THE REVU
TOOL KIT
Helpful Tips, Tricks & Shortcuts
for Bluebeam Revu
THE
REVU
TOOL KIT
Tools are only as good as our ability to use them. That’s why
we want to help you power up your knowledge of Bluebeam
Revu. The Revu Tool Kit is a collection of useful tips, tricks and
keyboard shortcuts to supercharge your workflows.
20
ESSENTIAL
REVU
TIPS
& TRICKS
1. Call out multiple areas on a
drawing from a single comment
See Specs
Place the Callout tool on the PDF, then
right-click the arrow and select “Add
Leader” to draw additional leader lines.
Repeat the steps to point to multiple
locations on your drawing.
2. Apply markups to all pages
Right-click your markup and select “Apply to All Pages” to
place that markup at the same location on every page in
your document.
3. Automatically autosize text boxes
If you always want your text boxes to be the perfectly sized
for the text they contain, go to Settings > Preferences >
Markup and select the checkbox “Autosize Text Box and
Callout Markups.” Or use keyboard shortcut Alt+Z to autosize
a single markup.
4. View frequently used tabs and
panels on a second monitor
Optimize your dual monitor workspace! If you
frequently access tabs and panels like the Tool
Chest and Markups List, you can click and drag
them over to your second monitor so that they
are always in view. Then you can also make
them as large as you’d like.
5. Hyperlink your markups
To add a hyperlink to any markup, right-click the markup
and select “Edit Action” from the context menu, then choose
the hyperlink option. You can also use the keyboard shortcut
Ctrl+Shift+E.
6. Open hyperlinked content in a new document tab
Clicking a hyperlink in Revu will take you from your current
document into the linked content. However, if you’d like to stay
where you are and open the link in a new document tab, simply
hold down the Ctrl key while clicking the link.
7. Check if your PDF is a scanned document or
an original vector file
For a simple way to tell if a new file is vector or scanned, zoom
into the drawing—think 800%+. If it begins to pixelate, it’s
scanned. If it stays crisp, it’s vector.
You can also try highlighting the text in a document. Vector
documents will allow for text to be selected, whereas scanned
documents will only recognize text if OCR has been run. Vector
files allow you to snap to content to quickly get the most
accurate measurements, so we recommend asking for vector
files instead of scans whenever possible.
8. Export PDFs to Word
or Excel format
You can bring your PDF back to
Microsoft Word or Excel by going to File
> Export and then pick your preferred
export file type. This is especially useful
if you need to make many changes to a
text-based document, but only have the
PDF version.
9. Include selected text markups in your Markups List
summary report
If you need certain text within a document included in
your Markups List summary report, go to Settings >
Preferences > Markup and check “Copy selected text into
Text Markup.” When you highlight or underline text, Revu
will add that highlighted text as a comment in the Markups List.
This works great for a quick review or report on the
sections you’ve highlighted.
10. Apply scales to your tool sets
Go to the Tool Chest panel, choose the tool set you’d like to
create a scale for, and select Properties > Set Scale. This allows
your tools to automatically scale in relation to any calibrated
drawing or viewport they are placed in. For example, a symbol
in a tool set configured with a baseline scale of 1”=1’ becomes
proportionately smaller when placed on a document set to
1”=10’ scale.
11. Translate markup text
To translate markups, go to Document > Process> Translate
Markups. Choose the original language and the language you’d
like to translate to, then click OK.
If you need to translate text that is in the original PDF, you can
either select the text and copy and paste it into a text box, then
follow the translation process above. Or, follow Tip #9 followed
by the translation process, and the translated text will appear in
your Markups List summary report.
12. Draw perfect lines, squares and circles
A long-time favorite: Hold down the Shift key to draw a perfect
line, square or circle when using the relative markup tool.
13. Quickly make copies of your
markups
To quickly create a copy of any selected
markup, hold down the Ctrl key, then click
and drag the markup to the side.
If you’d also like to paste it in the same
place on another PDF, copy the markup
and use Ctrl+Shift+V when you paste on
the new page.
14. Hide the Command bar
To minimize the Command bar, double-click any of the menu
items (File, Edit, View, etc.). Simply double-click any menu item
again to bring it back.
15. Share Studio Project file links
Share a file from a Studio Project with anyone by using Studio
File Link, which will email your contact a download link to only
that file. Simply right-click the file in your Studio Project and
select Share Link.
The file can be password-protected and set to expire either
at the end of the project or after 24 hours. The link will
always contain the latest version of the document that has been
updated within the Studio Project for as long as the
link is valid.
16. Adjust colors on your PDF
This is a great option for CAD drawings!
Go to Document > Process > Color
Processing to change the colors of PDF
content. Color processing can also
convert colorful PDFs to monochrome
or grayscale.
17. Access the internet within Revu
Did you know that you can open a web page within Revu?
Simply right-click next to your current document tab and select
WebTab from the context menu.
18. Color-code your markups according to status
Did you know that you can give markups statuses, such as
approved or rejected? Then you can easily visualize the status
of markups by color-coding them so that the colors change
automatically as you change the status of the markup. This
works really well with punchkeys.
To color-code a markup, go to the Status column in the Markups
List, click on Manage Status, select a state (such as approved,
rejected, etc.), and then select Modify to choose
a color for that state.
19. Copy Spaces across multiple pages
Spaces, Revu’s feature for defining regions of a drawing, can
be copied across other pages and files in Revu. This is a great
way to save time from individually recreating each space if you
are working on files with duplicate floors, such as healthcare or
hospitality projects.
Go to the Spaces panel, right-click your selected Space name in
the list and select “Copy.” You can also select multiple
Spaces in the list by holding down the Shift key while
making your selections, and then choosing copy. Paste into
your selected document.
20. Quickly calculate area
measurements within Spaces
You can get area measurements directly
from Spaces. Just right-click on the Space
and select “Create Area Measurements.”
MOUSE
NAVIGATION
KEYBOARD
SHORTCUTS
Markup & Editing
Viewing
Navigation
Page Manipulation
Show Tabs
Miscellaneous
Advanced Text
Advanced File
To continue learning about Bluebeam Revu, check out
bluebeam.com/training
© Copyright 2017 Bluebeam, Inc.
