In Bluebeam Revu, you can place a variety of different markups on your PDF documents. These markups do not become a part of the underlying PDF – instead, they’re placed on an annotations layer. This allows you to select, move, resize and edit markups without affecting the original underlying PDF content. However, there may be times that you want a markup to be a part of the underlying PDF. For example, when creating templates or drawings, you may not want your markups to move or change. To do this in Revu, you can flatten markups.

Flattening markups moves them from the annotations layer to the content layer. It makes the markup a permanent, unchangeable part of the PDF. When sharing documents with others, this is especially important to help maintain the integrity of your work.

In this article, we will outline how to flatten markups in Bluebeam Revu. We’ll look at flattening all markups, flattening individual markups, and unflattening markups. The following examples are from Bluebeam Revu 20 eXtreme edition. However, these tools are available in all versions of Revu.

Flatten All Markups

When you add a markup to a PDF, it is placed on the annotations layer. As mentioned, this allows you to edit, move, and resize the markup as needed. If you need to share your PDF with other users, you should flatten your markups to ensure that they’re not edited further.

To flatten all markups on the page at once, select Document > Flatten Markups.

The Flatten Markups dialog box will open, allowing you to customize the flattening process.

Files

The Files section lets you add files and choose specific pages to flatten. If needed, you can flatten markups as a batch process by adding files. By default, the open document will appear with all pages selected.

Options

Under Options, you can choose which types of markups to flatten. Any checked markup types will flatten in this process, and any unchecked will stay as they are. By default, the program will select all markup types to flatten – but you can customize this.

When flattening, you may want to consider what data you will lose. For example, if you flatten Measurement markups, you won’t have access to the measurement fields in the Markups List. This can make it harder to track and manage quantity takeoffs.

Additionally, some markups display differently on the PDF when flattened. When flattening Note markups, the entered note text will no longer be available. Instead, only an inactive Note icon will display. Similarly, if you have a markup with an attached Capture image, the image will no longer be available after flattening. If you have any markups like these, you may want to exclude them from the flattening process.

Flatten

The Flatten section allows you to further customize which markups to flatten. You can choose from one of three options here:

• All Markups will flatten all markup types selected. Even if the markup is currently hidden due to a Markups List filter, it will still flatten in this process.

   

• Exclude Filtered Markups will exclude any markups that are currently hidden due to a filter. If there are markups that you wish to not flatten, you might want to set up a filter to hide them and use this option.

   

• Currently Selected Markups will flatten only markups currently selected on the page. You should use this option if you wish to only flatten a few markups on the PDF.

The last section of the dialogue box lets you choose how to flatten the selected markups. Here, you have the following options:

• Allow Markup Recovery (Unflatten) allows you to unflatten the markups at any time. If you think you might need to edit your markups in the future, you should keep this option on. If you deselect this option, flattening the PDF will be permanent and irreversible.

   

• Flatten to Layer will flatten the markups to a specified layer. This will allow you to toggle the visibility of the flattened markups using the Layers panel. You can choose an existing layer from the dropdown list, or create a new layer specifically for your flattened markups.

   

• Show Properties in Popup will show the markup’s properties as a tooltip when you focus your cursor over them. If you will need to reference your markup’s metadata after flattening, you should turn this on. Without this option, your markup’s data will no longer be available once flattened.

   

• Flatten Capture Media as Attachment will flatten any Captures as a summary report attachment. Captures are images that you can attach to markups. When you flatten a markup with a Capture image, the image will no longer be available. Selecting this option will allow you to still access your Capture images after flattening. However, you will no longer be able to access the image from the markup. Instead, it’ll attach to the PDF as a summary report attachment. If you want to keep your Capture images attached to your markups, you should exclude those markups from this process.

With all desired options selected, press Flatten.

Once flattened, the markups will become a part of the underlying PDF. You can no longer select them, edit them or delete them. Additionally, markup information will no longer display in the Markups List. These markups are now a permanent part of the PDF document.

Flatten Selected Markups

Instead of flattening all markups at once, you can flatten markups individually. This is generally a faster process, as you will not need to go through the Flattening options. Instead, this tool uses the default flattening settings.

To flatten individual markups, first select all the markups you wish to flatten. Right click on a selected markup and choose Flatten from the dropdown menu. This will flatten only the selected markups using the default flattening settings. All non-selected markups will remain unflattened.

It’s important to note that the default flattening settings allow for markup recovery, or unflattening. This means that you can unflatten any markups that you flatten in this manner.

Unflatten Markups

If you selected Allow Markup Recovery when flattening markups, you can unflatten them at any time. This can be useful if you need to make further edits on the flattened markups.

To unflatten markups, select Document > Unflatten.

With the markup no longer flattened, you can once again select and edit it. Within the Markups List, the markup information will once again display.

I recommend always keeping Allow Markup Recovery on unless you are completely certain that no further edits will be needed.

Summary

In Bluebeam Revu, you can flatten markups to prevent them from being edited. Flattening a markup moves it from the annotations layer to the content layer of the PDF – making it a part of the underlying drawing. You can not edit flattened markups on the page, or view their metadata in the Markups List. It’s often useful to flatten markups when sharing PDFs with others to ensure your work stays secure. In Revu, you can flatten the entire document, or just individual markups with a variety of settings. If you choose to flatten your markups, it’s a good idea to keep Allow Markup Recovery on. This option allows you to unflatten your markups if you ever need to adjust them more in the future. By flattening markups in Bluebeam Revu, you can ensure that your work stays secure, even when sharing with others.

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Lauren Hecker is a Bluebeam Certified Instructor and teaches onsite and virtual Bluebeam Revu training courses. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!