On our latest session of How to with Revu we dove into Bluebeam’s 3D PDF features. Our host, Alex Arriaga, put together a great guide below on what was covered.
With access to the plugins for Revu, we can convert other files to PDF’s with a click of a button. 3D PDFs allow us to create, share and edit documents with rich CAD data that anyone can access. With 3D PDFs, these files are no longer exclusive to their original programs, allowing for easy sharing between teams and users of Revu.
To begin, we must first confirm that the plug-ins are active. This is done by opening the “Bluebeam Administrator” application. From here we can see which plug-ins are active and which aren’t. Select the check mark to activate the plug-ins.
With the plugin active we have access to both the “Create a PDF” file or to “Create 3D PDF” file. In this example, we took a look at creating a 3D PDF from Revit . Under the “Add-Ins” there is a tabbed location for Bluebeam.
Open up a 3D view and select to “Create 3D PDF”
3D PDF’s have their own tool bar that displays with specific tools for 3D drawings.
- This section manages the views in Revu. We can create different views to walk through the document in a sequence. Different views are listed in the dropdown menu.
- This symbol manages the way our left click and drag will behave. We can zoom, rotate, pan, etc.
- This section allows us to change perspectives of the model. We also manage how the model is rendered from the dropdown icon. Here we can select how we would like to render the model while viewing in Revu.
- This section controls the lighting on the model. We can change the lighting to view how the model will look in different types of lighting.
- Here we can change the background color of the page behind the model. The default is set to white.
- This icon allows us to open a few cross-section axes. It will allow us to cut and view inside the model by taking a cut section out.
At the bottom panel of the screen, where the markups-list is, we can see another panel called the “3D Model Tree” in this section we can view specific information on the elements we have in the model. In the example above we can view each door element in the model. The best part is it gives us a quick glance at the data related to the door.
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Alex Arriaga is a Bluebeam Design Technology Specialist at Team D3. Alex is a Bluebeam Certified Instructor, Bluebeam Certified Support Representative and a member of the Denver Bluebeam User Group. He works with organizations and individuals in furthering their workflows with and knowledge of Bluebeam Revu.
Bluebeam, Revu, and Studio are registered trademarks of Bluebeam, Inc., used under license.
