Performing Visual Search

The Search Panel has options for performing both text and visual searches. By default, the Text Search option will be selected. Next to the Search header, select the icon showing a magnifying glass icon over a photograph icon. This will open the Visual Search menu.

Here, you are able to select which documents to perform the search on using the drop-down menu on the panel. You have the option of searching the Current Document or the Current Page. For multiple documents, you have the option to search any Open PDFs, any recent documents, or even an entire folder of documents. By default, Current Page will be selected. For this example, I only need to search the current page, so I’ll keep the default selection.

Next, we can adjust the Visual Search options. First, we can set the sensitivity for the search by moving the Sensitivity bar. This will determine how exact the image needs to be matched. Moving the bar to the left will lessen the sensitivity, and may include results that aren’t exactly the same as the one searched for. Moving the bar to the right will make it more sensitive, which may leave out some desired items if they look a little different. It’s a good idea to test out different sensitivities to ensure that you are able to capture all needed results.

Next, locate and zoom in to the item you want to search for on the drawing. In the Search panel, select Get Rectangle. Then, click, hold and drag the cursor over the item on the PDF you want to search for. It’s useful to zoom in while doing this to ensure you capture all details needed. Your selection will appear at the top of the Search panel.

Before running the search, we have the option to Refine Colors. Selecting this will open a window where you can specify your search further. Under Source Template, you’ll see the item you chose to search for. Under Refine Template, you can see the image that Revu will search for on the document. In my example, the Refine Template image is much choppier than the Source Template. This is because my sensitivity bar is set to low. Below the Template window is an option to filter out colors. In this case, the drawing we are going to search is black and white. If it had other colors, you would be able to filter the results by color.

Once statisfied with your selection, select the Search button. Depending on the size of the document and the number of results, it could take up to a couple minutes to complete.

The results for the search will display under the Results field in the panel. A thumbnail representing the item will display next to each result. Selecting a search result will jump to and select the result on the document.

Performing Actions on Search Results

The second option, Check Options, allows you to apply actions to all checked results. You have the option to hyperlink them, redact them, apply a count markup, or apply text edits – like highlighting or underlining. Applying Count Measurement to Checked is especially useful for estimation and takeoffs. You can even specify which count markup tool to apply. Using Visual Search can help you to quickly count items across the PDF, speeding up the takeoff process.

​