Five things you may not know about Studio Sessions

Applies to:

  • Revu 21
  • Revu 20

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

In Revu 21, you'll need an active Core or Complete subscription plan to create a Session. Basics subscribers and attendees without a Bluebeam Plan can still collaborate in Studio with Read-only access. For more information about working in Revu 21 and Studio without a subscription, see How to work in Revu 21 without a subscription.

In Revu 20, you’ll need a licensed copy of Revu to host a Session. Attendees can use View mode if they don’t own a license. 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 functionality streamlines design review by cutting down on drawing versions and emails. You can also follow another attendee and 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 select Follow Attendee. Your screen automatically updates 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, check the lower section of the Studio panel to find a record containing a complete history of all markup activity and chats. All information is hyperlinked, so you can select a chat message or markup and jump to the area of the PDF that the attendee 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 documents and markups from the Session, along with the entire Session record. To create your Session Report, select Report in the bottom right corner of the Studio panel.

You must be a Session host or a Complete/Core subscriber with full control permissions to generate a 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 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 afterward. Once the expiration date is set, it can be updated if needed.

  1. In the Session, select Session Settings.
    Select Session Settings
  2. If an expiration date has already been set, Enabled will be selected.
    • You can disable the expiration date by deselecting Enabled.
    • The expiration date or time can be changed by adjusting the appropriate date/time to the right of Enabled.
  3. Select OK.
You must be a Session host or an attendee with full control permissions to set or update an expiration date.

Notifications are sent if the Session expiration date is updated. Studio also sends the Session host and attendees email notifications as the Session nears its expiration date. Notifications are sent out:

  • 7 days before expiration
  • 2 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.

You must have both Send PDFs to Sessions permission and Read/Write folder permission in Studio Projects to use this feature. Attendees with the Full Control permissions already have both permissions by default.

Add to a new Session

  1. In a Studio Project, right-click a PDF and select Add to New Session. You can select multiple PDFs by using Ctrl+Click or Shift+Click.
  2. Enter the name for your new Session and select OK.

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 the selected PDF(s), select Add To Existing Session, and choose the Session by name.

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

PDFs already added to a Session are tagged with an In a 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. Afterward, Sessions can be renamed from the Studio panel by the Session host or attendees with Full Control permissions.

  1. Join the Studio Session in Revu.
  2. Select Session Settings.
  3. From the Session Settings dialog, edit the Session Name.
  4. Select OK.

How-To

Tips-and-Tricks

Revu 20

Revu 21

Studio

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