A Revu Guide for Civil

Bluebeam Revu isn’t just for the vertical built environment. Here are ways civil engineering and project teams can take advantage of the software

Bluebeam Revu has proven to be an invaluable tool in the world of vertical construction. But the software also has tremendous capabilities for people working on civil construction projects like roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure.

Brian Hailey has been a civil engineer since 1998. He’s also an expert in many construction and engineering technologies, including Revu.

Hailey is passionate about the ways in which civil engineers and project teams can take advantage of the tools in Revu. In particular, Hailey said Revu comes into play in the civil market in instances where CAD isn’t always needed.

“There are so many times when CAD works, but it’s overkill,” Hailey said.

Revu workflows for civil

Revu can be used by civil engineers for many workflows:

  • Quantities
  • Document planning and review
  • Document storage and management
  • Quality control
  • RFIs
  • Submittals

Moreover, civil project teams in the field can use Studio Sessions, the real-time collaboration tool in Revu. They also can get the latest drawings and information on a job site with Studio Projects, the software’s document management and storage tool.

The power of standardization

Hailey said the ability to set up custom user profiles in Revu for different workflows is a big reason civil engineers should make better use of it.

When you create a custom profile, you set standards for the types of comments, symbols and measurements—known within Revu as markups—you’re planning on adding to certain drawings during a workflow. “If I’m doing quantities, for instance, I set a profile and I’ve got those tools ready,” Hailey said.

By setting custom profiles and having standard markup tools across teams for different workflows, communication and accountability becomes streamlined and more efficient.

Brian Hailey demonstrates how civil engineers and project teams can use Revu.
Brian Hailey demonstrates how civil engineers and project teams can use Revu.

“Standardization is huge,” Hailey said. “It saves time. And it communicates intent better. So, when I see a green line, for instance, I know that green line is the sanitary sewer.”

Tips for using Revu on a civil job site

Use the markup tools in Revu to do construction traffic sequencing, staging, erosion control plans and storm water plans.

“I’m doing an erosion control plan” Hailey said. “I have inlet protection. I go through and I create the markup for the inlet protection; I go put it on all the different inlets. How many do I have? It’s right there in the markup list. Or I can link it to an Excel file and get quantities and assign costs.”

Before submitting to the city, have team members review your work in a live Studio Session; this helps cut down on comments back from the city.

“I create a session, I upload my files, I say, ‘Hey John, Hey Sally, I need you to review these,’” Hailey said. “And they can be reviewing the file simultaneously, and then once they’re done, I can get all those comments back to me and I can say, ‘Oh yeah, I missed that.’ Or you know, ‘that’s not the intent. Maybe I need to clarify that a little bit better.’ And before I submit to the city, I get to review so that I get fewer comments back.”

Use Revu when CAD may be an overkill.

“If I’m doing a storm water plan and I need to mark up the drainage area, why do I need CAD for that?” Hailey asked. “If I’m doing HEC-RAS and I’ve got my cross sections, I really don’t need CAD to do those cross sections. I can just use Revu to help figure out what the cross sections are as I put them into HEC-RAS.”

Use the CAD plugin to export 2D and 3D PDFs to project stakeholders.

“I’ve got a road that has a bunch of utilities in it and I’m trying to place a new utility down the road,” Hailey said. “I want to be able to see the new utility in context with the other ones and just do it in a 2D plan. It’s not good enough, because what are the depths? On a 3D PDF, I can actually take it and look at it from the different directions and say, ‘yeah, we’re close horizontally, but the other utilities are 12 feet below it,’ and so we really don’t have a conflict.”

Use Revu on a laptop or Revu for iPad out in the field.

“Who wants to lug around a roll of plans out in the rain? You’ve got an iPad; you’ve got a tablet; take that out with you,” Hailey said. “The other nice thing about that is if you’re using Studio Projects, you always have the latest and greatest version available.”