One of the limitations of the “Stitching” tool is that any layer information present in your source document is lost when the images are stitched together. Trying out a few ideas I found a work around that gets around this limitation!

Basic approach:

1. Setup your stitching areas and match lines

2. Turn off any layers that you don’t want…

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Makes perfect sense @Doug McLean

So, do you folks have piles of window cutout scrap all over the place? As a Dad I can never get rid of a cutoff as I’m sure I will find a use for it some day! 😎

If you have trim around said window I’d assume that you take that off independently.

Tried the relatively new “Smart Overlay” tool today. Historically I have used the “Overlay” and “Batch Overlay” tools to perform this task.

A few thoughts and notes:

1. I don’t see any added value in the “Bluebeam on the web” report. Seems to add another step when I have to download the report from the web interface – though it does put all…

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Sounds as if the only thing that is consistent is the inconsistency @Vince ! 😎

Sorry to hear about that @rakel1969

I have had problems at times when I have multiple PDFs open with split screen views where my monitors start displaying similar behavior as in your screen shot.

Typically, if I shut everything down and restart my computer the issue clears up with no long term impact to my markups.

Have you tried restarting?

Looking forward to seeing what you put together @Vince ! 🍿

Yes @troy-degroot – I have custom columns to match the import values required in B2W. Each custom tool includes values in these required columns.

The “cleaning” in PowerQuery is mainly subtotaling process. Once I change the source location and select “close and load” PowerQuery runs through a series of steps to subtotal my markup quantities…

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The process works pretty well @troy-degroot !

We use an estimating software by the name of “B2W” – formerly known as “Bid 2 Win”.

At this point we work in one master PDF file. Any sheet that we have applied takeoff markups is in that “single point of truth” file. We use a coversheet with “standard” items that establishes our custom columns and we then use our custom tools to ensure that the collected data populates the correct columns.

Once we have our takeoff complete…

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I’ve been pretty impressed, but I have found a few things that I need to watch out for with the “Offset As” feature. Specifically I have custom tools that are set to provide results in Square Yards (SY). What I found is that if I use my custom tool that measures in Square Yards to offset a poly line the custom tool reverts to Square Feet…

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I’m using a bit of both @Vince

Not getting into the Claude – or other – AI interfaces at this point.

But putting the new “Offset” and “Duplicate As” through their paces! 😎

Activated out 15 day trial of Max today! So far I’ve been using the “Change To”, “Duplicate As” and “Split Markup” tools.

What else should I be sure to try over the next 15 days?

Bluebeam released Revu 21.11.0 this week. Has anyone made the move yet? Anyone having any issues? I’m hanging back on 21.10 Complete at this point. Still need to try out Max – waiting for a new project to try it out on…

Great topic @troy-degroot !

A few of our Superintendents and Foreman use our marked up takeoff sets for reference, but I don’t think they are using them for progress tracking.

Our Project Manager definitely uses the takeoff sheets to understand the project/see how we developed the quantities, but again, I’m not sure how he is using them…

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@Vince hit the nail on the head with this on @troy-degroot – it’s not that the tool is special, it is the data that you collect with the tool that make’s it “niche”.

When I started here we had a tool for “8” DIP Cl52″ and it measured the length. The current tool is “6070 Water Main – 8″ D.I.P. CL52”. While it still provides the length it…

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Great idea to set the monthly reminder @Vince 😎

Good question @troy-degroot !

We set the scale on each page individually and then place a measurement on the visual scale bar to confirm the setting and indicated scale are correct.

At this point 2 of the 3 of us on our estimating team are using the custom tools that I have built. This is working well for the 2 of us that are using them. Still trying to get our head estimator to use them… 😎

I’ll keep you posted @troy-degroot !

I’ve attached a quick preview of what we have created in Sketchup. Goal is to take this into a 3D PDF to share with our extended team and our customer.

Has anyone generated an IFC file using Trimble Sketchup that you have been able to use to create a 3D PDF? We’ve been modeling a foundation excavation in Sketchup Free, but would need the “Pro” subscription to have the export capability.

Welcome to the Brainery @maxskewes

I’m not familiar with the window toolset (I work on the Civil side of the business), but you might consider making a few tools of your own that give you exactly what you need for your workflow.

The process is really quite simple:

1. Place a count measurement

2. Update your Subject and Label on the Properties…

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No worries @dchambers ! I appreciate that you took the time to respond. 😎

Glad to be of assistance @dchambers !

Out of curiosity, seeing your response to @troy-degroot , is there a reason why you wouldn’t simply apply 6 markups where you see them being needed in the elevation view? This is what I do with pipe fittings. That way our project manager can not only see the count, but also where I saw the pieces being…

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Interesting question @dchambers – had to think about this for a minute.

Something that might work for you is to use the “multiply” tool.

Sequence would work like this:

1. Apply a count markup

2. Select the markup, right click and choose “Multiply” from the popup menu

3. Enter the number of copies of the markup that you need

– note that if…

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Your videos are a great introduction to the functionality @Vince !

For those who haven’t seen them yet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA8AkXr3rUQ

One question Vince – In the Part 2 video at about the 2:00 mark does the “Ctrl” key launch the “magic wand” functionality? What you are doing here – reusing…

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Welcome to the Brainery @jjmurphy

Something to consider when “looking” for pre-built tools is how you will use them in your workflows. Our custom tools probably wouldn’t be useful for you as they are tied to the item database in our estimating software. Further, we have a Power Query “data wash” step that prepares the markup data for…

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Very cool @Vince !

Something I’m curious to see is how the “magic wand” works with custom columns and such. Hopefully it is more powerful than the current format painter…

Maybe @troy-degroot that will be a future upgrade. Could work similarly to the way you can assign your custom markup tool with dynamic fill.

Until then I think @Vince has the “working” solution with the “magic wand”. Still potentially a 2 or 3 click process, but if you are saving dozens of clicks on a markup by re-using the geometry you…

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Thank you for the feedback @Vince ! Looking forward to seeing how this impacts our workflows. 😎

Made a few minutes to watch last week’s Morning Coffee Review recording.

Bluebeam’s Luke Prescott was @mechave ‘s guest. At about the 49:00 mark Luke demonstrated the “Offset as a” feature. This looks as if it has amazing potential as a time saver.

Now I’m…

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I’ve had this happen a couple of times over the last month or so – nothing this week though.

What version of Revu are you running @bb-user ? I’m still hanging back in Revu 21.6.

I haven’t kept track of what I’ve been doing when it shuts down @troy-degroot – or which files. Basically too frustrated when it shuts down to take notice!

Might have to carve out a few minutes for that MCR… 🍿😎

We have a local Civil Site Design firm that consistently distributes what appear to be scanned PDFs. Part of this may be that they are applying a wet seal and signature, but even their unsealed documents appear to be scanned – or at least are what I believe is called a “raster” print rather than a “vector” print.

Basically this renders many of…

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So I had my <s style=”font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit;”>Guinea Pig</s> Intern install 21.9 on his laptop (backup machine) and the line weight of the ghost line issue appears to have been resolved, but he has noticed what appears to be another bug. For some reason his curser seems to jump out of the search window on the tool chest…

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Good morning. I’m working in Revu 21.6 at this point and have been hesitant to move off that version due to some of the issues I’ve seen posted about 21.7 and 21.8. So, the question remains if those issues have been addressed in Revu 21.9?

The main one I’m hung up on is the “thick” working line when applying markups. In 21.6 the “ghost…

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In case you missed it I highly recommend that you attend @Doug McLean ‘s webinar this afternoon:

Supercharge Revu Data; Clean & prepare data exported from PDF’s for external use | Live Bluebeam Webinar Part 1

Registration is available at:

Supercharge Revu Data; Clean & prepare data exported from PDF’s for external use | Live Bluebeam Webinar Part 1

I time you invest in learning from Doug…

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@Vince do you get many “aren’t you that guy in the video?” questions???? 😎

Great questions on Legends @maryann-campos !

Removing a legend is pretty straight forward – it’s similar to your other markup. Simply select the legend and tap the delete key. 😎

Thank you for the suggestion @Vince

Tried toggling the Disable Line Weights on and off – no change

Tried adjusting the dimming – no change

A few additional notes:

He is running Revu 21.8.

I am running Revu 21.6.

The issue is present when we open the file on either machine.

Other files are displaying linework without issues.

When we open a copy of the original file (without markups) all of the linework is visible

Fortunately, none of his takeoff work appears to have been lost,…

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One of my coworkers stopped me in my tracks this morning. The original linework on a 31 page takeoff file is not displaying. His takeoff markups are there, but none of the original linework is visible.

We checked to ensure all the layers are on – which they are.

Does anyone have other ideas?

Haven’t come across this yet @troy-degroot , but good to know!

😎

He obliviously doesn’t spend any time on #UChapter2.com 😎

Learned something here @troy-degroot ! I hadn’t really thought of it before, but just because the scale of the drawing is Metric, the tool can measure in Imperial. That’s pretty slick.

For @bb-user if you have already applied markups using tools that measure in Metric units, but you are looking for Imperial values you could select all of…

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That’s an interesting question @bb-user

Have you considered adding a couple of custom columns with a conversion factor and a formula to apply the factor to the metric measurement for conversion?

I’d expect @doug mclean might have some thoughts on this one as he works with both metric and imperial measurements on a regular basis.

Noticed something interesting and potentially troubling this morning. Make sure you check were you are saving your markup summary! Typically – say when you are printing a document to a PDF and you are about to overwrite an existing file you will get a popup message stating that the file already exists and asking if you want to overwrite…

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Found another interesting feature of this repeatable cutout tool. To date I had only used this when copying a cutout inside of the same measurement. Turns out you can use the Cntrl-Drag feature to copy the cutout from one markup to another! Unfortunately it does have some limitations – doesn’t appear that you can drag the cutout to other…

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Thank you @troy-degroot !

Happy Holidays to all and best wishes for a healthy 2026! 🙂

Sorry, nothing to add here, but will be watching to learn…

🍿🙂

Had a plan set to use this repeatable cutout tool again today. Reminded me of this thread. Replying so that newer folks can be aware of this feature!