[John Park]

Hi Troy,

Thanks for responding to my question.

My workflow aims to not only create a link for easy navigation but also to perform takeoffs from elevation drawings, incorporating the location hierarchy from the floor plan, especially when dealing with multiple rooms sharing a common elevation drawing.

What you suggested is what I’m currently doing, but I’m trying to improve it by eliminating the tedious extra step of creating link markups. Sometimes, I mistype space names, which breaks the intended link.

If I were to use a hyperlink from the Space Panel to designate the action destination, I noticed that the hyperlink placed on the drawing includes the space name along with its X and Y positions (see the cloud area in the right panel in hyperlink.pdf). Since a hyperlink is not a markup, the Markups List does not show them. However, if I can export the Bluebeam space list with name, page index, X & Y coordinates, and boundary, I should be able to write a custom program to connect each hyperlink with the spaces that contain it. This would allow me to link the location hierarchy with elevation takeoffs without the extra step of creating link markup.

I hope this clarifies my approach and the reason for wanting to export the space list.

Thanks again,

John

[John Park]

I recently implemented a work around with having too many custom columns shown to the end user.

I have a total of 60+ custom columns and growing; covering takeoff items for division 6 and 12 such as casework, countertops, trims, panels, diewall, lab furniture’s, etc.

From a master list of custom columns, I created a sub custom columns for each type of takeoff desired and save them via custom column export. I then wrote scripts to import sub custom columns. For extra easy of use, I created a button on the toolbar for each group of custom columns as well the one for all. See attached.

The user can select only columns relevant to type of takeoff at hand by clicking desired button in the toolbar. Since this is a simple mask, all my custom tools are modified to have a set default column values (0 or N/A) when not shown.

I have a custom program to process CSV summary report for import into a separate estimating program, Takeoff2. No more double entry after Bluebeam markup!

Custom-Column-Tool-Bar.png 7 KB Image File - Click to view

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[John Park]

Hi Doug,

I’m not clear where you are placing Millwork Callout, ie MW 01. On nested space from plan drawing?

[John Park]

Hi Doug,

Yes, it’s been a while…

For some unknown reason Axle won’t release the location import functionality he has. I’ve given up pestering him though.

I was able to write directly to Takeoff2 Location table, but decided it wasn’t necessary for my workflow. Now I use Takeoff2 as a simple pricing engine without bothering with location information.

I created a grid control as a hub to import Bluebeam CSV summary file, with location information extracted from Space column. I filter items needing prices from Takeoff2 to create an export file in proper Takeoff2 format without the location information. Within Takeoff2, I import the file to a single location. I apply various project parameters such as material and hardware to arrive at proper sales price. Then I export all with just id and sales price back to my program for price update only. I can easily filter, group, sort and calculate summary values to create desired views, including location hierarchy that’s typically created within Takeoff2.

Additionally, I can send the same Bluebeam data, with additional positional information, to Autocad to automate shop drawings. Quite bit of programming with Autocad Visual Basic, but was able to prove the concept.

Now I’m back to studying Bluebeam’s inner working to make takeoff easier and faster.

If you like, I can demo what I have.