Bluebeam introduces a new way to manage field documents

As project teams are becoming increasingly digital, both in the office and on the jobsite, sometimes solving a problem for one location inadvertently creates a challenge for the other. Take, for example, the newly-common field practice of splitting up multi-page, large format drawing sets into multiple, single-sheet documents. This practice makes it much easier for team members in the field to quickly open PDFs on iPads and tablets – especially if they are pulling files down from the cloud and their Wi-Fi signal is slow at best. But, what about team members in the office? Who wants to sort through hundreds of PDFs to find the sheet one needs, and how can one easily find related information?

Bluebeam® Software has an answer, and it’s called Sets™.

[caption id="attachment_897" align="alignright" width="394"] (Click for Larger View) Sets enables team members to view, navigate and edit multiple files as if they were one.[/caption]

While many in the industry know Bluebeam as a leading developer of PDF-based markup and collaboration solutions, Bluebeam’s flagship product, Revu®, includes several features that make organizing and managing documents easier. These features include the ability to add, delete and combine pages, manage hyperlinks and create bookmarks. Sets takes PDF file management further by enabling users to view, navigate and edit multiple PDFs as if they were one combined file. This functionality provides users in the field with the flexibility they need to quickly pull up smaller bits of information on tablets, while still enabling those in the office or trailer to quickly see the big picture.

Of course, in the construction industry, drawings do not stay current for very long. Sets gives users the ability to sort and insert any revision or addenda, which is always stacked behind the most recent revision of a drawing, for easy access and viewing. Sets can be recombined into a single file, searched for text and visual elements and they can even be saved and shared in a read-only format for project partners.

Finally, Revu’s Sets functionality does not modify the included files in any way but, instead, acts as a reference to the path where the selected files actually exist. Because of this, Sets can be created from PDFs stored in multiple locations whether that be locally, on a network or within ProjectWise® or SharePoint®.