Item: Bluebeam
Rating: 10
Author: Tony Grasso

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Bluebeam is used for a variety of tasks across the entire company. It is a critical piece of our software that is used daily by the majority of the office staff whether assigned to a project or overseeing operations across the entire operating group. It is by far the most useful tool for the field support staff hands down. Bluebeam offers a huge array of tools that enhance communication between the owner, architect, and contractor which minimizes construction errors in the field.

Pros and Cons

Combine, split, extract, reorder, markup, flatten, scale, compare and distribute PDFs - Pretty much anything you want to do with a PDF can be done in this software. The key aspect here is the user friendliness of the document controls. No training is needed to get started with the basics.
Toolchests for all general scopes of work. Electrical, plumbing, HVAC, sitework, structural, and architectural symbols are just some of the many available toolchests that markup a drawing for quick and easy takeoffs from design drawings.
Document management with slip sheeting. Easily add new PDFs into the current contract documents in the correct locations while ensure the outdated documents are logged for future reference if needed.

RFI's and submittals tools are OK if your company uses them but there are better systems out there. There are quite a few steps involved in sending an RFI through Bluebeam that are unnecessary with other programs.

Return on Investment

Since I am only a user of the software, I can't comment on any specific ROI data... but I can say without a doubt that the usability of this software far exceeds any of the competitors. Your users will thank you!

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Acrobat DC

If Bluebeam can be compared to any other PDF editing software, the closest competitor would be Adobe Acrobat. Unfortunately, this really isn't a fair comparison because to tools available (and user interface) in Bluebeam FAR outweigh the ones available in Adobe Acrobat. This extra functionality in Bluebeam probably comes at an increase in software price... but I assure you that if you are doing anything more than simply opening and viewing PDFs, the extra cost of Bluebeam is well worth it.

Other Software Used

AutoCAD, Procore, Primavera Unifier, Microsoft Project, PlanGrid

Likelihood to Recommend

Bluebeam Revu excels at manipulating PDFs (which conveniently is used by nearly all of the construction industry). Specifically, I utilize these tools to develop visual references when submitting materials for engineering review (submittals) or asking questions of the design team (RFI's). Additionally, exporting CAD files to PDF format allows them to be opened in Bluebeam where all of the CAD layers are imported as well (much easier to manipulate layers in Bluebeam than CAD). My company utilizes a document management software that handles RFI's, submittals, daily reports, and drawing sets which is specifically designed for that use. Bluebeam isn't an effective substitute for our document management software because Bluebeam wasn't designed specifically for that purpose and still needs some work in that area.

Construction Project Engineer's Review of Bluebeam Revu

Overall Satisfaction with Bluebeam Revu