Bluebeam vs. Foxit PDF Editor

The program is great for editing construction drawings, stamping/approving official documents and overlaying revised documents to see design changes. You can use it as an estimating takeoff tool, estimating database, document control, cloud document storage, the list goes on! Bluebeam poses many applications for the user to utilize for the desired needs. There may be some other software that has one specific function that can perform the specific task better, but Bluebeam is a holistic program with many tools for use.

Incentivized

Great for marking up depositions or pleadings with highlights, comments, and notes during case review.
Supports Bates stamping, password protection, and other features often required for electronic filing.

Built-in tools allow for quick and secure redaction of privileged or confidential information before sharing or filing. Less appropriate if you needed to work on real time collaboration or building complex form templates from scratch.

Incentivized

• Once you set Bluebeam Revu as your default PDF handler, it launches immediately when clicking a PDF to open. The speed with which it opens documents is impressive.
• Creating PDF's out of other documents, such as Word, Excel, JPG's, etc. is simple.
• Digitally signing documents is a simple, secure process. You can keep your signature password-protected, yet still access it quickly.
• The Bluebeam Revu mobile application ( I use the iOS version on an iPad Pro), is awesome. Not only does it handle PDF's like you would expect it to, it allows for effortless digital signing of documents on the fly. Nice to be able to quickly sign a document and email right back out from the tablet no matter where I am.

Incentivized

• FoxitPhantom carries superior editing tools over Adobe Acrobat and similar products. It allows you to modify text, images, & objects in a more robust fashion
• Integrates well with Microsoft Office products such as Word, PPT, & Excel
• Allows you to work in a nearly paperless environment

Incentivized

• If you have several tabs open and you try to drag one out for a side by side view then you do not have all the modification options and you have to combine them back together.
• There is a lag time when hitting the print option.
• There is also a lag time when opening files, sometimes I think the window is frozen.
• I wish the basic version also had basic file editing, as in editing a document as Adobe does.

Incentivized

• I have a dual monitor setup at work and there are times when I wish that I could view pdf documents on both monitors at the same time. I have not yet figured out how to do that with FoxitPhantom as it appears to limit the user to displaying multiple pdf documents as separate tabs on the same screen. If dual screen is an option in the software, it needs to be more apparent.
• I can't think of any other desired improvements. This software really does everything that I need it to do.

Incentivized

Bluebeam is a powerful PDF viewer and mark-up tool. We are more familiar with it than Adobe Acrobat Pro or other viewers, and it has more features geared towards construction document managers than Acrobat Pro does.

Incentivized

Because very few editors are so easy to use and deploy backed by speed and performance. Foxit PDF is known for its speed and performance, allowing users to open and work with PDF files quickly and efficiently

Foxit's user-friendly interface is easy to navigate and use, making it a popular choice for users who are new to PDF software.

I'm constantly finding that Bluebeam Revu does more than I knew it could. And when I find something that it can't do, I've found that Bluebeam truly listens to its user base and will work to incorporate any good suggestion when feasible.

Incentivized

Foxit PDF Editor works the way my brain works, so everything is where I expect it intuitively and that makes me hugely efficient. I love how all of the various features are laid out logically in tabs such as Fill & Sign, Organize, Form, etc. with the tools I expect to find where I expect to find them.

Incentivized

FoxitPhantom PDF integrates very well with the Microsoft Office products, which is where I found I use this the most. It performs about as well as can be expected, without any out of place latency. Whether it be merging, deleting, editing or rearranging pages, its performance holds up even with larger documents.

Incentivized

Its hard for me to give a rating on this one as we rarely have to use the support feature for Bluebeam. However, when we have used it, they have been ultra supportive in helping us get exactly what we needed. I know another engineer was trying to figure out a feature and the rep gave a detailed tutorial on how to complete the task

Incentivized

I haven't personally had interaction with the customer support from FoxitPhantom, however based on conversations I have had with members in the organization, I was given positive feedback. Their website has a lot of information and tutorials. If you need to contact them, they are quick to respond. User manuals are readily available.

Incentivized

We feel there is not another program out there that would compare to Bluebeam at this current time. Some of the other programs out there do not include studio or the overlaying process which is one of our main uses. The ease of hyperlinking makes this product stand out the most.

Incentivized

I would say that when you want to get a bigger share of the market and take business from long time consolidated applications like Acrobat, you really need to try harder and give something more to the user to be able to change their mind and switch to Foxit. In our case licensing was an important factor and at the beginning we had a small learning curve with users asking how to open PDF files and what was that orange icon. The truth is that we as users accepted the new software happily because simply said: it does the job. After using Foxit I would not go back to Acrobat, I like better the connectivity, the simplicity and the way it manages the tabs.

Incentivized

• A major positive aspect is being able to take your computer home without taking the entire set of paper drawings. They have made it so easy to navigate a set of drawings that I can work at home using only the digital drawings.
• Collaboration with owners and architects has been a great feature. Setting up a Bluebeam studio and having everyone get in and mark things up, then having the architect be able to go in and see what markups have been added, has made the constructability review process much much better.
• Even when not working on drawings, Bluebeam is a very good tool for working with standard PDF documents. The markup tools are very easy to use.
• The negative aspect is the takeoff function because some people would like estimators to use the Bluebeam takeoff because it would make their job easier down the road; however, the actual act of doing a full scale takeoff in Bluebeam would require much more time.

Incentivized

• We have cut our mailed AR by over 60% by exporting to foxit and emailing.
• We have cleared an entire room to be used as additional office space by scanning in old documents.
• The feature that allows you to directly type onto PDFs has increased our quality control by allowing us to highlight or add notes to important info.

Incentivized