What Technology Do you Use to Review Drawings Electronically? 25

[Logan82]

Hi!

I find that reviewing PDF drawings of my peers on the computer with Adobe Acrobat is slower or more clunky than just printing the drawing on a 11"x17" paper and reviewing it with a pen and highlighter. For instance, to write a weld symbol on Adobe Acrobat implies to put several lines and perform many mouse clicks, while drawing a weld symbol by hand is very quick. I also feel that printing the drawing enables me to see in a new perspective that makes me see some details that I would not have seen otherwise.

I was wondering if some of you annotate drawings with an electronic pen and a tablet? If so, what do you use?

 

[StrucPEng]

Bluebeam is much better suited for the A/E/C industry.

https://www.bluebeam.com/

Plenty of mark-up options, you can also download symbols and other annotations or create your own review stamps, etc.

 

[OldDawgNewTricks]

I also use Bluebeam Revu. You can download editable weld symbols from the Bluebeam website that are very convenient.

For major submittals, I also like to print out a hardcopy to review. Sometimes it is easier notice problems with things like line weights, etc. on the paper copy.

 

[dik]

It depends on how the *.pdf file was created, too. Some *.pdf are slower than others, I've found.

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[Tomfh]

Bluebeam. It’s light years ahead of acrobat.

 

[Logan82]

Thank you! I will definitely try Bluebeam. Do you use a tablet and a pen with Bluebeam or do you use it straight on a computer?

dik, in my case, I have a super fast computer and my pdf are light and fast to load, but the slow process is writting complex comments on drawings (drawing a concept by hand, a weld symbol, etc).

 

[dik]

Logan... misunderstood, I thought he was referring to loading and printing SMath programs... Some *.pdf files are slow...

Rather than think climate change and the corona virus as science, think of it as the wrath of God. Feel any better?

-Dik

 

[Tomfh]

I’ve never used bluebeam on a tablet. Only on computer.

I find the markup tools very good and very fast compared to hand markup. Its also good for drawing little sketches within the markups. It has general drawing elements like rectangles, circles, lines, etc.

 

[Trenno]

Bluebeam Revu for PDF drawings and Visicon for BIM & analysis models.

 

[Brad805]

I use Bluebeam extreme a lot. Once you start creating libraries of your typical notes you can review things quite quickly. I have a wacom tablet for the PC, but it does not get used very much. The pen is not very fine and it takes quite a bit of practice to produce decent sketches due to the constant scaling as you zoom around. The ink pen that you can get for the Wacom allows you to create very nice sketches, but there are a few steps to produce a file to share. The pen for my Samsung tablet is quite good for sketching in Autodesk sketchbook.

 

[Celt83]

If you are on windows DrawboardPDF is a nice alternative to Bluebeam with full pen support. The free version allows inking but to get measurements you’ll need to do the yearly subscription.

My Personal Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

Open Source Structural GitHub Group:

https://github.com/open-struct-engineer

 

[JoelTXCive]

If I am making comments or redlines, then Bluebeam. It is significantly easier than Adobe. I also have custom shop drawing stamps with date fields that are helpful.

Maybe it is just my computer, but Bluebeam is slower loading pages though. I can't flip through a document near as fast as Adobe. So, If I'm just reading and not Annotating; then I still use Adobe for that.

 

[Celt83]

Reading: SumatraPDF (I have found nothing faster)

Shop drawing processing: Bluebeam (2018 is fundamentally broken at its core programming and they rewrote a portion of the backend for later versions so make sure you are updated)

When not at work and need to annotate: DrawboardPDF

My Personal Open Source Structural Applications:

https://github.com/buddyd16/Structural-Engineering

Open Source Structural GitHub Group:

https://github.com/open-struct-engineer

 

[NorthCivil]

I heard whispers of bluebeam for years when i worked at old firms that chewed through about 800 trees per year in paper and swimming pools full of ink. Thought there was no better way, technology intimidated me. for anything larger than 11x17, we had a strong relationship with the local print shop and were always running back and forth there, getting couriers, wasting time in general.

Then i got a job at an office that was striving to be "paperless" and was given bluebeam. after a couple hours of getting familiar, you realize how much you were missing out on.

Since covid hit, i went home and have actually functioned without a printer for the last 19-20 months. The world seems to have grown to accept digital documents since then. the only time i ever needed to sign anything with my hand in the last couple years was some bank paperwork.

 

[Aesur]

I use Bluebeam typically on my desktop, however when I travel I use the tablet mode with stylus on my laptop. It's a little laggy in tablet mode, but once you get used to the lag from the stylus to the screen it's easy to use. I believe this is due to the 3rd party stylus I use. The other part I had to learn was that line weights were based on how hard you pressed down on the stylus, that took some getting used too at first.

 

[JLNJ]

We have been using Bluebeam. I'm relatively proficient with it but sometimes it frustrates me when a hand note or sketch (as in the aforementioned weld symbols) would be much easier. There also have been times where the Bluebeam marks don't translate well to whatever reader the receiver has.

We are being pushed to BIM360 which is a giant step back in terms of marking up documents. I know the future is in the cloud, but sometimes it is limiting, laggy, and generally sucks. RISA went to the cloud and it slowed everything down. Every file takes SIGNIFICANTLY longer to open and run - and we paid extra for this? Good for RISA's revenue stream, bad for the users.

 

[Brad805]

The bluebeam weld symbols are not great, but you can explode(ungroup) them and fix them. Store in your library and you are good to go. We always write out a .pdf file including our markups to avoid the problems at the reader end. I keep a file ###-edittable.pdf.

 

[Logan82]

Thank you for the information. I will definately try Bluebeam!

 

[WARose]

Bluebeam is what I have seen a lot of too. The problem (at least IMHO) with it is: I see people C&P a lot of code into it.....just about to the point where whole codes get reproduced in a set of calcs for a simple structure. At the risk of becoming Grumpy Old Man here [i.e. "In my day...."], what I am use to seeing is the code section simply referenced (by section number or whatever). To me, that's less cumbersome. (I also have to wonder if it isn't some sort of copyright infringement....in some cases sending a bunch of C&P code to a 3rd party.)

 

[JoelTXCive]

JLNJ - Do you 'flatten' the file prior to sending your PDF out to 3rd parties? That can get rid of many issues with other readers. I always 'flatten,' but with the ability to 'unflatten' if needed. (it's a check box). If I am really concerned about security, then I do not allow unflattening.

Logan - There are ton of bluebeam videos on youtube. No software is perfect, but Bluebeam is pretty good for annotating.