Bluebeam Revu 21: Addressing Measurement “Blues”

Here’s a common scenario and exactly how to circumvent the related problem:

Let’s say you’ve just sat down to work on some PDF’s that are fresh from your CAD Engineer. You have your Scale Set and you’re ready to start taking measurements:

However, an issue suddenly rears its head and, when you select the polylength measurement tool…

…the PDF (all or in-part) turns BLUE! In addition to this, many Measurement Tools refuse to work correctly!

Well, this situation is caused by VIEWPORTS. Bluebeam defines Viewports as:

zones in a drawing that use a scale different from the page scale. Multiple viewports can be set for a drawing and can be scaled using different units of measure (or even different measurement systems) than the page scale.

Often times, Viewports are applied by CAD Engineers in the design process. However, if they are not removed before the drawing is converted into a PDF, Bluebeam Revu will still find them. Viewports can sometimes get in the way of taking measurements from a PDF page as they can supersede the Page Scale.  Here’s how we can uncover and remove unwanted Viewports:

Open the Measurements Panel:

Note: This icon is an indicator of an existing Viewport.

At the bottom of the Measurements Panel is where the Viewport controls are located:

Note: the Viewport is set to a different scale than the page.

Next, highlight the problematic Viewport:

Then, click the Trash Icon and two options will become available.

With these two selections we can either delete the viewport from the page selected, or from ALL pages, if they exists further in the PDF set.

This warning dialog will display, just to make sure you really want the Viewport deleted. Simply click YES, the Viewport will be removed from the page, and the blue that obstructed taking measurements will also disappear:

Now, we are free to take as many measurements as needed, and we know they will be dictated by the scale that was set to the page itself.

 

That’s not as to say that all Viewports are bad. On the contrary! They can be very useful in certain situations if you know how to make proper use of them. Here are some useful links to broaden your understanding of the Viewport feature in Revu 21:

  • THIS PAGE has a basic rundown of Viewports.
  • THIS PAGE has a much more detailed breakdown of Viewports as well as some various use cases.
  • Lastly, THIS PAGE has another breakdown of what do do if you encounter the issue I just addressed.

Thanks for reading and I hope you found this information useful. Looking forward to meeting you at Bluebeam Unbound!

-Luke