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plan review mark up tool

TheCommish

Registered User
Joined
Sep 27, 2011
Messages
1,857
Location
Charlton Ma
What say those who do electronic plan review? What is the best and easiest mark up tool for review an annotate plans markup?

I have heard of Blue Beam and PDF markup tool
 
BlueBeam is the only way to go. The mark-up features are outstanding.

Our permit tech's swear that it is the greatest thing since sliced bread because of the ability to accurately and quickly measure square footage or distance.
 
Blue Beam is the only way to go. We have been using it for 4 years now. 2 years ago the public works department came on board with electronic submissions and using Blue Beam. They use the "Studio" part where they can discuss and make changes in real time with the DP. It has significantly reduced the time frame for getting projects approved through plan review not to mention the cubic foot of storage space required for records retention of paper drawings
 
If you're on a tight budget PDF-XChange Editor can also do measurements as well as comments, and only costs $50 or so. You can flatten the comments so they can't be changed. It looks like comments can be exported, although I haven't tried that. It is single user, so it doesn't have collaboration like Blue Beam Studio does.
 
With Jeff's suggestion I implemented Bluebeam, in April. Everyone i have Suggested it to loves it. Several agencies in My area now use it including, LA County Fire, an agency of nearly 4,800 personnel.
 
You can also get a 30 day free trial use from bluebeam for each email account you used. We used a city email and a personal email to get a 60 days of free use and by then we where sold on it. It is a one time license fee and the a $50.00 per year maintenance
 
You can also get a 30 day free trial use from bluebeam for each email account you used. We used a city email and a personal email to get a 60 days of free use and by then we where sold on it. It is a one time license fee and the a $50.00 per year maintenance

How much is the license

And how many computers or users are allowed ?
 
How much is the license

And how many computers or users are allowed ?

Each seat is about $349 so it is licensed/assigned to a computer, not a user. That is a 1x fee then we pay about $99 per year per seat to have continued support and automatic updates and upgrades too. The upgrades and service are worth it.
 
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Yes to all but as an "Old Dog" it took some adjusting to and still does.
It is the Revit of programs as to the number of items and customization available.
 
As noted by others, Bluebeam is the best choice, it has a learning curve, but the 30 day free trial will have you hooked before the times up.

As suggested, download the trial and then choose.
 
If you're on a tight budget PDF-XChange Editor can also do measurements as well as comments, and only costs $50 or so. You can flatten the comments so they can't be changed. It looks like comments can be exported, although I haven't tried that. It is single user, so it doesn't have collaboration like Blue Beam Studio does.

Actually, you can get all of its key functions in the freeware version. What I love about it is that it can be calibrated to any measurement, so it can give floor areas and exit travel distances in one instance, and then measure to fine levels the breakouts for a barrier-free washroom. The markups stay on the document and for complex files, I can even add an "approved" stamp with my signature so we all know which version of the plan we're working from.
 
Surprised I have not chimed in. When we started electronic plan review, we knew of Bluebeam, and wanted it, but upper management declined, saying if Adobe Pro worked, why change. With a couple years of pestering, we finally got our Bluebeam, about two years ago. My plan reviewers won't even use Adobe for opening plain old PDF text documents, BB is their default PDF reviewer.
 
Surprised I have not chimed in. When we started electronic plan review, we knew of Bluebeam, and wanted it, but upper management declined, saying if Adobe Pro worked, why change. With a couple years of pestering, we finally got our Bluebeam, about two years ago. My plan reviewers won't even use Adobe for opening plain old PDF text documents, BB is their default PDF reviewer.
Yep, my entire office staff uses Bluebeam for any PDF opening as default now. No reason to use Adobe.
 
Yep, my entire office staff uses Bluebeam for any PDF opening as default now. No reason to use Adobe.

Yeah, I gotta get with it and learn the program. I can use is for basic review stuff, know how to set scales and such, haven't used it for document review.
 
The California Division of the State Architect uses Bluebeam for all state plan checks, including all public schools.
My main disappointment is that they really haven't updated their mobile / iPad version in a long time. I think that's where it would be really useful for in-field personnel.
 
A bit late to the convo - Have been using BB for about 10 years. It is the Revit of pdfs for sure. I highly reccomend playing around with it a LOT. It has many time saving features.
This is now our pdf markup tool for IDT plan review.
Good luck!
 
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