Collaborate in Studio with teammates who don't own Revu

Applies to:

  • Revu 21
  • Revu 20
  • Bluebeam Cloud

If you have a team member who doesn’t own Revu, but you want to invite them to a Studio Project or Session, you can by having them use one of the following:

There are two sides to Studio: Studio Projects and Studio Sessions. This article will help you figure out which is best for the collaboration needs of your team, and how you and your team members can participate in both.

 

Work in Read-only or View mode

After your free trial expires, Revu 21 and Bluebeam Cloud will be in Read-only mode if you don't have an active Bluebeam subscription plan. For more information, see this article.

Other reasons for having Read-only access include:

  • You haven’t been invited as an End User yet and will need to contact your Org Admin.
  • You’ve been invited as an End User but haven’t yet accepted the email invitation and activated your account.
  • The Org Admin for your Bluebeam Plan has assigned you Read-only access. You’ll need to contact your Org Admin to request a subscription invitation.
  • If you’re an Org Admin, you may need to assign yourself End User permissions and modify subscription access to add your account to a Bluebeam Plan.
  • For Bluebeam Cloud, your Org Admin has assigned you to a Basics subscription plan, which defaults to Read-only permissions.

Download and install Revu 20 on your computer. When the installer asks you to enter your serial number and product key, select Use as Trial. This will activate a trial of Revu, granting you full access to the software. Once the trial ends, Revu will automatically switch View Mode. To switch to View Mode at any time, select Revu > View Mode.

 

Collaborate using Studio Sessions

Studio Sessions are for PDF-based online collaboration. While in a Studio Session, any Revu user in View or Read-only mode has access to all of the markup and tool set features normally reserved for licensed or subscribed users of Revu. This means that you can take measurements, add comments, and place markups on PDFs to share your thoughts with others participating in the Studio Session with you.

While in a Session, there is no need to check files in and out. You can select a PDF to open it, even if other users have the PDF open. All users in a Session can markup the document, and everyone can see what others are adding or have added. There’s a record that captures user activity, including the username and what they added, modified, or removed from the PDF.

Add and edit markups

All markups are added in real time and uploaded to the cloud as you add them to the PDF. Even if you lose connection to the Session, your markups are stored safely in the cloud within that Session. Revu will remember which PDFs you had open and will restore them automatically, so you can pick up where you left off once internet connectivity is restored.

To maintain user accountability, markups can only be edited or removed by the user who initially created them.

Collaborate using Studio Projects

Studio Projects is the Bluebeam document management system that lets you store many different file types (like PDFs, Microsoft Office files, and images) in the cloud. As a user in View or Read-only mode, you may only view Project files. However, if you need to add markups to a PDF in the Project, the Project owner (the person who invited you to the Project) can add the PDF to a Session. Alternatively, the Project owner can use the Share Link feature, which allows you to download a local copy of the Project file.

Add Project documents to a Session

The Project owner can right-click the PDF document and add it to a new Session. The owner can give this ability to other users in the Project via Permissions as well. Once the PDF is added to a Session, a user in View or Read-only mode can access that Session as before, using either an invitation link or the Studio ID number.

Share a link to a Project file

As the Project owner, follow these steps:

  1. Right-click the file, and select Share Link.
  2. Specify how long the download link should be active, and whether you want to require a password.
  3. Select OK.

Revu generates a hyperlink that you can copy and distribute. Users in View or Read-only mode will be able to download the file from this link.

Users will be downloading a local version of the Project file. The downloaded file will not be connected to the Project in any way.

Work with non-PDF files in Projects

You can also upload other file types, such as Excel spreadsheets and Word documents, to Studio Projects. These files may be checked out and edited locally using the appropriate application, then checked back into the Project.

  1. Right-click the file, and select Check Out.
  2. Right-click the file again, and select Open.
  3. Edit the document in the application that opens, and save your changes as you normally would.
  4. Back in the Project, right-click the file listed in the Pending section, and select Check In.
During the check-in process, you are prompted to add comments. These comments are added to the Revision History for the document. To view the Revision History, right-click the document, and select Revision History.
Remember that these tasks are for non-PDF documents only. PDF markup and editing in a Project is restricted when using Revu in View or Read-only mode. Use a Studio Session instead to markup PDF documents.

Recover Studio files

If you lose internet connectivity after you check out a file, you should see your activity in the Pending Changes section. Once you connect to the internet again, pending changes will save to the Project file.

Collaborate using Studio Sessions in Bluebeam Cloud

Bluebeam Cloud users with Read-only access can use Studio Sessions to view and markup PDFs. For more information, see Bluebeam Cloud in Read-only mode.

  1. As a user with a Core or Complete subscription plan, select the Studio Sessions tab in Bluebeam Cloud, and do one of the following:
    • Select Create to create a new Studio Session and add the Read-only user as an attendee.
    • Open an existing Studio Session, select Share, and add the Read-only user as an attendee.
  2. As a Read-only user, open the email inviting you to the Studio Session.
    • If you already have a BBID, select Join Session.
    • If you do not have a BBID, select Create Account, follow the prompts to create your account, then return to the email and select Join Session.
  3. When prompted to choose how to join the Session, select Join in the Web.

How-To

Studio

Revu 20

Have you ever wanted to invite a team member who doesn’t own Revu to a Studio Project or Session? You can, by having them use Revu in View Mode.