Five things you may not know about Studio Sessions

This article applies to:

  • Revu 20
  • Revu 2019
  • Revu 2018
As of June 28, 2023, support for Revu 2019 & below has reached End of Life. Having trouble accessing Studio? Click here to find out more.

Studio Sessions are an easy way to create a real-time, online collaboration environment for you and your project teams. Simply upload your PDF files to a Session, invite attendees, and all the attendees can add markups to the same document for as long as the Session is active. This article points out some features in Sessions you may not know about but will find useful for your workflows.

Although you’ll need a licensed copy of Revu to host a Session, attendees can use View mode if they don’t own a license. For more information, please see this article.

Hosting and attending a Session requires a Bluebeam Studio account.

1. Real-time functionality

Studio Sessions allow multiple attendees to access a PDF and add markups at the same time, with all changes immediately available to everyone. This means you don’t have to wait for an email with a reply or new version of the PDF to get the information you need. The real-time capabilities also let you follow another attendee--this means you’re able to watch as they zoom, pan and mark up the PDF.

To follow another attendee, hover over the attendee’s name in the Session panel and click studio_followFollow Attendee. Your screen will automatically update to match theirs. This lets you work through an issue with a colleague without leaving Revu to exchange emails or files.

2. Session record and reporting

While you’re in a Session, you can find a record containing a complete history of all markup activity and chats in the lower part of the Studio panel. All the information is hyperlinked, so you can click on a chat message or markup in the list and jump to the section of the PDF that the user was viewing when their chat message or markup was added.

At the end of a Studio Session, you can create a report as a single PDF that contains all the documents and markups from the Session, along with a full history of the Session record. To create your Session Report, click markups_list_summaryReport in the bottom right corner of the Studio panel.

session_report

3. Session expiration date

Session hosts can close a Session manually when all users have finished working. Once a Session is closed, the files contained within that Session will no longer be available in Studio.

Hosts can also configure a Studio Session to have an expiration date, removing the need to manually close the Session. The expiration date can be set up when creating the Session, or afterwards. Once the expiration date is set, it can be changed as needed.

To set or edit an expiration date, enter the appropriate Session and:

  1. Select the name of the Session in the Studio panel and choose the Settings option that drops down below it. A dialog box will appear.
  2. If you previously set an expiration date, Enabled will be selected.
    • You can disable the expiration date by unchecking Enabled.
    • The expiration date or time can be changed by setting the appropriate value(s) in the fields to the right of Enabled.
  3. Click OK.

Notifications are sent if the Session’s expiration date has been changed.

Revu will also send the Session host and attendees email notifications as the Session nears its expiration date. Notifications are sent out:

  • Seven days before expiration
  • Two days before expiration
  • 24 hours before expiration
  • After the Session has expired

4. Add Project files to a Session

PDFs in a Project can be added to a Studio Session for real-time collaboration. Only Sessions created using this method can have Project files added to them, but additional Project files can be added to them in the future.

Users must have both Send PDFs to Sessions permission and Read/Write folder permission to use this feature. Users with the Full Control permission will already have both of these permissions by default.

Add to a new Session

  1. In the Studio Project tab, right-click on the PDF file and select Add to New Session. You can select multiple PDFs by using Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click.

    Add to New Session
  2. In the the pop-up dialog box, enter the name for your new Session and click OK.

    New Session Name

The Session will automatically be created with the selected PDF(s). Also, whoever creates the new Session with Project files will be designated as the Session host, can send additional Project files to the Session, and manage the Session.

Add to an existing Session

  • Right-click on the selected PDF(s), select Add To Existing Session, and choose the Session by name.

    Add To Existing Session
Only Sessions that were created using the Add to New Session process outlined above will appear as options.

PDFs already added to a Session are tagged with a In Session icon in the Project panel. Users are able to join these ongoing Sessions directly by right-clicking on the file in the Project tab and selecting Join <existing Session name>.

5. Renaming a Session

The Session host names Sessions upon creating them. Afterwards, Sessions can be renamed from the Studio panel by the Session host or attendees with Full Control permissions.

To rename a Session:

  1. Join the Studio Session in Revu.
  2. Click the Session Settings icon on the far right of the panel.

    Session Settings
  3. From the Session Settings dialog box, edit the Session Name field.

    Session Settings Dialog Box
  4. Click OK.

The Session is now renamed and should immediately show in the Studio panel.

Other versions of this article

Revu 2017 and older

Bluebeam Studio is a different way of distributing and collaborating with with others on your PDF documents. Those of you who’ve tried Studio Sessions have probably found it’s an easy way to create a real-time, online collaboration environment for you and your project teams. You simply upload your PDF files to a Studio Session from within Revu, invite attendees to join, and everyone can add markups to the same document for as long as the Session is active. Pretty simple. For most organizations, document-based collaboration like this is a more cost-effective alternative to emailing the PDF and releasing it into the wild. Although you need to have a licensed copy of Bluebeam Revu in order to host a Session, your attendees don’t necessarily have to, as they can also use our free PDF viewer, Bluebeam Vu to attend the Session.

Note: Hosting and attending a Session requires a Bluebeam Studio account.

In this article I’m going to point out some other features in Sessions that you may also find useful.

Real-Time Functionality

Studio Sessions let multiple attendees to access a PDF and add markups at the same time, with all changes being immediately available to everyone. This means you don’t have to wait for an email with a reply or new version of the PDF to get the information you need. Just log into the Session and you’ll always see the current version of the file. The real-time capabilities also let you “follow” another Attendee, as they zoom, pan and markup up the PDF. To do this just hover over the attendee’s name and click Follow Attendeestudio-follow and your screen will automatically update. This lets you work through an issue with a colleague without the back-and-forth of exchanging email messages or files.

Access Control

Different levels of permissions can be defined in a Studio Session. You can restrict access to only the people that you invite. If you want, you can also restrict the ability for anyone else to save or print documents. Your individual markups are also secure. Everyone can add new markups and edit the markups that they create, but no one else can change your markup. They can reply to the markup, but cannot change it. To reply, just right-click on the markup, click Reply and start typing. This allows you to have total control over your documents and markups.

Session Record and Reporting

While you’re in a Session, you can find a Record containing a complete history of all markup activity and chats, in the lower part of the Studio tab. All of the information is fully hyperlinked, so you can click on a chat or markup in the list and jump to the section of the PDF that was open when that chat or markup was added. At the conclusion of a Studio Session you can create a report in the form of a single PDF package containing all the documents and markups, along with a full history of the session “Record”. To create your Session Report, click the Reportsummary button in the Studio tab.

Closing a Session

Once you and your colleagues have finished working in the Session you can close it by clicking Finishstudio-session-finalize. Once you done this, the files will no longer available in Studio.

Click these links for further information about collaboration using Bluebeam Studio Sessions and Projects, Studio Prime and Studio Enterprise. Tutorial videos are available for Studio Sessions , Studio Projects and recent Studio Enhancements . <

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Revu 20

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With Studio Sessions, you can create a collaborative online environment in real-time for you and your project teams. Learn more.