[Liz Larsen]

I think you can only do this with the Studio API if you subscribe to Studio Prime:

https://developers.bluebeam.com/articles/studio-api-functionality/

[Liz Larsen]

I don’t think there’s a way to get a script to automatically overwrite an existing PDF 😕 I looked and looked and couldn’t find/think of a way.

Maybe submit a help ticket. And, if still no, do the Help –> Make a Suggestion

[Liz Larsen]

It was something they sent you if you signed up for it at the kiosk in the Interactive Zone at XCON2022. Otherwise, if you have Bluebeam 20 or below, you have to pay for access.

Bluebeam University is included with Bluebeam 21, though (I’m pretty sure).

[Liz Larsen]

Dude, where did you get that hat???

[Liz Larsen]

I’m not sure how to do it with a Studio Project, though.

Maybe someone else here knows?

[Liz Larsen]

If it’s a Studio Session, whoever created the session needs to log into studio.bluebeam.com and select the Session. Then change the Status to Active. Then click Update Data.

See attached screenshot.

[Liz Larsen]

Thanks for your insights! Like I said, I’m going to propose “binders” to my team and I want to come armed with as much knowledge as possible.

[Liz Larsen]

I’m trying to be my own devil’s advocate here and anticipate any pushback I might get.

I’d like to propose using Sets to my team. But man, people don’t like adding steps to a process that’s already familiar. File size reduction is great, but more of an IT concern.

When we issue a revision/addendum, we usually submit only the revised pages to the client. We then create another full set PDF for our “current drawings” folder. Since we’d be eliminating that 2nd PDF, I think the process of updating the Set would have to be roughly as fast as printing that full set.

Also, do you find Sets are easier to work with using all individual PDFs (ie each PDF is 1 page) or using each revision/addendum as a combined PDF (ie Revision 1 is one PDF of 6 pages, Revision 2 is one PDF of 4 pages, etc…)?

[Liz Larsen]

Ok, at some point, I saved the wrong version of my code with is why problem #1 happened. It’s fixed now.

To answer your questions:

1. I think the duplicated field names you’re referring to were the ones without numbers on the end (BOXTAG and AirType). That’s because I saved the wrong version of my code. The attached code is now correct. I have an if statement in there to properly add the column number to the form field string, and that somehow never made it to the code I saved previously. *womp womp* 😞
2. I ran your code and it is saving as an FDF file, it’s just adding “.xlxs” or “.xlm” to the end of the file name because you’re using the dialog box to select a save location. But, at least on my end, the file is technically an FDF file. To fix this, I added a simple Replace function in your code to remove the excel file extension. See attached screenshot.

Also note that you removed the Offset from my code, with is essential because that’s what is looping through the columns to get their values.

lizTestCodeNotes.png 37 KB Image File - Click to view

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replace-filename.png 21 KB Image File - Click to view

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LizTestCode-1.txt 917 B Text File - Click to view

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Sub lizTest() Dim ws As Worksheet Set ws = Worksheets("Sheet3") Dim lrow As ListRow Dim table As ListObject Set table = ws.ListObjects("Table3") Dim sFileFields, formField As String Dim currentCell As String sFileFields = "" Dim i As Integer For i = 2 To table.ListRows.Count Set lrow = table.ListRows(i) currentCell = lrow.Range(1, 1).Address Dim j As Integer For j = 1 To 13 If Not IsNumeric(Right(Range(currentCell).Value, 1)) Then formField = Range(currentCell).Value & j Else: formField = Replace(Range(currentCell).Value, "-", j & "-") End If sFileFields = sFileFields & "<>" & vbCrLf Next j Next i Debug.Print sFileFields End Sub

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[Liz Larsen]

I used Replace(str, “-“, j & “-“) and looped through j = 1 to 12 (for 12 columns) and that seemed to do the trick. You can thank ChatGPT for that idea.

See the attached bit of code that totally works cuz I tested it 😁 I wrote it with the intent that you’ll be using Mitch’s method to output an FDF file.

LizTestCode.txt 746 B Text File - Click to view

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Sub lizTest() Dim ws As Worksheet Set ws = Worksheets("Sheet3") Dim lrow As ListRow Dim table As ListObject Set table = ws.ListObjects("Table3") Dim sFileFields, formField As String Dim currentCell As String sFileFields = "" Dim i As Integer For i = 2 To table.ListRows.Count Set lrow = table.ListRows(i) currentCell = lrow.Range(1, 1).Address Dim j As Integer For j = 1 To 12 formField = Replace(Range(currentCell).Value, "-", j & "-") sFileFields = sFileFields & "<>" & vbCrLf Next j Next i Debug.Print sFileFields End Sub

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[Liz Larsen]

Wanna send it to me and I’ll take a look? I think I know what you mean, but I’m not 100%.

[Liz Larsen]

Oof, that’s rough. I’m glad we discovered how to fix it, but it’s unfortunate it’s a glitch on Bluebeam’s part. In their defense, it’s probably an ultra rare glitch.

I agree about submitting a support ticket and sending them the file. You might be the one who brings this to light for the first time and they’ll be able to fix it thanks to your file. Fingers crossed.

[Liz Larsen]

I will take a look.

And I will make an effort not to write the whole thing.

…

Who am I kidding? I will probably see it as a challenge and do it just to see if I can. But, I will only take a brief look tonight to see if I can answer your question concisely. I just finished my deep dive on Mitch’s code, so it’s all fresh in my mind right now.

[Liz Larsen]

In the spreadsheet, you can see there are different groups of data. For example, 113, 113.01, 113.02, 113.03 are grouped together as 113.fdf. The VBA macro goes through this spreadsheet and separates the different groups, then takes all their respective information and creates an FDF file based on a template PDF file.

Each FDF file is a separate group of data that tells the PDF what data to put in which form field. One FDF file for each PDF form.

I hope that answered your question.

This is a highly customized VBA macro doing all the heavy lifting. This macro only works with this specific spreadsheet. To modify it to work with another spreadsheet would basically require rewriting the whole thing. It’d probably only be worth it if you’re doing this a lot, like in Mitch’s case where he’s creating 150 all at once.

[Liz Larsen]

I know you all think I know this sh*t really well, but I always feel like an idiot child next to @mitchyoungs . He’s so frickin smart and I just stand back in awe like I’m sure everyone else is right now.

And I’d like to thank @isaac-harned for literally asking the perfect question to get Mitch to join the Brainery 😂