Bluebeam Revu‘s Markups List tracks the markups placed on a document. Through this list, you can quickly navigate to individual markups. The Markups List will also keep track of the information associated with these markups – such as the user who placed them. Using this list, you can leverage markup information to perform a variety of workflows.
The Markups List allows you to associate custom information with your markups. This is especially easy to do using the Status column. You can set statuses for markups to track important data, like the progress of repairs or design changes. These statuses can help streamline communication throughout the project life cycle. The program will provide you with several default statuses, but you can create your own custom statuses as well.
In this article, we will cover the steps for setting and creating custom statuses in Bluebeam Revu. The following examples are from Bluebeam Revu 2019 eXtreme – but the process is the same for all versions of Revu.
Setting Statuses
To set a status for a markup, first open up the Markups List panel using the button in the lower left hand corner.
The Markups List will display information for each markup placed on the PDF. If you select a specific markup from the list, it will also select on the PDF. Here, you can track and add metadata to your created markups.
To set a status for a markup, the Status column must be displayed. If it’s not displaying, you can turn it on by selecting Markups List > Columns > Status.
With the Status column displaying, you can now set statuses for your markups. To set a status, double click the markup’s row beneath the Status column. A dropdown menu will appear, providing you with several preset status options.
Default Status Options
Revu features several built in status models: Review, Migration, and HED Statuses. Each model features several different states that you can apply to the markup. For example, the Review model gives you state options for Accepted, Rejected, Canceled, and Completed. These can be especially useful during punch walkthroughs to communicate the current status.
When you select a status, it will appear within the markup row. The person who set the status and the date and time it was set will also appear. Additional statuses can be set for the same markup if it changes in the future – such as once it’s completed. This gives us an activity trail so everyone knows what the current status is, when it was set, and who set it.
Creating Custom Statuses
Bluebeam Revu also supports the creation of custom statuses. You can create these to organize markups by specific states to suit any workflow. To create a custom status, select the Settings icon next to the Status column header.
The Manage Status dialogue box has two sections: Models and States. Models are status categories, such as the default of Review. Within each model, you will need to create individual states. States are the statuses available within the model, such as Accepted and Rejected.
In this example, I’ll create a custom status to show the percent complete of markup work. To create a new Model, select the Add button beneath the section and give it a custom name. Then, press OK.
Next, you can create the specific statuses for the model. You can create statuses the same way – selecting the Add button under the section and entering in a name. In this example, I’ll create 4 statuses: 10% Complete, 50% Complete, 90% Complete, and 100% Complete.
When adding a state, you can also set a Text and Color. These are optional settings that will affect the markup visibly once a status is set.
If you add Text to a status, any Text Box, Callout, or Cloud+ markup’s text field will change to status text.
You can also choose to associate colors with set statuses. If you select a Color, the markup will automatically change to that color once the status is set. This can be especially useful when it comes to punch walkthroughs. I’ll color code my statuses so each markup set is immediately recognizable from the drawing.
 Once you have entered in the statuses for the model, select OK. Now, if you double click with the status column for a markup, your custom model will be listed. For each model, you can choose one of the set states. With the status set, the text and color options selected will adjust the markup on the PDF.
Summary
Setting statuses is a quick way to communicate information about markups and processes. In Bluebeam Revu, you can use the Status column within the Markups List to do this. Revu features several default status options, but you can also create your new ones. When creating custom columns, you can define a Model, various States, and actions to apply on selected markups. For example, you could create a status that changes the color of the markup accordingly. With statuses, both default and custom, you can communicate changes with project team members. Every user can now see the current state of the project and individual markups.
If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please use the comment section on the bottom of this page, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog to get more Bluebeam tips & tricks directly in your inbox!
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!
Is there a way to migrate the custom status from one PDF to another? We would like to create a standard that works with our workflow, but do not want to redo it on every PDF.
Hi Jason, I just sent you an email with instructions of how to save a custom status to be used on other PDFs.
Can you send me the same instructions?
Hi Brad, I published a blog post on how to save a custom status for reuse on other PDFs. You can find that post here:
https://www.taradigm.com/2021/04/28/how-to-save-custom-statuses-in-bluebeam-revu-20/
Could I please receive this information as well?
Thanks!
(Email typo on the last comment).
Hi Ezra, I just published a new blog post on how to save a custom status for reuse on other PDFs. You can find that post here:
https://www.taradigm.com/2021/04/28/how-to-save-custom-statuses-in-bluebeam-revu-20/
Lauren does the workflow above work in a Bluebeam session? I’m trying to add this option in a Bluebeam session with other users, but my “manage status” button is grayed out. Can someone with Bluebeam Session Admin privileges enable this workflow?
Hi Justin,
While in a Studio Session you can not create new statuses or custom columns. To get around this, create all of the custom statuses you need for the PDF before adding it to the session – those statuses will be available to you in the session going forward, you just can’t create new ones.
You can refer to this article for more information:
https://support.bluebeam.com/articles/cant-make-custom-columns-or-statuses-in-session/
Is there a way to make a keyboard shortcut to set the status of a markup? Clicking through submenus is time consuming when there are many markups to review.
Hi Elizabeth, there is not a way to set a keyboard shortcut to status a markup. The quickest way to status markups in Revu is tol select all of the markups in the Markups List that will be using the same status (using either the CTRL key to select multiple markups out of sequence or the SHIFT key to select multiple markups in sequence), right clicking on any of the markups, and selecting Status from the dropdown menu. That way, you can set the status for multiple markups simultaenously.
Hi Lauren. My team has created the custom states but it is not transferring from user to user. Can you tell me what we are doing wrong?
Hi Rachel. When you go into the Manage Status menu, you should see a button in the lower left hand corner that says Save to Profile. Select the Status Model that you want to share and select Save to Profile.
You would then share the profile you saved the status to by selecting Revu > Profiles > Manage Profiles. Select the profile to be shared and select Export. You can then send that file to anyone who needs it and it should give them access to the custom status.
Hi!
Is it possible to have different default settings to different tool chest?
Hi Joanna,
Any tool you save to the Tool Chest will save the properties of that markup with it. If you set a markup to have a specific status, that status should save to the markup in the Tool Chest.
If this didn’t answer your question, please feel free to let me know and I’m happy to help further!
Hi! What does the setting “default” do for both Models and States (at the bottom of the Manage Status window)?
Hi Christen,
The “Default” field only works for custom status models. This allows you to set all markups to be assigned a default status without needing to manually set them – but you can then adjust the status per markup.
For example, I could create a status Model named “Progress”. Now, let’s say I create two states: In Progress and Completed. If I set the default state as In Progress, all markups would be set to In Progress automatically. I could then adjust the status for each markup to set them as Completed, as needed.
Lauren,
When you set a default status, it seems to function differently from manually setting the status. For example, it does not include “set by USER on DATE at TIME”. Consequently, when another user sets the status to something else, the default status disappears. Is there a way to get the default status to function the same as a manually set status?
Hi Tim,
Hmm – that is very odd. My default and custom statuses work the same as the manual statuses – including the listed User, Date, and Time. My recommendation would be to try and reset Revu to its default settings and see if that solves the issue. You can see how to do that here: https://support.bluebeam.com/articles/revu-21-revu-backup-reset-and-restore-revu-settings/
can you set this up *after* you have already published a pdf file onto the studio session? or would it have to be set up beforehand only?
Hi Marcelo,
Custom statuses and custom columns can not be created for a document while in a Studio Session. You will want to set up any of those custom fields PRIOR to uploading the docunment to the session, and they will be available for use.
Is there a way to create custom status then have bluebeam automatically ask you to set the status after the markup has been completed
Hi Sean,
This may be possible using Javascript for Forms/Batch tools within Revu. Here’s a good resource for Javascript help and tools within Bluebeam: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/51818834/javascript-library-with-bluebeam