Updated Measure Tools in Bluebeam Revu 2017

Bluebeam Revu 2017 has some major improvements which we listed in our previous blog post here. Below, we discuss the latest improvements to Revu’s measurement tools.

Slope

Revu’s Length  and Area  tools now have a built-in field for slope, adding a new dimension to your markup measurements. Slope may be defined by Pitch, Degree or Grade.

Slope is particularly useful for things like roof pitch (Pitch); roadways and onramps (Degree); or grading and earthwork while landscaping (Grade).
To use this feature:

1. Place a Length or Area
2. Select the measurement on the PDF, then open the Measurements
3. Scroll down to the Slopedropdown menu. Select the type (Pitch, Degree or Grade), then enter the necessary values.

New Width and Height Columns

Width and Height columns have always been available in Revu, but they would only display the actual width and height of the measurements – the columns remained blank for markups. Now, Revu’s Width and Height columns will display scaled width and height measurements. Revu’s old width and height columns are now named Document Width and Document Height.

To use this feature:

1. Place measurements on the workspace.
2. Open the Markups List(Alt+L).
3. If you have not turned on the Widthor Height columns, click Columns  and then select them from the dropdown menu.

Show Captions

You can control which measurement captions display on the page. In the Properties panel, the Edit dropdown menu (next to the Show Captioncheckbox) allows you to select the captions that you want to display. This replaces the single Show All Measurements checkbox in previous versions.

To use this feature:

1. Select one or more measurements.
2. Open the Properties tab (Alt+P).
3. Check the box marked Show Caption. To specify which labels you want to appear on the drawing, click the Editbutton to the right of this text and specify the labels in the dropdown menu.

Units Display in Markups List

In the past, units for measurements were displayed in a separate Units column. In Revu 2017, units display within the same column as their respective values. A separate column for units will be included when the Summary is exported to CSV or XML format.

To use this feature:

1. Place measurements in the workspace.
2. Open the Markups List(Alt+L).
3. Make sure at least one measurement-related Column is selected to see the difference:

Cutout Improvements

A few improvements have been made to the Cutout tool, making your workflows that much easier. Watch this tutorial  to see how they work.

Cutout Backfill

Cutout Backfill makes measuring Cutouts  as simple as clicking on them. After you have used the Cutout  tool on an Area  or Volume markup, hover over the cutout with the Area  or Volume  tool again, then click to measure it.

Tip: You can use Shift+click to fill all unfilled cutouts within a measurement!

Cut Over Edge

As long as you begin within a measurement, Revu will allow you to draw outside the edges of a markup with a Polygon Cutout .

Copy and Paste Cutouts

Copy and paste cutouts using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (respectively), or Ctrl+click+drag.

Delete Cutouts

Right-click on the cutout you want to delete, then select Delete Cutout.

Ellipse Cutout Option

Ellipse-shaped cutouts can now be created. Click Cutout  > Ellipse .

Improved Scale Calibration

Various improvements have been made to Scale Calibration to ensure the accuracy of all measurements made in Revu. Moreover, scale calibration may now be applied to all pages in a document.

Count Enhancements

Check out this tutorial  to see the Count  tool enhancements in action.

Custom Count Symbols

Revu no longer limits you to basic count symbols. You can turn any markup into the custom count you need in just a few steps:

1. Place a markup. Or, if you are using an existing markup, skip to step 3.
2. Drag the markup from Recent Toolsto your tool set of choice.
3. Right-click> Create Count
4. A copy of the markup with a overlay will be created at the end of the tool set it was created in.

Width, Height and Depth

Count  measurements now have their own values, enabling you to calculate total area or total volume across multiple counts. You can edit these values in the Markups List as long as you have an appropriate measurement column enabled.

1. Place your Counts in the workspace.
2. Open the Measurementspanel (Alt+U).
3. From here, you can set the Depth, Width, and Height

Alternatively, if you have selected the desired measurement criteria from the Columns  menu, you can edit these values in the Markups List by double-clicking the value field.

Show Caption

Make your Counts  much more informative with measurement data or custom text within count measurements:

1. Select the relevant Count
2. Open the Properties panel (Alt+P).
3. Select Show Caption(if it’s not checked already), then specify the labels to display using the Edit

Copy and Paste Improvements

If you have ever done takeoffs on a multilevel floorplan, you may find yourself placing your Counts  in more or less the same places each time. The ability to copy and paste Counts  between pages and files makes this process much quicker:

1. Select the Count
2. Right-click> Copy, or Ctrl+C from one file.
3. Open or create a different file, then Right-click> Paste, or Ctrl+V.

Split and Merge

Counts  now have Split and Merge capabilities, similar to Split and Resume with Segments. These additions make takeoff workflows much more flexible. You can split up any count into separate groups, or merge them back to their original group at any time.

Split selected symbols to create separate counts:

1. Select the symbols you would like to separate from the count.
2. Right-click, then select Split. The markups with yellow control points will become their own count.

Split all symbols within a single count into individual markups:

1. Select one of the items in the count.
2. Right-click, then selectSplit All.
3. All markups have now become their own separate count.

Merge Counts can be used to rejoin split counts, or to combine disparate counts into a single count:

1. Select the Count markups you would like to join.
2. Right-click, then select Merge. The markups will become a single count again.

Automatically Split Across Spaces

This feature keeps Space  information relevant to Counts  within the symbol itself. In the past, Counts  would only contain the Space  information where the first Count  was placed. Keeping this information within the symbol makes it much easier to keep track of your Counts .

To view Space information, make sure the Space column is selected in the Columns  menu, located in the Markups List.

If you have any questions regarding these Bluebeam features or your Bluebeam software, please contact our team bluebeam@microsolresources.com.