[Vince]

I have started using the new layer configuration setting a lot more for engineering layouts. Declutter a drawing so that when you go out on site you can follow the info a lot more easily e.g. I don’t need to see fence lines / types when I’m interested in the drainage however being able to keep the retaining walls on there is helpful.

[Vince]

Unfortunately with the time differences and the mountain of work I have here I’m not going to have a chance to join any of the sessions.

I look forward to hearing anything from you guys on here about useful tips, etc. over the next couple of weeks though.

[Vince]

As a matter on interest – what type of things are you measuring in this way?

[Vince]

Hi David

Can you shortcut this further by using the ‘Snip & Sketch’ feature on Windows and the just paste the resulting extract straight into Bluebeam?

I’ve used this to copy pictures from websites and put straight into a pdf file in Bluebeam.

[Vince]

Hi David. I have tried using Sets but unfortunately I just haven’t been able to get it to work for me and have given up on that.

Basically, I am unable to get Bluebeam to label up all of the drawings properly because there appears to be no consistency in the placing of title blocks, rev no’s, etc and that is even when it is the same Engineer or Architect has produced the drawings. Throw into the mix specialists, structural engineers, civil engineers, architects, etc and everything just becomes a complete mess.

Hopefully Bluebeam will fine tune things at their end to sort some of these issues out.

In the meantime I have developed a spreadsheet which uses Power Query to produce a drawing register. Basically, I keep all of the drawings in dated sub-folders as the revisions come through. Power Query produces the register based on the contents of all the files. The file name is then hyperlinked so if I want to open a drawing then all I have to do is click on the name. Hope that makes sense!

With regards the printers – I don’t think it would be wise to complicate things any further for them! 😆

Screenshot-10-13-21-at-13.52.52.png 119 KB Image File - Click to view

Options

• Copy Download Link

Screenshot-10-13-21-at-13.57.00.png 146 KB Image File - Click to view

Options

• Copy Download Link

[Vince]

Hi David.

I have another spreadsheet specifically for brickwork & scaffolding take-offs – I will try to work out how to post an example on here. No Bluebeam used in the actual measuring but it is extremely fast and still just as accurate.

[Vince]

By the looks of it I have just overloaded it with too many table merges and appends. So it is back to writing some old fashioned formulas for some of the spreadsheet and some more basic Power Query stuff for the rest.

[Vince]

Although I think I may have just overloaded Power Query with something as it is taking way too long to refresh!

[Vince]

Macros are very good but Power Query takes things to a whole new level!

[Vince]

Does “Split All” work for what you need?

[Vince]

Fantastic as always Troy!!!

[Vince]

Thanks Troy – that worked perfectly!

[Vince]

Thanks Troy – I will give that a go later!

[Vince]

Thanks Troy. Unfortunately I am trying to keep the subject titles the same as I need all of the mark-ups together when I export to Excel. Being able to export the colour details is a great start but I could also do with some more detailed info from Bluebeam as well.

I’ve just tried exporting the ID as well in the hope that this column might be generated partly based on the mark-up features but that doesn’t appear to be the case.

I’ll keep looking for another solution. 🧐

[Vince]

Hi David. Power Query is a great tool but you can also just use a standard table in Excel from which a pivot table is generated. Once the table is set you can just copy any new data from the csv file output by Bluebeam into the table then hit refresh to update your pivot table.

I am using this sort of thing all of the time now and the amount of time saved is incredible.