[Troy DeGroot]

I could probably flood this thread with examples and never run out, but I want to hear what everyone else has built too.

Just in the last month, I’ve built custom Bluebeam Revu profiles for a high-end cabinetry shop in Montana, a commercial framing contractor in California, and an industrial piping contractor in Dallas. I’m about to start one for a concrete and asphalt contractor in Reno.

At this point, I’ve built custom Tool Sets for just about every CSI Division, but a couple from the last year really stuck with me.

One was a commercial cleaning company doing their bids off historical labor data. Different floor types need different cleaning methods and different labor time, and toilets, sinks, and windows all take a pretty predictable number of minutes to clean. It’s no different than any other trade running a takeoff, once you know your unit rates, Bluebeam does the rest.

The other was an equipment rental company that supplies heaters, AC units, humidifiers, and all the accessories that go into keeping a construction site comfortable. We built each piece of equipment to scale so their team could place them directly on the plan and run temporary electric, ducting, and gas lines to them. Every spec for the equipment lived in a custom markup list, tied directly to the estimate forms. My team even wrote JavaScript so when someone entered the job location and dates, the form pulled the average temperature for that window and predicted propane costs automatically.

I could keep going, but these are a few of my favorites. What’s the most unusual Bluebeam profile or Tool Set you’ve built?

[Troy DeGroot]

Thanks for reaching out and downloading my free content. All of the tools are included in one downloadable zip file. Some of the divisions are not as complete as others. After several years of creating 1615 tools, I had to publish them at some point, or I never would have. I hope you understand. Sorry for the confusion.

[Troy DeGroot]

I wasn’t aware there was an application already. Thanks for letting us know. I agree you have to learn the basics before you get overwhelmed with the possibilities. I’ll have to find the link and start brainstorming a course or two.

[Troy DeGroot]

This is great; it’s a huge advantage when an estimator has constructability knowledge. I like how you use the “Location” column when you have, I assume, utilities and things that don’t fit completely inside a “Space”. And the “Lift” column is great for many reasons, I would assume. I built a very similar idea with a lumber yard where we used layers for basement and first cap, main floor and second cap, third floor and roof. This way they could print a material list and deliver level by level as they needed it in the field rather than the entire package at once. Here in Minnesota, when they drop the entire package, there’s a good chance the roof trusses will be under 3 feet of snow by the time they need them.

[Troy DeGroot]

I always tell my students, as estimators, they are actually data collectors; it benefits everyone if you can pass the baton to the next person downstream rather than have them learn everything again, or worse yet, miss it.

[Troy DeGroot]

Full credit to @isaac-harned on that part. I know when to bring in the right people!

[Troy DeGroot]

Are you referring to the number shortcut assigned in My Tools? You can now click on the properties gear on each toolset and enable number shortcuts. Not sure if that helps or not. One thing that has made a huge difference for me is that we can rearrange the order of the columns in the Tool Chest now. Label is easier to see when you put it first, and Subject second. I turn all the others off, which you couldn’t do before.

[Troy DeGroot]

Love it, just requires a little creativity to end up with additional value.

[Troy DeGroot]

I think custom columns might be the most fun part of Bluebeam. It’s like a puzzle when everything falls into place.

[Troy DeGroot]

At least they have an Unbound in London now. I need Shan to fly me over one of these days. 🤣

[Troy DeGroot]

That’s a great practice, and having a reminder would help as the weeks quickly fly by. Especially for someone like you with so many profiles and advanced setups.

[Troy DeGroot]

I didn’t think you were; I completely understand. If you need help building custom tools, you can check out my digital courses to get you up to speed quickly. Or we can discuss me building them for you. Welcome to the Brainery, thanks for joining the community!

[Troy DeGroot]

doesn’t hurt to have that visual on the sheet just in case the calibration changes somehow.

[Troy DeGroot]

What I know of your system Doug, the integration is so fine-tuned, they couldn’t function unless they completely committed to the workflow.

[Troy DeGroot]

Sometimes it just takes one time-saving feature to blow their mind and convert them. The trouble is figuring out which one will trigger them. When I was a BIM Manager transitioning 70 employees across 7 offices to 3D design, I would print 3D images from my models, and purposely leave them on the printer to hear people talk about them and get excited. 🤣