needs.

My next hurdle, I’ve also set up a series of review tools for our various team member roles (Estimator, PM, Engineer). These review tools use Bluebeam’s stock highlighter, pen, line, cloud+ etc. When these show up in the Markup List they are sorting by Label and the Label is an image (see Picture 3), I’d rather be able to Label them “Estimator Review” “PM Review” etc. Can I change this? It seems like a Bluebeam default item, so I’m guessing no, but figured I’d ask!

[Nic Bitting]

But @Doug McLean , that would mean the designers have to work in close collaboration with the contractor and their subs through the design process, which would lead to more intelligent and realistic planning, saving lots of time and money!

It’s almost as if clients should be requesting a project delivery method like this 🤔

Tongue firmly in cheek. 😅

[Nic Bitting]

@andrew-veggian thanks for sharing your process very clearly. From what I gather it sounds like you’re not taking the next step to turn the PDF into a Bluebeam “Set”, but rather working within the Combined PDF.

I’ve played around with marking up in Sets vs. the Combined PDF, and have found some drawbacks to Sets:

• Bookmarks don’t seam to work across the set
• Navigation among pages feels a bit cumbersome as I end up with many open tabs at the top as I work through sheets.
• From what I can tell CSV export is one page at a time

I understand Sets has advantages of loading quicker, and working better when multiple users need access to a file. That said, I’m curious how others have structured their workflow – do you create a Set for each project, or as Andrew described above do you work within the Combined PDF?

[Nic Bitting]

Hi @Vince

Agreed, I’ve already found that disable line weights and grayscale in Bluebeam is super handy from the estimating side!

That said, in response to the original question about best practices I do think more designers should consider and implement steps to create easily legible drawings from the start. I always appreciate (cherish) when a crisp well-organized set comes across my desk 😄