Best PDF Printer/Editer for Revit 2013?

[arb]

We have several large, complex projects currently in construction, and with the industry moving towards only digital submittals I'm wondering what people in this forum have found to be their PDF printer/editor of choice. We have been using Adobe Acrobat Standard for at least the last few years, but I haven't found the markup tools that easy to create the kind of graphic markups we often need on shop drawings. Has anyone been using Bluebeam Revu or other programs, and if so, how have they worked for you so far?

Is anyone creating 3D PDFs to email clients or consultants?

Thanks.

- Alex

[jsteinhauer]

Print as multi-page DWF's. References will be live, you can mark up drawings & import them into Revit.

[arb]

Thanks; I'll try that out, but have you had to mark up PDFs of shop drawings and product data? We need to be able to draw reasonably well on top of a static PDF, leave comments, and apply our stamp as appropriate.

- Alex

[sbrown]

DWF does this great and is free. If you want to spend money and have to use pdfs for whatever reason, Bluebeam is the best in my opinion.

[david_peterson]

PDF X-change is nice, works well, allows you to add "Stamps" so really nice for show drawing review and it's cheap.
Bluebeam is probably the best, Dwf's are nice, but not everyone wants to install the freeware to view it.
It'd be really nice to have a tool inside of DWF to convert to PDF.

[patricks]

You can open a PDF file in Design Review, use the markup and stamp tools, and then print back to PDF if you have a PDF printer installed. I think I may actually do just that on a project that just started construction in which we will be (for the first time) receiving PDF electronic files for a majority of the submittals on the project.

You're right, the Adobe markup tools are not that great. The tools in ADSK Design Review seem much better.

[david_peterson]

I learned something today (then again I haven't really used DWF mark up yet).
You can create pdfs from Design review.
Patrick, I'm guessing then when you do that you're comments are no longer editable correct?
That was one of the issues we had with PDF exchanges was going thru the "Flatten" step.

[patricks]

Assuming you DON'T want them to be editable, then no. It never is when you print to PDF. If you comment on a PDF (in Acrobat for example) and then just save and send that, then yeah they're editable. But if you print to a new PDF of that original PDF, then you're just creating an image of whatever you have on the screen.

I don't believe you can natively export/save/print out to PDF from within Design Review. But we use Acrobat X in our office, so I just opened a PDF in Design Review, marked it up, and then did a Print command and chose my Adobe PDF printer. The resulting PDF had no editable elements on it.

And now for my Design Review question: can you create your own stamp?

[arb]

I just downloaded and tested out Design Review, and I agree that the markup capabilities are better than those found in Acrobat Standard. I can see why Autodesk would want to offer this program for free to keep the design/construction professionals in their realm of programs as much as possible. We're going to receive literally thousands of sheets of documents in PDF format for these larger jobs, so finding the best tools will be critical.

Thanks for the advice; I think I've been ignoring DWFs for too long.

- Alex

[dlpdi5b]

It's kind of like the old battle for formats between VHS and Betamax; Betamax was technically better but not as widely accepted so VHS became the standard.

I think DWF is technically much better (better markup tools, smaller files, nice navigation, nice measuring tools for subs) than PDF, but PDF is so widely accepted. If you are going to digital submissions and markups, it is worth trying to get the team to implement DWF. Show the contractors that they can measure and do area takeoffs in DWF and they will sell it for you.

[sbrown]

Don't forget you can link your dwf redlines back into revit and make the changes and keep a redline history.

[LP Design]

Dwf's are nice, but not everyone wants to install the freeware to view it.
The newer versions don't even require designreview. You can actually open a DWF in Internet Explorer with full functionality.

Alex, you mentioned the industry moving towards digital only submittals, but in my experience it is more like slowly waddling towards it. However, if you do want to try going fully digital DWF is definitely superior. The markup/revision tools linking directly to a Revit project is an awesome feature. If you look into it a little more you will also find that there are great project management tools like the ability to track which drafter completed a specific markup and when. Not only does it improve on the markup tools of PDF but you can view the object specific data for the BIM model within a DWF, view 3D views of clashes, etc.

-LP