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Welcome to the Official Bluebeam forum of TBCF

jar546

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I really had no idea how popular Bluebeam was in the construction, design and building code industry until I started using it last year for the first time. It is an amazing product (no paid endorsement) which is more powerful than what the average user needs.
This is a new section for people to come to and discuss Bluebeam. Welcome.
 
BTW - The Bluebeam class on Friday March 6th was filling quickly, but a reminder for an amazing opportunity to get, CEU's, PDU's, and it is not in south Metro Denver anymore.

Easy access off I-25 and HWY 34 in Loveland,CO (closer to you JP)

Registration deadline is 2/21......you will not find a better bang for the buck....$90 a day, or $400 for a week for referred provider training....includes lunch!

https://coloradochaptericc.org/education/education-institute/

https://coloradochaptericc.org/education/education-institute/2107-educational-institute-curriculum/
 
Enlighten me, why does a building department need Bluebeam?

Do you know what Bluebeam does?

Easier markups, overlays to see what has changed on the drawing, ability to see who has changed what, ability to lock a drawing down, not allowing further changes?

That is just as few of the top of my head. Why wouldn't a department use it, if it is available?
 
One of the reasons that we are going to Bluebeam is that it can be integrated or better put interfaced with our permitting software. Right now we do not have that and we use two software's that do not talk to each other. So more or less redundant data input and twice the work.
 
One of the reasons that we are going to Bluebeam is that it can be integrated or better put interfaced with our permitting software. Right now we do not have that and we use two software's that do not talk to each other. So more or less redundant data input and twice the work.

What software are you using for permitting?

We are using Community Development, formerly known as TRAKiT......Should be rolling it out in a month or two.........excited to get it going.
 
We currently use Munis by Tyler Technologies. We are switching to EnerGov which is now a Tyler Technologies product line. I think Tyler bought the company a couple of years ago? We are told that Bluebeam and EnerGov have an excellent interface but time will tell if the sales people are blowing smoke or not. I will say the Tyler Munis is not even remotely close to being used for a building departments permitting system. Absolutely horrible. I'm hopeful that EnerGov will be better. We also will finally have a total online solution where an applicant can apply for a permit, submit plans, keep track of the plan review process, pay any associated fees, and print their issued permit and plans all in one place. That's the plan and again time will tell if we have chosen wisely or not.
 
We currently use Munis by Tyler Technologies. We are switching to EnerGov which is now a Tyler Technologies product line. I think Tyler bought the company a couple of years ago? We are told that Bluebeam and EnerGov have an excellent interface but time will tell if the sales people are blowing smoke or not. I will say the Tyler Munis is not even remotely close to being used for a building departments permitting system. Absolutely horrible. I'm hopeful that EnerGov will be better. We also will finally have a total online solution where an applicant can apply for a permit, submit plans, keep track of the plan review process, pay any associated fees, and print their issued permit and plans all in one place. That's the plan and again time will tell if we have chosen wisely or not.

We are currently using SmartGov but considering Tyler or BS&A. It will take a few months to make a decision.
 
I would not recommend their Munis product. I might be wrong but I believe that Munis is setup more for finance and definitely not a building department.
 
I would not recommend their Munis product. I might be wrong but I believe that Munis is setup more for finance and definitely not a building department.

My big concern right there. This is being driven by finance and I am adamant that the building component must be as good as or hopefully better than SmartGov
 
We use Tyler-Incode, works fine with finance. But I think there's a push to go to the Munis or something else?
 
We currently use Munis by Tyler Technologies. We are switching to EnerGov which is now a Tyler Technologies product line. I think Tyler bought the company a couple of years ago? We are told that Bluebeam and EnerGov have an excellent interface but time will tell if the sales people are blowing smoke or not. I will say the Tyler Munis is not even remotely close to being used for a building departments permitting system. Absolutely horrible. I'm hopeful that EnerGov will be better. We also will finally have a total online solution where an applicant can apply for a permit, submit plans, keep track of the plan review process, pay any associated fees, and print their issued permit and plans all in one place. That's the plan and again time will tell if we have chosen wisely or not.

We are in the set up stage with Energov. Getting close to testing. If works like they say it will be nice. I'm the most computer savvy of the bunch so we will see. Not sure the BO will use the blue-beam but i will most definitely be. So this thread should be helpful to me.
 
Enlighten me, why does a building department need Bluebeam?

With the advent of electronic submission, (and the ever popular notion of concurrent reviews....excuse me while I cough) it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain document "security". By that I mean maintaining a single set of plans, without removing, adding or otherwise altering the document beyond adding mark-ups and stamps. The system I currently use allows the applicant to submit whatever they want, and allows (requires) any would be reviewer to download it, who can then alter it, add to it, extract from it and re-upload it to the attachments. Without a really robust naming convention and internal project management, this creates a terrible mess, with no continuity. It is also very common for one reviewer to issue comments on his/her set, while another issues comments on theirs, and so on, and so on. This results in multiple versions of a plan. Worse yet, a re-submission of only a few pages here and there, that either get inserted (bad idea) or forgotten completely. Multiply this by multiple reviewers and pretty soon nobody has any idea what the plans are supposed to look like.

Bluebeam Studio functions can eliminate these pitfalls. I am mired in a system without any protocols for any of this, and when I am asked how to fix it, Bluebeam is the only answer I can come up with. Unfortunately, we just aren't close to that.

BTW, I am surprised at the number of plans I get where the applicant, architect or engineer hasn't placed any security protocols, thus allowing anyone to remove pages, copy content or even copy seals. When I get done I place security on all my plans, that protects my stuff as well as theirs, at least as much as I can.

If your intake isn't a free-for-all and has controls placed on it, either by automation or by human interface, it may be valuable as a pdf review program similar to Adobe (but much better IMHO). But if its like ours, so far BB is the only answer I can come up with.

ALERT-Fatboy, the system you are using is the same as mine, and if it is not built and controlled correctly (if that is even possible) you may end up in the same boat as me. And my boat is sinking. We are upgrading in a week or two, but my hopes are not high. Our problems may be entirely caused by the mis-use of the system, but if the system can be messed up that badly by humans, I tend to think the system is flawed from the start. We'll see.
 
ALSO, Jar. Awesome idea for a new forum. The one area I think BB is weak is in training. Much of what I have learned I did so by trial and error....and google. So this will be a valuable forum for all of us who are using it.
 
Community Development "TRAKiT" is a start to finish solution, Planning projects, permitting from applications, uploads through CO's, including payments, inspection results. Code compliance and citizen complaints.......
 
Hi Guys,
Just saw this section..... been doing electronic plan review for about 10 years. I’ve used it (BB extreme) for 4-5 years with my old jurisdiction on the fire side and now privately in my consulting. Referencing others, it intergraded great with the BSA software our building department used. Marking up individual sets for revision needs then flattening (locking your markups) on your plan page or set to save, name and secure is easy. Layering and using multiple profiles (tool sets and functions) are easy. You can save what you need by removing or inserting plan pages as needed for a individual, field set or split sets by disciplines in large sets you may receive. It’s very intuitive and their support (if needed) is fantastic. The Studio function is great for use when multiple users are needed at one time from anywhere in the world with internet for discussing a set of plans during a review such as interfacing equipment and controls. It is great for presentations and conference reviewing and revising on the fly for time saving or fast track needs.
It’s a great tool but if you do the trial version or vu remember to go back into your (pdf) settings and remove BB as the default because it used to take over or reset your OS to become the default (pdf) viewer. I can say with confidence, after you use it you won’t want to use anything else. I still only use about 50 % of what it can do.... I don’t work for them either
 
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FM, Jar,

What would you say the estimated cost for set up and support, other requirements would be? Working on budget items.

Just wondering, might get approval for a larger monitor only. :(

I can only dream....
 
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