Bluebeam offers two different versions of Studio. Although both versions provide the same core functionality for sharing and marking up documents with your co-workers, each of them has different administrative functions.
Bluebeam Studio
What is Bluebeam Studio? How much does Studio cost?
Bluebeam Studio is the free cloud-based version included with every copy of Bluebeam Revu.
Built into Bluebeam Revu, Studio enables powerful document management and real-time collaboration.
Studio Projects give you a single centralized location to store documents—even entire building projects—in the cloud. And Studio Sessions let project teams review, mark up and update the same files at the same time.
What are Studio Sessions?
Sessions enable document-based online real-time collaboration. They are accessible through the Revu interface. Only the host needs a Revu license to initiate a Studio Session, and all invited attendees can participate in the Session through Revu or Revu for iPad. If collaborators do not have a license of Revu, they can use Revu in View Mode or Vu for iPad.
What are Studio Projects?
Studio Projects enable streamlined document management by allowing you to store and manage your project files, including PDFs and other file types, in one place through the Revu interface. Teams can work with Project files regardless of internet access—simply sync files locally from a Project before going offline and re-sync any updates once you reconnect.
Collaborators who do not own a license of Revu can access the files using Revu in View Mode or Vu for iPad. Or, you can send them password-protected Share Links, which allow them to download a local copy of the files.
What type of permissions are available in Bluebeam Studio?
Bluebeam Studio—which includes options for organizations to have more administrative control over their Sessions and Projects—offers varying levels of permissions, from limiting the level of collaboration for internal users to managing participants outside of the organization. Learn more here.
Do I need to own Revu to access Bluebeam Studio?
You can access Studio and unlock the industry-standard markup tools in Revu without owning a license of the software. Download a trial of Revu to use in View Mode, or download the free Vu app for iPad.
Studio Session and Projects Comparison
Bluebeam Studio Prime
Studio Prime is a subscription-based cloud solution, offering administrative functions and access to external applications using the Bluebeam Studio API.
What is Studio Prime?
Studio Prime is a subscription that gives companies additional administrative and user management control over their Studio Projects and Sessions. Administrators can access Studio activity reports through the online Studio Prime Portal, as well as Folder Automations functionality and the Bluebeam Studio API for external application integrations.
Do I need to own Revu to manage a Studio Prime subscription account?
No, you do not need to own a seat of Bluebeam Revu to manage a Studio Prime account. You can access the online Studio Prime Portal to control user access and pull reports on user activity.
What are the different types of users within Studio Prime?
A Studio Prime subscription makes it easier to collaborate with outside vendors and project partners, giving your organization more control over each Studio participant. There are two types of users within Studio Prime: Members and Collaborators.
MEMBERS
Members are users who are invited to join your Prime account. They could be employees, joint venture partners or anyone who needs to become a managed user.
COLLABORATORS
Collaborators are external users that Members invite to attend managed Projects and Sessions. Collaborators could be superintendents, subcontractors or anyone who needs access to a Studio Project or Session within the Studio Prime account. Prime Administrators can control Collaborators’ access to Members’ managed Projects and Sessions.
When invited to the Studio Prime account, Members give Administrators the ability to manage their Studio account and associated Projects and Sessions. Collaborators, on the other hand, maintain control over their personal Studio account when joining or leaving a Project or Session within the Prime account.
How does an Administrator access the Studio Prime Portal to manage users and generate reports?
Administrators can access their Studio Prime account through the online Studio Prime Portal at studio.bluebeam.com.
What is the Bluebeam Studio API?
The Bluebeam Studio API lets Studio Prime subscribers create applications to manage their Studio Projects and Sessions. These applications can leverage Bluebeam Studio in a number of ways, including:
Studio Projects and Sessions: Add and create.
Project folders: Add or delete Project folders and manage folder permissions.
Studio files: Add, update, download, and delete Project and Session files, and restore file revisions.
Studio users: Invite or add users to Projects and Sessions, and manage user permissions.
Studio permissions: Manage Project and Session permissions.
Session activity: Get a report on all Session activity and create chat messages in a Session.
Studio jobs: Execute file-processing jobs on Project files.
What is Folder Automations?
Folder Automations is a feature in Studio Projects that allows Studio Prime subscribers to streamline repetitive PDF-based workflows across a large number of users. Subscribers can automatically perform a set of predefined actions to files in a Project folder, including:
Converting files
Delete pages
Export form data
Export markups
Extract pages
Flatten
Add headers and footers
Import custom columns
Insert blank pages
Insert pages
Process colors
Reduce file size
Repair page content
Reverse pages
Rotate pages
Stamp
Unflatten markups
Create PDF/A report
Save as PDF/A
What are the available file conversions supported by Studio Prime’s Folder Automations?
Bluebeam is the best-in-class PDF markup and collaboration tool that is used by architects, engineers, and contractors throughout the lifecycle of a building project. With Revu you can compare documents, do estimations, submit RFIs and plans for approval, and a whole lot more—all in the same software.
Bluebeam has a management portal to keep tabs on all licenses. It shows how many users, which edition, who is using it, if they are active/unused, allocate, etc. This is Bluebeam’s “Enterprise licensing” system. It essentially opens an umbrella, and any license under that umbrella can be seen and managed within the Enterprise Portal. It does three main things:
The Enterprise system will ping computers every 15 days to see if they have been used. If they have been used, it will leave the license. If it has not been used, it will release that license, to now be used by someone else.
Access to the portal to login, monitor, and release licenses when needed.
It also gives you a 5% overage on installs (i.e. company has 100 licenses, they can install up to 105). This is really for temporary installs or a “buffer” on license installs. Meaning, you can install and get new users up and running while not having to worry about the finances.
Enterprise is a system that can be added to any active/current license on maintenance. It is renewed every year like maintenance, to keep the management functionality active.
1. How does Enterprise Licensing work?
An Enterprise License is a special license key of Bluebeam Revu designed to help manage computer turnover. It does two things:
Automatically releases registered computers that have failed to communicate with our licensing server for 15 days.
It provides a temporary 5% overage of the total number of allowed installations.
In other words, once a machine takes up a seat by registering to an Enterprise License, it will periodically ping Bluebeam’s Licensing Server to confirm that it is still active. If the machine fails to communicate with the server for a period of 15 days, it will automatically be released from the license key, freeing up the seat to be registered to another machine. The 5% overage, or cushion, allows for the lag time between re-imaging workstations or releasing inactive seats. If you exceed the overage allowance, an “exceeded licenses” warning will appear, and further installations will be restricted.
The benefit of Enterprise Licensing is that there’s no longer a need to manually uninstall or release seats from workstations that are being transferred, phased out or re-imaged, which ensures that your licensed seats are fully utilized. You can view or manage your Enterprise License at any time through our web portal, the Bluebeam Gateway
2. What are the Administrator capabilities for Enterprise Licensing?
Invite additional Administrators to assist in managing active users.
3. How do I know if I have used all my licenses? Is there a charge for going over?
With an Enterprise License, you gain access to the Bluebeam Gateway, a web portal for viewing and managing both Enterprise and Open Licenses. The Bluebeam Gateway allows you to view how many seats of each version and edition you own, how many computers, or “seats,” are registered to each license, and which computers they are.
As long as your total number of registered machines per edition does not exceed the total number of seats allowed plus the 5% overage allowance, you are good! If you are approaching or exceeding your limit, you can purchase additional seats or unregister licenses from computers as needed. Any new seats purchased may take up to 24 hours to update and appear in the Gateway.
4. I logged in to the Bluebeam Gateway and I can’t find what I’m looking for.
We’ve recently consolidated individual licenses into single accounts tied to organizational domain names to provide a simpler and more customer-friendly experience. Please reference our support article for more information.
5. Why can’t I access the Bluebeam Gateway with my existing login information?
As we strive to provide better customer experience, we’ve created Bluebeam ID, which allows users to seamlessly access multiple Bluebeam applications, including Bluebeam Gateway and Bluebeam Studio. To get you set up, we’ve sent out an email to the Gateway admin listed in our system to create a Bluebeam ID. Please remember to check your spam folder. If you can’t find the email or are still having trouble, please reference our support article.
6. What is a Bluebeam ID (BBID)?
Bluebeam ID is the log in that allows you to seamlessly access multiple Bluebeam applications, including Bluebeam Gateway, Bluebeam Studio, and Bluebeam Drawings*. If you already have a Studio account, you can use the same email address and password for your Bluebeam ID. If you do not use Studio, you can use the email address associated with your existing Gateway account to create a Bluebeam ID.
*Drawings is optimized using the United States National CAD Standard® (NCS).
7. How do I qualify for Enterprise Licensing?
There are a couple of requirements for Enterprise Licensing. First, your licenses must be consolidated into a single license key by-product. Second, your annual Maintenance must be current and maintained. Please note, Enterprise Licenses are not intended for Citrix or other terminal server environments.
8. How much does Enterprise Licensing cost and how can I find out more?
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