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About Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam provides a shareable, real-time solution to architecture projects. Create takeoffs and accurate proposals in no time.

Learn more about Bluebeam Revu

Pros:

I like all the features and the integration capabilities. Bluebeam integrates with many other softwares which makes it a one-stop-shop to maximize its utility.

Cons:

Printing from it seams to be a problem for our field manager sometimes.

Bluebeam Revu ratings

Average score

Ease of Use
4.3
Customer Service
4.3
Features
4.6
Value for Money
4.5

Likelihood to recommend

8.9/ 10

Bluebeam Revu has an overall rating of 4.7 out 5 stars based on 975 user reviews on Capterra.

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Filter reviews (975)

Lap
Lap
project Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Real Estate, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Blue beam review

4.0 3 years ago

Comments: It is my preferred PDF editor and I constantly use it to make edits

Pros:

It is very user friendly and very intuitive. The dashboards are set up similar to acad and I can draw pretty well. The editing features are also top notch.

Cons:

It is a bit pricey for a PDF editor. You can get adobe versions much cheaper and while it maybe less functional, the adobe programs do work ok.

Verified Reviewer
Verified LinkedIn User
Construction, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

tons of features, faily easy to use

5.0 last year

Comments: I use this program almost daily for work and find it to be faily simple, mostly reliable, and with all the features I could hope for without being crazy complex.

Pros:

Lots of useful features. Easy to merge documents and edit files. Lots of editing tools, and once all that's done, you can also reduce file size to allow the file to compress and be small enough to attach to emails.

Cons:

Certain updates make it very glitchy and it will freeze frequently on me. Other updates are perfectly fine. Seems they issue a revised update fairly quickly when these issues occur.

Christa
Web designer in US
Design, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Great for any construction company

3.0 last year

Pros:

I loved being able to learn the ins and out of this software, however it was not was easy for me. Helping a local construction company use this software to put their PDFs together and help create new blueprints. User friendly on an advanced design level.

Cons:

The mark ups took some getting used to but once I understood the concept it wasn’t that hard

Karen
Technical consultant in US
Oil & Energy, 5,001–10,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Bluebeam is a great markup tool

5.0 4 months ago

Comments: Great, it made working from home possible and an easy tool to share / track live markups between offices.

Pros:

Ease of marking up a PDF document, functionality of searching documents, and comparing 2 documents.

Cons:

I wish you could separate the settings and tool chest to a separate window

Joshua
Transportation Engineer in Canada
Civil Engineering, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Amazing PDF reader, better than Adobe Acrobat. Very useful engineering tools

5.0 last year

Comments: This is the fastest tool when it comes to drawing review, pdf document creation and control, and diagram creation. The tools at your disposal allow you to do many things which other programs do not. I would recommend this software over any other PDF reader.

Pros:

Very handy and intuitive engineering tools, you can mark up drawings, get measurements and estimate quantities very easily. The drawings tools are also very useful, allowing for easy creation of clean diagrams. The PDF tools are powerful and I have completely phased out Adobe Acrobat in favour of using Bluebeam.

Cons:

The only downside I have come across is the inability to created lines of fixed length, you have to create a measurement and then create a line to match the measurement.

Eddie
Senior Project Manager in US
Construction, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Bluebeam is a cost effective alternative to other PDF Editors in the construction world

5.0 last year

Pros:

Cost effectiveness and ease of use compared to other editors.

Cons:

Some tools are less sophisticated than other editors on the market but overall worth it in terms of cost.

Amy
Project Coordinator in US
Construction, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Bluebeam Revu

4.0 last year

Comments: I was a little hesitant at first when my company switched from Adobe to Bluebeam, but now that I have gotten use to the program I would never want to go back to Adobe.

Pros:

It's easy to mark up PDF files. In the construction industry, we make markups on blueprints and submittals. It's also easy for material take-offs with the measuring tools.

Cons:

I still haven't been satisfied with all the toolbars and their locations. I have a tool bar on the top, side and bottom and I haven't figured out how to make it so I can just show the tools that I use the most.

Niamat
Site Engineer in Saudi Arabia
Civil Engineering, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Alternatives Considered:

Bluebeam Revu is one of the best software currently in the market

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: i am using Bluebeam Revu since one year, i found it very helpful in all aspects

Pros:

Bluebeam Revu is one of the best software currently in the market, i found it very helpful to manage many kind of documents. i personally use it mostly for managing PDF files. its a great toll to merge many files in a single click. with its great tools of editing we prepare many kinds of presentation for our client and consultant meeting that bear fruitful results most of the time. for any documents to change any kind of text and pictures it is very handy, managing large files and to find every single topic in a simple search is the key to this software, in short i would recommend this software for all users refer to the other same kind of software in the current market.

Cons:

i like all the features of this software that why we are using this software in our organization. what i like the most in it is that its very easy to edit any kind of page with the desired results. with all its text styles its more fun to use, managing huge files in a single click make it more efficient. any word or topic to find is very easy

Gloria
Human Resources Manager in US
Construction, 201–500 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Bluebeam Revu raving results

5.0 last year

Pros:

Once I learned how to use it there was no going back to Adobe. Blue Beam has management tools that improve review speed and accuracy.

Cons:

Thelearning curve if you really want to use the product the correct way.

Joshua
Joshua
Project Manager in US
Verified LinkedIn User
Architecture & Planning, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Untrustworthy Developer - Dropped the ball

3.0 5 years ago

Pros:

Brings a lot of features and functionality missing from Acrobat. To my knowledge, no other PDF software is geared towards the A+E market. I wish there was another one out there so that these guys didn't have a monopoly on the market. It has given them a sense of invincibility that has led to stagnation and a lack of genuine support for their customers.

Cons:

I've been using Revu for about 8 years, 5 of those on Windows. The last 3 are at my most recent job, and when I found out that Bluebeam had created a Revu for Mac, I was quick to push our company to adopt. I even gave a lunchtime presentation to show everyone some of the really powerful features I had come to know and love from the windows side. Playing with the trial version of 1.0, though, I quickly realized that a ton of features were absent from the windows version. I went ahead and gave the presentation anyway, though and with some convincing, we bought seats for everyone. It became clear within the first week of using the software, though, that it was incredibly slow. So slow as to be unusable. It took several seconds to render every page... considering that we regularly deal with 100+ page architectural sets, this made the program worthless in a lot of cases. What's more we really felt the lack of some features from the windows side, many of which were so basic that it's laughable that Bluebeam decided not to invest in them. You can't crop pdfs for instance. Anyway, when bluebeam for mac 2.0 came out, we bought in thinking that we'd be getting all of the features that we were missing along with performance improvements. Turns out they decided to revamp the UI with almost 0 feature inclusions. The performance of page rendering was significantly improved, which was helpful, although page thumbnails now no longer load.

Farah
Architect in US
Architecture & Planning, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

I Recommend Bluebeam

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: It is an excellent tool for reviewing drawings and organizing reports in a clear manner.

Pros:

Marking up drawings and also being able to create a shared document for multiple users to mark up make this a strong tool that allows AEC professionals to go digital and avoid printing.

Cons:

Tools that allow me to draw straight lines on documents would help.

Alexis
Interior Designer in US
Construction, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

BlueBeam Revu Review

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: I would highly recommend Bluebeam Revu over almost any other PDF reader/modifier. Its simplicity is refreshing. I think that if more people knew about the product they would switch from Adobe.

Pros:

Bluebeam is simple to learn and use. There are so many handy tools, and I don't even use a lot of them in my line of work but I know others who do. I particularly like the cloud tool to bring attention to revisions, but also like the text editor and the ability to scale from a set of drawings by picking two points with a known dimension.

Cons:

I think most of the tools are really great, but I would like to see a few more options for shapes that can be drawn. I use some of them to create easy to read legends for a particular set of drawings.

Matthew
Design Manager in UK
Construction, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

BlueBeam Revu

5.0 last year

Comments: the product makes it easy to measure, mark up and make amendments to drawings during the design process without the need to have expensive CAD software

Pros:

easy to use, inexpensive and has great features

Cons:

I sometimes struggle to find features, but that is because I don't use everything all the time, and it is a very feature rich product

Kyle
Estimator in UK
Construction, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Great Software But Needs To Be Available To Mac Users Again

5.0 last year

Comments: Very good, just disappointed it's no longer available on mac. It was by far the best for everything we do as a company and now we can't use it.

Pros:

The take off function and ability to add comments was extremely useful

Cons:

The licensing expired on Mac, so new employees are unable to use the software which is a huge issue as we had three members of the commercial department using Bluebeam and we had to change when another three employees joined the team as we can't collaborate unless all on same software.

Thomas
Site manager in UK
Construction, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Powerful software with limits

5.0 last year

Pros:

Able to manage and manipulate multiple pieces of construction information. Useful to quickly design markups in a more time efficient manner than autocad

Cons:

Runs into software limitations when advanced use occurs

Cindy
Bill of Materials TechnicianII in US
Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 501–1,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Bluebeam Revu for Print Management

5.0 last year

Comments: I really like Bluebeam. I hope I like it as much when I am not able to save a print through SolidWorks and will need to press a few more buttons to view it.

Pros:

Bluebeam is super easy, user friendly. As our part designs change, therefore requiring print changes, we have the capability to use the tools offered in Bluebeam to markup changes, highlight, and add text explaining revisions so everyone is on the same page as to what/why a change occurred and if it effects fit, form or function.

Cons:

No dislikes, really. We recently upgraded our SolidWorks® and am finding that Bluebeam will not be connecting/compatible with SolidWorks® any longer. That is not horrible as we can save prints other ways and still read them in Bluebeam Revu.

Ashwitha
QA Analyst in Canada
Government Relations, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Action tool for a Document editor

5.0 last year

Pros:

You will be notified via emails when you have access to project and the file.

Cons:

When the system fails ,I was not able to figure out , and had to reach out to the Bluebeam team for clarity.

joseph wendel
project coordinator in Australia
Construction, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source

Game changer

5.0 last year

Pros:

I like how bluebeam make the takeoffs so much easier especially the count tool combined with the search tool that will make our estimate easier to price up.

Cons:

I think the length tool should be more subject to edit so i can personalized the feature or the looks

Tyler
Owner in US
Construction, Self Employed
Used the Software for: 2+ years
Reviewer Source
Source: SoftwareAdvice

Way more than just a .PDF program...

5.0 2 years ago

Pros:

I love all of the takeoff features bluebeam has. Being tailor made for construction and having all of the same features as the competitors as well makes it a no Brainer for me.

Cons:

Integration was easy. Learning the program is slightly different than competitors but there is a good help section and online communities.

Brian
Sales/ PM in US
Construction, 1,001–5,000 Employees
Used the Software for: 1+ year
Reviewer Source

Every construction company should be using this program!

4.0 2 years ago

Comments: I loved it. Used every project. Was able to see my margins increase as a byproduct of not over estimating... less waste. We were also able to keep project costs more real-time helping to win more projects.

Pros:

Pros: I loved the digital estimating tools that fed back to the general, [sensitive content hidden], and architects. They were able to see any gaps in designs and see where projects might be easier to VE.

Cons:

CONS: 1) Too many tools at your fingertips makes for alot to learn, but not everything is needed. 2) If GC is using program, the document management on large projects can become very overwhelming if not organized extremely well.

Lisbeth
Lisbeth
Project Engineer in Peru
Verified LinkedIn User
Civil Engineering, 2–10 Employees
Used the Software for: Free Trial
Reviewer Source

An ally for construction

4.0 last year

Comments: Through the free trial I have tested its functionality, its speed is optimal and it is accessible on any device.

Pros:

One advantage is the ability to encrypt documents, providing an additional layer of security. It also integrates with various formats such as CAD, facilitates modifications.

Cons:

It does not have the functionality that would allow you to create, modify or edit any original content. In addition, the individual cost is not small.

Adam
Accountant in Jordan
Construction, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Best take-off software

5.0 last year

Comments: Bluebeam Revu isn't suitable for PDF reading and editing only. It's advanced software for engineering functions.

Pros:

Bluebeam Revu is full of engineering functions and features, best for reading PDF drawings.

Cons:

Bluebeam Revu is costly and complicated for basic users.

Jagruti
office manager in Canada
Civil Engineering, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

BLueBeam Review

5.0 last year

Pros:

what i like most is the ease of editing documents and all the different features it offers. mind you i have not used them all but the option is there. and interested in learning more of the features i do not use.

Cons:

have not used it to its extent to comment on the product but it is expensive..

Leslie
Administrator Project Coordinator in Canada
Construction, 11–50 Employees
Used the Software for: 6-12 months
Reviewer Source

Bluebeam Revu

3.0 last year

Comments: Not positive, the program is not overly user friendly

Pros:

The program enabled us to give our foreman and project managers access to pdf drawings that they require to manage a job

Cons:

The program is not user friendly, difficult to work within, manage, save pdf's to, creating new folders is difficult

Dustin
Permit Technician in US
Government Administration, 51–200 Employees
Used the Software for: 1-5 months
Reviewer Source

Pathway to Paperless

5.0 2 years ago

Comments: We and another entity previously required physical plan sets for building permits and planning case applications. Now that both have decided to move forward with Bluebeam, it makes my personal job significantly less stressful.

Pros:

Allowing us to stop requiring physical building plan sets will reduce paper usage exponentially.

Cons:

Expensive, but worth it in the long run. Will likely have a tough road ahead adjusting for some people involved.