Work with Sets

Sets allows you to open a collection of documents in a single view with the pages organized in a specified sorted order, including any revisions and addenda. You can navigate through multiple files as though they were one document without actually merging them into a single file. Additionally, files that normally cannot be combined due to PDF security or digital signatures can be viewed as a cohesive collection.

The process of creating a new Set varies depending on how Revu has been configured to handle Sets Categories. There are three configuration options available: Off (Sets Categories are not being used), Auto (Revu will automatically assign categories for drawings in the Set), and Manual (the user will manually assigned categories to drawings in the Set). The process for each option is described below. If you are not sure of this configuration, check Sets Preferences.

  1. Go to Window > Panels > Sets or press ALT+2 to show the Sets panel.

  2. On the Sets panel toolbar, go to Sets >  New Set.

  3. In the Set: New Set dialog, select one of the following methods to add PDFs to the Set from the Add dropdown menu:
    • Add Files: Select this option to navigate to the desired files on either a local or network drive. This option is the default when you select Add .
    • Add Open Files: Select this option to add all PDFs currently open in Revu.
    • Add Folder: Select this option to add all PDFs in a selected folder, but none of the PDFs in any of its subfolders.
    • Add Folder (include subfolders): Select this option to add all PDFs in a selected folder and all PDFs in any of its subfolders.

  1. Enable or disable Use Relative Paths, as desired.

    If this Set is going to be saved, enabling Use Relative Paths is recommended.
  2. Enable or disable Show Paths, as desired. When enabled, the full path to the documents is shown. When disabled, only the documents' names are shown.
  3. To modify Sorting, Categories, or Tags, select Options. In most cases, the default settings will be sufficient.

    • Sets Options

      The default values from Sets (Sorting) Preferences are automatically loaded. Changing any of these options will affect this Set only; to make permanent changes that will affect future Sets, change the appropriate preference in Sets (Sorting) Preferences.

      Show: Determines what data will be shown to identify documents in a Set. The options are to show file names and page labels or just one or the other, and to show sheet names and sheet numbers or just one or the other.

      Sort By: Determines how files are arranged in a Set.

      • Page Label Only: Files are sorted by Page Labels only.
      • File Name, Page Label: Files are sorted by File Name and Page Label.
      • File Name, Page Index: Files are sorted by File Name and Page Index.

      Sort Tagged Sheets By Sheet Number: When enabled, tagged sheets are automatically sorted by the sheet number. Only applicable when the Sheet Number tag is in use. Any sheets in the Set that do not have a Sheet Number tag will be sorted by the Sort By selection above.

      Sort Order: Determines how pages with alphanumeric page labels will be arranged in a Set.

      • Alphabetic Descending: Sorts pages in descending order based on the first character and then the second character of its alphanumeric page label.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 2, 1, 04, 3, 20 would be ordered as 3, 20, 2, 1, 04.

      • Alphabetic Ascending: Sorts pages in ascending order based on the first character and then the second character of its alphanumeric page label (this is the default setting).

        For example, a Set with page labels of 2, 1, 04, 3, 20 would be ordered as 04, 1, 2, 20, 3.

      • Alphanumeric Descending:  Sorts pages in descending order based on the whole number in the page label.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 5.0, 50, 44.1, 40 and 4.1 would be sorted as 50, 44.1, 40, 5.0, 4.1.

      • Alphanumeric Ascending: Sorts pages in ascending order based on the whole number in the page label. Negative and decimal numbers will be at the beginning of the sort, and lettered page labels will appear after the numbered page labels.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 5.0, 50, 44.1, 40 and 4.1 would be sorted as 4.1, 5.0, 40, 44.1, 50.

      Stack Multi-Page Documents: When enabled, multi-page documents will be automatically stacked by index (ascending). Recommended for long, multi-page documents like spec sheets. Drawing revisions are better served by stacking revisions using the Sheet Number and Revision tags.

      Revision Filter: Filters can be applied to a Set if the file naming or page labeling convention supports a revision strategy. Select the type of revision filter to be used. Options include:

      • Auto: Revu automatically determines the revision naming strategy by analyzing the file names in the Set and applies appropriate filters. As long as the file naming convention is consistent, this option should work in most cases. See Auto-Matching in Sets for more information.
      • Wildcard: Uses the wildcards defined in the Wildcard Filter field (below).
      • Off: Turns off the use of revision filters, but saves the current configurations (they just go unused so long as this option is set).

      Stack Revisions By: Selections available here are determined by the Sort By selection in the Sets (Sorting) Preferences. If the Set is being sorted by a single field, this option is grayed out. Otherwise, select the field that the Revision Filter (above) will be applied to.

      Wildcard Syntax: This field is only available when Revision Filter (above) is set to Wildcard. Enter the desired Wildcard conditions.

      * Represents zero or more characters

      # Represents a series of characters that form a number

      ? Represents a series of alphabetic letters

      ; Separator for specifying multiple filters

      \ Escape character to treat above characters as literal

      All other characters are literal

      Example: *A# means any characters followed by an 'A' then a number.

      Previous Revisions: Select an option to determine how previous revisions of documents will be displayed in this Set.

      • Hide: Hides any previous revisions when viewing a Set.
      • Gray Out: Grays out any previous revisions.
      • Cross Out: Crosses out any previous revisions.
      • Show: Shows previous revisions in the Set and the workspace.

      Current Revisions: Select an option to determine how revisions will be displayed in this Set.

      • Highlight: Places a highlighted border around the outline of the thumbnail.
      • Stack: Stacks revisions on top of each other and places a blue arrow on the thumbnail, which can be selected to see the revisions.

      Copy markups from Previous to Current: When enabled, Revu copies the unflattened markups from current revisions over to their new revisions.

      Unflatten Markups prior to Copy: Unflattens any flattened markups on the current pages before performing the copy.

      Flatten Markups after Copy: Flattens markups on the new pages after performing the copy.

      Stamp previous revisions 'Superseded': When enabled, Revu applies a "Superseded" stamp to the PDF of previous revisions, informing users who view the PDF—even outside the Set—that a new revision exists.

      The default values from Sets (Categories) Preferences are automatically loaded. Changing any of these options will affect this Set only; to make permanent changes that will affect future Sets, change the appropriate preference in Sets (Categories) Preferences. If sheets have been added to the Set and have already been categorized, changing settings here may cause them to be re-categorized to match the new settings.

      Categories: Determines which Sets Category mode to use for this Set. The options are:

      • Off: Sets Categories are not used.
      • Manual: Sets Categories are used, but sheets added to a Set are not automatically assigned a category. All sheets being added to the Set can be assigned to a category or categories can be assigned one at a time after the sheets have been added.
      • Auto: Sets Categories are used and sheets are automatically assigned a category upon being added to the Set.

      Categorize By: Indicates what data Revu uses to determine a sheet's category. The options are as follows:

      • File Name: The first letter or letters of a sheet's file name are used to determine its category.
      • Tag: Drawing Number: The first letter or letters of a sheet's sheet number (as determined by the Drawing Number tag) are used to determine its category. If this option is selected, but the Sheet Number tag is disabled on the Tags tab, all sheets will be Uncategorized.

      The categories that are used to sort sheets in the Set are shown in the table and are determined by the template selected previously. They can be modified for this Set by doing any of the following:

      • Categories are arranged in the Set according to the sort order found here. Drag and drop to adjust the sort order.
      • When a Set is configured to automatically assign Categories to sheets that are added, Revu compares the first letter or letters of the sheet's file name or Sheet Number tag to the values in the Filter column and, if a match is found, assigns the sheet to the corresponding Category. To change a Filter, double-click it and enter the desired value.

        Multiple Filters can be assigned to the same Category. Separate multiple filters by a semi-colon (;). Some rules to consider when adding or changing Filters:

        • Spaces and other special characters are considered literal characters.
        • When a sheet can be sorted into multiple Categories, Revu will automatically choose the strongest match.
      • Identical filters are not allowed.
      • Categories can be added () or removed ().
      • Save As saves the configuration as a new template with a name you specify without changing the original template.
        Revu can be configured to prompt which template to use by enabling Prompt for Template selection in Sets (Options) Preferences.

      Tags preferences set up in Sets (Tags) Preferences will be loaded automatically. Tags can be added or removed, as desired.

      1. Select .

      2. To add one of the standard tags, select the Default tab and select the desired tag from the menu.
      3. To add a custom tag, select the Custom tab, then enter the desired Tag Name of the tag and select the appropriate Tag Type.
      4. Select OK.
      1. Select the tag to be removed.
      2. Select .
      1. Select the tag to be moved.
      2. Drag and drop it to the desired position in the list.

      Some tags (Revision, Discipline, and Sheet Type) can be extrapolated from sheet numbers, if desired. To do so, select any or all of the following options:

      • Automatically Tag Revision Number based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Revision tag automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. If the drawing's sheet number already exists within the Set, Revu assumes it is the next revision of that sheet. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Revision Number tags are enabled. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.
      • Automatically Tag Discipline based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Discipline tag is automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Discipline tags are in use. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.
      • Automatically Tag Sheet Type based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Sheet Type tag is automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Sheet Type tags have been added to the Set. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.

  4. To remove a PDF from the Set list, select it and select Remove.
  5. Select OK.

  1. If Sets Tags are not being used, skip to the next step. If they are being used, the Add Tags dialog appears prompting you to define the location of the first tag.

    Do the following to define the tags:

    1. To skip this tag for the current page, select Skip. The dialog will appear again for the next tag (if any). Select the arrow to the right of Skip to choose to skip this tag for the whole document (Skip Document) or to skip the tag entirely (Skip Tag).
    2. To define the tag, select Select and draw a rectangle around the region of the drawing that contains the requested information.

      For example, when setting the region for the Sheet Name tag, draw a rectangle around the part of the title block that contains the sheet name. Ideally, the sheet name for all the drawings in the Set will be contained in the same relative position, but this is not necessary.

    3. Revu will analyze the contents of the defined region and the Add Tags dialog will reappear with a preview of what it found. This is what the tag for the current sheet will be. If it is incorrect or incomplete, select Reselect and draw the rectangle again.
    4. Select OK to accept the tag region. Revu will analyze the rest of the drawings in the Set and create the tag for each.

      If it is unable to find text for a tag in one of the drawings for some reason (for example, if the title block is different or the drawing is skewed), Revu will open it and the Add Tags dialog box will appear again. Do one of the following:

      • To skip tagging the drawing, select Skip.
      • To define an alternate tag region, select Select and draw a rectangle around the region on the drawing that contains the tag information. Revu will remember this region as well and use it as an additional location for this tag for the life of the Set. Any number of regions can be defined for a tag.
    5. Repeat for each tag being used in this Set.

    6. When all the drawings in the Set have been tagged, the Tags dialog appears.

    7. Review the tags for accuracy. Tags can be changed by selecting their cells (CTRL-click, SHIFT-select, or drag to select multiple cells) then doing one of the following:
      • Editing the text that appears in the field at the top of the dialog .
      • Selecting the AutoMark button to reselect the part of the sheet from which the tag information should be found.
    8. Select OK to commit the tags to the sheets.

  2. If Revu detects that the Set contains any revisions, the Modify Pages? dialog will appear.

    Pages that have been automatically matched are shown on the Matched Pages tab, arranged in matched pairs: pages in the same row are considered "paired" and will be compared. Do the following:

    1. To move a page to a different row (and pair it with a different page), select it and use the associated and buttons.
    2. To remove a page from either list, select it and select .
    3. To slip sheet the matched pages, copying the markups from the current pages to the revised pages and stamping the current pages as having been superseded, select OK.
    4. To not slip sheet the pages shown, select Skip.

    The set is built and shown on the Sets tab.

When Sets Categories are set to Manual, you need to assign the correct Category to each drawing added to the Set. As such, it is recommended that you add drawings that are in the same category to create your Set. Afterward, you can add more drawings (from other Categories) to complete the Set.

  1. Go to Window > Panels > Sets or press ALT+2 to show the Sets panel.

  2. On the Sets panel toolbar, go to Sets >  New Set.

  3. In the Set: New Set dialog, select one of the following methods to add PDFs to the Set from the Add dropdown menu:
    • Add Files: Select this option to navigate to the desired files on either a local or network drive. This option is the default when you select Add .
    • Add Open Files: Select this option to add all PDFs currently open in Revu.
    • Add Folder: Select this option to add all PDFs in a selected folder, but none of the PDFs in any of its subfolders.
    • Add Folder (include subfolders): Select this option to add all PDFs in a selected folder and all PDFs in any of its subfolders.

  1. The Categories Template dialog appears.

    If this dialog does not appear, the Prompt for Template Selection option is not selected in Sets Preferences. Skip the next step.

  2. If you do not wish to use Sets Categories for this Set, select Skip, then select Options and go to the Categories tab and set Categories to Off. After you have done that, you can skip to the next step. Otherwise, do the following:

    1. Select a template from the Select Categories Template dropdown menu. If the desired template is not shown, or you know that the one you wish to use needs to be permanently modified first, select Templates. See Sets Preferences for more information about managing templates.

      Changes made to a template from here will affect all future Sets to use that template. Temporary changes to a template that affect only this Set can be made later in the process. To make temporary changes to the template that will affect only this Set, select the unmodified template in the next step and make the desired changes in the Set Options on the Categories tab, as described below.

    2. Select OK. The Add Files to Category dialog appears.

    3. Select the category into which these drawings should be sorted from the Select or Create Category dropdown menu and select OK.

  1. Enable or disable Use Relative Paths, as desired.

    If this Set is going to be saved, enabling Use Relative Paths is recommended.
  2. Enable or disable Show Paths, as desired. When enabled, the full path to the documents is shown. When disabled, only the documents' names are shown.
  3. To modify Sorting, Categories, or Tags, select Options. In most cases, the default settings will be sufficient.

    • Sets Options

      The default values from Sets (Sorting) Preferences are automatically loaded. Changing any of these options will affect this Set only; to make permanent changes that will affect future Sets, change the appropriate preference in Sets (Sorting) Preferences.

      Show: Determines what data will be shown to identify documents in a Set. The options are to show file names and page labels or just one or the other, and to show sheet names and sheet numbers or just one or the other.

      Sort By: Determines how files are arranged in a Set.

      • Page Label Only: Files are sorted by Page Labels only.
      • File Name, Page Label: Files are sorted by File Name and Page Label.
      • File Name, Page Index: Files are sorted by File Name and Page Index.

      Sort Tagged Sheets By Sheet Number: When enabled, tagged sheets are automatically sorted by the sheet number. Only applicable when the Sheet Number tag is in use. Any sheets in the Set that do not have a Sheet Number tag will be sorted by the Sort By selection above.

      Sort Order: Determines how pages with alphanumeric page labels will be arranged in a Set.

      • Alphabetic Descending: Sorts pages in descending order based on the first character and then the second character of its alphanumeric page label.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 2, 1, 04, 3, 20 would be ordered as 3, 20, 2, 1, 04.

      • Alphabetic Ascending: Sorts pages in ascending order based on the first character and then the second character of its alphanumeric page label (this is the default setting).

        For example, a Set with page labels of 2, 1, 04, 3, 20 would be ordered as 04, 1, 2, 20, 3.

      • Alphanumeric Descending:  Sorts pages in descending order based on the whole number in the page label.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 5.0, 50, 44.1, 40 and 4.1 would be sorted as 50, 44.1, 40, 5.0, 4.1.

      • Alphanumeric Ascending: Sorts pages in ascending order based on the whole number in the page label. Negative and decimal numbers will be at the beginning of the sort, and lettered page labels will appear after the numbered page labels.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 5.0, 50, 44.1, 40 and 4.1 would be sorted as 4.1, 5.0, 40, 44.1, 50.

      Stack Multi-Page Documents: When enabled, multi-page documents will be automatically stacked by index (ascending). Recommended for long, multi-page documents like spec sheets. Drawing revisions are better served by stacking revisions using the Sheet Number and Revision tags.

      Revision Filter: Filters can be applied to a Set if the file naming or page labeling convention supports a revision strategy. Select the type of revision filter to be used. Options include:

      • Auto: Revu automatically determines the revision naming strategy by analyzing the file names in the Set and applies appropriate filters. As long as the file naming convention is consistent, this option should work in most cases. See Auto-Matching in Sets for more information.
      • Wildcard: Uses the wildcards defined in the Wildcard Filter field (below).
      • Off: Turns off the use of revision filters, but saves the current configurations (they just go unused so long as this option is set).

      Stack Revisions By: Selections available here are determined by the Sort By selection in the Sets (Sorting) Preferences. If the Set is being sorted by a single field, this option is grayed out. Otherwise, select the field that the Revision Filter (above) will be applied to.

      Wildcard Syntax: This field is only available when Revision Filter (above) is set to Wildcard. Enter the desired Wildcard conditions.

      * Represents zero or more characters

      # Represents a series of characters that form a number

      ? Represents a series of alphabetic letters

      ; Separator for specifying multiple filters

      \ Escape character to treat above characters as literal

      All other characters are literal

      Example: *A# means any characters followed by an 'A' then a number.

      Previous Revisions: Select an option to determine how previous revisions of documents will be displayed in this Set.

      • Hide: Hides any previous revisions when viewing a Set.
      • Gray Out: Grays out any previous revisions.
      • Cross Out: Crosses out any previous revisions.
      • Show: Shows previous revisions in the Set and the workspace.

      Current Revisions: Select an option to determine how revisions will be displayed in this Set.

      • Highlight: Places a highlighted border around the outline of the thumbnail.
      • Stack: Stacks revisions on top of each other and places a blue arrow on the thumbnail, which can be selected to see the revisions.

      Copy markups from Previous to Current: When enabled, Revu copies the unflattened markups from current revisions over to their new revisions.

      Unflatten Markups prior to Copy: Unflattens any flattened markups on the current pages before performing the copy.

      Flatten Markups after Copy: Flattens markups on the new pages after performing the copy.

      Stamp previous revisions 'Superseded': When enabled, Revu applies a "Superseded" stamp to the PDF of previous revisions, informing users who view the PDF—even outside the Set—that a new revision exists.

      The default values from Sets (Categories) Preferences are automatically loaded. Changing any of these options will affect this Set only; to make permanent changes that will affect future Sets, change the appropriate preference in Sets (Categories) Preferences. If sheets have been added to the Set and have already been categorized, changing settings here may cause them to be re-categorized to match the new settings.

      Categories: Determines which Sets Category mode to use for this Set. The options are:

      • Off: Sets Categories are not used.
      • Manual: Sets Categories are used, but sheets added to a Set are not automatically assigned a category. All sheets being added to the Set can be assigned to a category or categories can be assigned one at a time after the sheets have been added.
      • Auto: Sets Categories are used and sheets are automatically assigned a category upon being added to the Set.

      Categorize By: Indicates what data Revu uses to determine a sheet's category. The options are as follows:

      • File Name: The first letter or letters of a sheet's file name are used to determine its category.
      • Tag: Drawing Number: The first letter or letters of a sheet's sheet number (as determined by the Drawing Number tag) are used to determine its category. If this option is selected, but the Sheet Number tag is disabled on the Tags tab, all sheets will be Uncategorized.

      The categories that are used to sort sheets in the Set are shown in the table and are determined by the template selected previously. They can be modified for this Set by doing any of the following:

      • Categories are arranged in the Set according to the sort order found here. Drag and drop to adjust the sort order.
      • When a Set is configured to automatically assign Categories to sheets that are added, Revu compares the first letter or letters of the sheet's file name or Sheet Number tag to the values in the Filter column and, if a match is found, assigns the sheet to the corresponding Category. To change a Filter, double-click it and enter the desired value.

        Multiple Filters can be assigned to the same Category. Separate multiple filters by a semi-colon (;). Some rules to consider when adding or changing Filters:

        • Spaces and other special characters are considered literal characters.
        • When a sheet can be sorted into multiple Categories, Revu will automatically choose the strongest match.
      • Identical filters are not allowed.
      • Categories can be added () or removed ().
      • Save As saves the configuration as a new template with a name you specify without changing the original template.
        Revu can be configured to prompt which template to use by enabling Prompt for Template selection in Sets (Options) Preferences.

      Tags preferences set up in Sets (Tags) Preferences will be loaded automatically. Tags can be added or removed, as desired.

      1. Select .

      2. To add one of the standard tags, select the Default tab and select the desired tag from the menu.
      3. To add a custom tag, select the Custom tab, then enter the desired Tag Name of the tag and select the appropriate Tag Type.
      4. Select OK.
      1. Select the tag to be removed.
      2. Select .
      1. Select the tag to be moved.
      2. Drag and drop it to the desired position in the list.

      Some tags (Revision, Discipline, and Sheet Type) can be extrapolated from sheet numbers, if desired. To do so, select any or all of the following options:

      • Automatically Tag Revision Number based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Revision tag automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. If the drawing's sheet number already exists within the Set, Revu assumes it is the next revision of that sheet. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Revision Number tags are enabled. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.
      • Automatically Tag Discipline based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Discipline tag is automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Discipline tags are in use. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.
      • Automatically Tag Sheet Type based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Sheet Type tag is automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Sheet Type tags have been added to the Set. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.

  4. To remove a PDF from the Set list, select it and select Remove.
  5. Select OK.

  1. If Sets Tags are not being used, skip to the next step. If they are being used, the Add Tags dialog appears prompting you to define the location of the first tag.

    Do the following to define the tags:

    1. To skip this tag for the current page, select Skip. The dialog will appear again for the next tag (if any). Select the arrow to the right of Skip to choose to skip this tag for the whole document (Skip Document) or to skip the tag entirely (Skip Tag).
    2. To define the tag, select Select and draw a rectangle around the region of the drawing that contains the requested information.

      For example, when setting the region for the Sheet Name tag, draw a rectangle around the part of the title block that contains the sheet name. Ideally, the sheet name for all the drawings in the Set will be contained in the same relative position, but this is not necessary.

    3. Revu will analyze the contents of the defined region and the Add Tags dialog will reappear with a preview of what it found. This is what the tag for the current sheet will be. If it is incorrect or incomplete, select Reselect and draw the rectangle again.
    4. Select OK to accept the tag region. Revu will analyze the rest of the drawings in the Set and create the tag for each.

      If it is unable to find text for a tag in one of the drawings for some reason (for example, if the title block is different or the drawing is skewed), Revu will open it and the Add Tags dialog box will appear again. Do one of the following:

      • To skip tagging the drawing, select Skip.
      • To define an alternate tag region, select Select and draw a rectangle around the region on the drawing that contains the tag information. Revu will remember this region as well and use it as an additional location for this tag for the life of the Set. Any number of regions can be defined for a tag.
    5. Repeat for each tag being used in this Set.

    6. When all the drawings in the Set have been tagged, the Tags dialog appears.

    7. Review the tags for accuracy. Tags can be changed by selecting their cells (CTRL-click, SHIFT-select, or drag to select multiple cells) then doing one of the following:
      • Editing the text that appears in the field at the top of the dialog .
      • Selecting the AutoMark button to reselect the part of the sheet from which the tag information should be found.
    8. Select OK to commit the tags to the sheets.

  2. If Revu detects that the Set contains any revisions, the Modify Pages? dialog will appear.

    Pages that have been automatically matched are shown on the Matched Pages tab, arranged in matched pairs: pages in the same row are considered "paired" and will be compared. Do the following:

    1. To move a page to a different row (and pair it with a different page), select it and use the associated and buttons.
    2. To remove a page from either list, select it and select .
    3. To slip sheet the matched pages, copying the markups from the current pages to the revised pages and stamping the current pages as having been superseded, select OK.
    4. To not slip sheet the pages shown, select Skip.

    The set is built and shown on the Sets tab.

When Sets Categories are set to Auto, Categories are assigned to drawings added to the Set automatically based on file names as described in Sets Preferences. You can add as many or as few drawings to the Set during creation. If necessary, you can also add drawings to the Set after it has been created.

  1. Go to Window > Panels > Sets or press ALT+2 to show the Sets panel.

  2. On the Sets panel toolbar, go to Sets >  New Set.

  3. In the Set: New Set dialog, select one of the following methods to add PDFs to the Set from the Add dropdown menu:
    • Add Files: Select this option to navigate to the desired files on either a local or network drive. This option is the default when you select Add .
    • Add Open Files: Select this option to add all PDFs currently open in Revu.
    • Add Folder: Select this option to add all PDFs in a selected folder, but none of the PDFs in any of its subfolders.
    • Add Folder (include subfolders): Select this option to add all PDFs in a selected folder and all PDFs in any of its subfolders.

  1. The Categories Templates dialog appears.

    If this dialog does not appear, the Prompt for Template Selection option is not selected in Sets Preferences and the default category (as determined by Default Template in Sets Preferences) is used automatically. Skip the next step.
  2. If you do not wish to use Sets Categories for this Set, select Cancel, then select Options and go to the Categories tab and set Categories to Off. After you have done all that, you can skip to the next step. Otherwise, do the following:

    1. Select a template from the Select Categories Template dropdown menu. If the desired template is not shown, or you know that the one you wish to use needs to be permanently modified first, select Templates. See Sets Preferences for more information about managing templates.

      Changes made to a template from here will affect all future Sets to use that template. Temporary changes to a template that affect only this Set can be made later in the process. If you want to make temporary changes to the template that will affect only this Set, select the unmodified template in the next step and make the desired changes in the Set Options on the Categories tab, as described below.

    2. Select OK.

  1. Enable or disable Use Relative Paths, as desired.

    If this Set is going to be saved, enabling Use Relative Paths is recommended.
  2. Enable or disable Show Paths, as desired. When enabled, the full path to the documents is shown. When disabled, only the documents' names are shown.
  3. To modify Sorting, Categories, or Tags, select Options. In most cases, the default settings will be sufficient.

    • Sets Options

      The default values from Sets (Sorting) Preferences are automatically loaded. Changing any of these options will affect this Set only; to make permanent changes that will affect future Sets, change the appropriate preference in Sets (Sorting) Preferences.

      Show: Determines what data will be shown to identify documents in a Set. The options are to show file names and page labels or just one or the other, and to show sheet names and sheet numbers or just one or the other.

      Sort By: Determines how files are arranged in a Set.

      • Page Label Only: Files are sorted by Page Labels only.
      • File Name, Page Label: Files are sorted by File Name and Page Label.
      • File Name, Page Index: Files are sorted by File Name and Page Index.

      Sort Tagged Sheets By Sheet Number: When enabled, tagged sheets are automatically sorted by the sheet number. Only applicable when the Sheet Number tag is in use. Any sheets in the Set that do not have a Sheet Number tag will be sorted by the Sort By selection above.

      Sort Order: Determines how pages with alphanumeric page labels will be arranged in a Set.

      • Alphabetic Descending: Sorts pages in descending order based on the first character and then the second character of its alphanumeric page label.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 2, 1, 04, 3, 20 would be ordered as 3, 20, 2, 1, 04.

      • Alphabetic Ascending: Sorts pages in ascending order based on the first character and then the second character of its alphanumeric page label (this is the default setting).

        For example, a Set with page labels of 2, 1, 04, 3, 20 would be ordered as 04, 1, 2, 20, 3.

      • Alphanumeric Descending:  Sorts pages in descending order based on the whole number in the page label.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 5.0, 50, 44.1, 40 and 4.1 would be sorted as 50, 44.1, 40, 5.0, 4.1.

      • Alphanumeric Ascending: Sorts pages in ascending order based on the whole number in the page label. Negative and decimal numbers will be at the beginning of the sort, and lettered page labels will appear after the numbered page labels.

        For example, a Set with page labels of 5.0, 50, 44.1, 40 and 4.1 would be sorted as 4.1, 5.0, 40, 44.1, 50.

      Stack Multi-Page Documents: When enabled, multi-page documents will be automatically stacked by index (ascending). Recommended for long, multi-page documents like spec sheets. Drawing revisions are better served by stacking revisions using the Sheet Number and Revision tags.

      Revision Filter: Filters can be applied to a Set if the file naming or page labeling convention supports a revision strategy. Select the type of revision filter to be used. Options include:

      • Auto: Revu automatically determines the revision naming strategy by analyzing the file names in the Set and applies appropriate filters. As long as the file naming convention is consistent, this option should work in most cases. See Auto-Matching in Sets for more information.
      • Wildcard: Uses the wildcards defined in the Wildcard Filter field (below).
      • Off: Turns off the use of revision filters, but saves the current configurations (they just go unused so long as this option is set).

      Stack Revisions By: Selections available here are determined by the Sort By selection in the Sets (Sorting) Preferences. If the Set is being sorted by a single field, this option is grayed out. Otherwise, select the field that the Revision Filter (above) will be applied to.

      Wildcard Syntax: This field is only available when Revision Filter (above) is set to Wildcard. Enter the desired Wildcard conditions.

      * Represents zero or more characters

      # Represents a series of characters that form a number

      ? Represents a series of alphabetic letters

      ; Separator for specifying multiple filters

      \ Escape character to treat above characters as literal

      All other characters are literal

      Example: *A# means any characters followed by an 'A' then a number.

      Previous Revisions: Select an option to determine how previous revisions of documents will be displayed in this Set.

      • Hide: Hides any previous revisions when viewing a Set.
      • Gray Out: Grays out any previous revisions.
      • Cross Out: Crosses out any previous revisions.
      • Show: Shows previous revisions in the Set and the workspace.

      Current Revisions: Select an option to determine how revisions will be displayed in this Set.

      • Highlight: Places a highlighted border around the outline of the thumbnail.
      • Stack: Stacks revisions on top of each other and places a blue arrow on the thumbnail, which can be selected to see the revisions.

      Copy markups from Previous to Current: When enabled, Revu copies the unflattened markups from current revisions over to their new revisions.

      Unflatten Markups prior to Copy: Unflattens any flattened markups on the current pages before performing the copy.

      Flatten Markups after Copy: Flattens markups on the new pages after performing the copy.

      Stamp previous revisions 'Superseded': When enabled, Revu applies a "Superseded" stamp to the PDF of previous revisions, informing users who view the PDF—even outside the Set—that a new revision exists.

      The default values from Sets (Categories) Preferences are automatically loaded. Changing any of these options will affect this Set only; to make permanent changes that will affect future Sets, change the appropriate preference in Sets (Categories) Preferences. If sheets have been added to the Set and have already been categorized, changing settings here may cause them to be re-categorized to match the new settings.

      Categories: Determines which Sets Category mode to use for this Set. The options are:

      • Off: Sets Categories are not used.
      • Manual: Sets Categories are used, but sheets added to a Set are not automatically assigned a category. All sheets being added to the Set can be assigned to a category or categories can be assigned one at a time after the sheets have been added.
      • Auto: Sets Categories are used and sheets are automatically assigned a category upon being added to the Set.

      Categorize By: Indicates what data Revu uses to determine a sheet's category. The options are as follows:

      • File Name: The first letter or letters of a sheet's file name are used to determine its category.
      • Tag: Drawing Number: The first letter or letters of a sheet's sheet number (as determined by the Drawing Number tag) are used to determine its category. If this option is selected, but the Sheet Number tag is disabled on the Tags tab, all sheets will be Uncategorized.

      The categories that are used to sort sheets in the Set are shown in the table and are determined by the template selected previously. They can be modified for this Set by doing any of the following:

      • Categories are arranged in the Set according to the sort order found here. Drag and drop to adjust the sort order.
      • When a Set is configured to automatically assign Categories to sheets that are added, Revu compares the first letter or letters of the sheet's file name or Sheet Number tag to the values in the Filter column and, if a match is found, assigns the sheet to the corresponding Category. To change a Filter, double-click it and enter the desired value.

        Multiple Filters can be assigned to the same Category. Separate multiple filters by a semi-colon (;). Some rules to consider when adding or changing Filters:

        • Spaces and other special characters are considered literal characters.
        • When a sheet can be sorted into multiple Categories, Revu will automatically choose the strongest match.
      • Identical filters are not allowed.
      • Categories can be added () or removed ().
      • Save As saves the configuration as a new template with a name you specify without changing the original template.
        Revu can be configured to prompt which template to use by enabling Prompt for Template selection in Sets (Options) Preferences.

      Tags preferences set up in Sets (Tags) Preferences will be loaded automatically. Tags can be added or removed, as desired.

      1. Select .

      2. To add one of the standard tags, select the Default tab and select the desired tag from the menu.
      3. To add a custom tag, select the Custom tab, then enter the desired Tag Name of the tag and select the appropriate Tag Type.
      4. Select OK.
      1. Select the tag to be removed.
      2. Select .
      1. Select the tag to be moved.
      2. Drag and drop it to the desired position in the list.

      Some tags (Revision, Discipline, and Sheet Type) can be extrapolated from sheet numbers, if desired. To do so, select any or all of the following options:

      • Automatically Tag Revision Number based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Revision tag automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. If the drawing's sheet number already exists within the Set, Revu assumes it is the next revision of that sheet. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Revision Number tags are enabled. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.
      • Automatically Tag Discipline based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Discipline tag is automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Discipline tags are in use. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.
      • Automatically Tag Sheet Type based on Sheet Number: When enabled, the Sheet Type tag is automatically extrapolated from the Sheet Number tag. This option is only available when the Sheet Number and Sheet Type tags have been added to the Set. If either is not currently included in the list of tags being used, enabling this option adds it automatically.

  4. To remove a PDF from the Set list, select it and select Remove.
  5. Select OK.

  1. If Sets Tags are not being used, skip to the next step. If they are being used, the Add Tags dialog appears prompting you to define the location of the first tag.

    Do the following to define the tags:

    1. To skip this tag for the current page, select Skip. The dialog will appear again for the next tag (if any). Select the arrow to the right of Skip to choose to skip this tag for the whole document (Skip Document) or to skip the tag entirely (Skip Tag).
    2. To define the tag, select Select and draw a rectangle around the region of the drawing that contains the requested information.

      For example, when setting the region for the Sheet Name tag, draw a rectangle around the part of the title block that contains the sheet name. Ideally, the sheet name for all the drawings in the Set will be contained in the same relative position, but this is not necessary.

    3. Revu will analyze the contents of the defined region and the Add Tags dialog will reappear with a preview of what it found. This is what the tag for the current sheet will be. If it is incorrect or incomplete, select Reselect and draw the rectangle again.
    4. Select OK to accept the tag region. Revu will analyze the rest of the drawings in the Set and create the tag for each.

      If it is unable to find text for a tag in one of the drawings for some reason (for example, if the title block is different or the drawing is skewed), Revu will open it and the Add Tags dialog box will appear again. Do one of the following:

      • To skip tagging the drawing, select Skip.
      • To define an alternate tag region, select Select and draw a rectangle around the region on the drawing that contains the tag information. Revu will remember this region as well and use it as an additional location for this tag for the life of the Set. Any number of regions can be defined for a tag.
    5. Repeat for each tag being used in this Set.

    6. When all the drawings in the Set have been tagged, the Tags dialog appears.

    7. Review the tags for accuracy. Tags can be changed by selecting their cells (CTRL-click, SHIFT-select, or drag to select multiple cells) then doing one of the following:
      • Editing the text that appears in the field at the top of the dialog .
      • Selecting the AutoMark button to reselect the part of the sheet from which the tag information should be found.
    8. Select OK to commit the tags to the sheets.

  2. If Revu detects that the Set contains any revisions, the Modify Pages? dialog will appear.

    Pages that have been automatically matched are shown on the Matched Pages tab, arranged in matched pairs: pages in the same row are considered "paired" and will be compared. Do the following:

    1. To move a page to a different row (and pair it with a different page), select it and use the associated and buttons.
    2. To remove a page from either list, select it and select .
    3. To slip sheet the matched pages, copying the markups from the current pages to the revised pages and stamping the current pages as having been superseded, select OK.
    4. To not slip sheet the pages shown, select Skip.

    The set is built and shown on the Sets tab.

You can access the Batch Compare and Batch Overlay features directly from within your Set and run either against drawing revisions. To do so, right-click one of the revisions and select either Batch Compare or Batch Overlay, as desired. The selected feature will be called with the revisions automatically matched. See Batch Compare and Batch Overlay for more information about those features.

Files can be added to a Set, but if you are adding document revisions to a Set, make sure that the file names or page labels comply to your Revision Filter scheme, as set up in Sets: Advanced Options when the Set was created.

  1. Go to Window > Panels > Sets or press ALT+2 to show the Sets panel.
  2. Select Add Files to Set.
  3. In Open dialog, navigate to the desired file or files, then select them and select Open.
  4. If Sets Tags were used when the Set was created, Revu will attempt to tag the new files accordingly.

    1. If Revu cannot locate a tag on a file being added to the Set (for example, if the title block is different or the drawing is skewed), the Add Tags dialog appears.

      Either select Select and draw a rectangle around the requested information to tag this file or select Skip to not tag this file.

    2. Once all the Sets Tags have been added to the new file or files, the Tags dialog appears.

      Review the tags for accuracy. Any tag can be changed by double-clicking its cell. Select OK to accept the tags.

  1. Go to Window > Panels > Sets or press ALT+2 to show the Sets panel.
  2. Go to Sets > Print Set and select a page grouping to be printed:
    • Print All: Prints all pages from all files in the Set, including all addenda.
    • Print Latest Revisions: Prints the latest revision of each page in the Set. Pages that have no revisions are selected (as the original page is the latest revision).

    • Print Previous Revisions: Prints only the previous revision pages in the Set. Pages that have no revisions are not selected.

    Once a selection is made, the Print dialog opens with the selected page grouping loaded.

  3. To include additional documents, select one of the following for the Add menu:

    • Files: Adds individual files from a network or local drive. Selecting this option causes the Open dialog to appear. Navigate to the appropriate location and select the desired files.
    • Open Files: Adds all files currently open in Revu.
    • Open Set: Adds all files contained in the current Set.
    • Folder: Adds all files in a selected folder on a network or local drive, but not files contained in any of its subfolders. Selecting this option causes the Select Folder dialog to appear. Navigate to the desired folder and select it.
    • Folder and Subfolders: Adds all files in a selected folder on a network or local drive as well as all files within any of its subfolders. Selecting this option causes the Select Folder dialog to appear. Navigate to the desired folder and select it.
  4. By default, any document in the Files list will be affected. To remove a document from the Files list, select it then select Remove.
  5. PDFs are printed in the order they appear in the File List. Drag them to change the print order.

  6. To specify which pages of a PDF will be processed, select it, then select the Pages menu and select one of the following options:

    • All Pages: Sets the range to all pages.
    • Selected: Sets the range to the current selection. This option only appears if pages were selected prior to invoking the command.
    • Custom: Sets the range to a custom value. When you select this option, replace any text left in the field with the page or pages to be printed directly. To enter a custom range:
      • Use a dash between page numbers to define those two pages and all pages in between.
      • Use a comma to define pages that are separated.

      For example: 1-3, 5, 9 will include pages 1, 2, 3, 5 and 9.

    • Even Pages: Limits the process to only even pages.
    • Odd Pages: Limits the process to only odd pages.
    • Landscape Pages: Limits the process to only landscape-oriented pages.
    • Portrait Pages: Limits the process to only portrait-oriented pages.
    • First Page: Limits the process to just the first page of the document.
    • Last Page: Limits the process to just the last page of the document.
  7. Set any of the following options, as desired:

    Name: Lists the available printers on the system.

    Size: Lists the page sizes available to print. Choose Portrait or Landscape orientation.

    Print: Defines what streams print. Choose among Document & Markups, Document Only, or Markups Only.

    Copies: Determines how many copies of the PDF or selected pages will print.

    Collate: Keeps pages in order when printing multiple copies. For example, if unchecked, two copies of a three-page document will print in this order: 1,1,2,2,3,3. If selected, the order will be 1,2,3,1,2,3. This option is not available when printing only one copy.

    Reverse: Prints the file in reverse page order.

    Rotation: Rotates the page content or allows Revu to automatically rotate the content when appropriate.

    Page Scaling:

    None: Prints the page at full scale.

    Fit to Paper: Expands or shrinks the page to fit the paper size.

    Reduce to Paper: Reduces the page to fit the paper.

    Custom Scale: Activates the Custom Scale field. Enter a custom scale percentage to manually scale the document to the page.

    Fit to Margins: Expands or shrinks the page within the margins of the paper.

    Reduce to Margins: Shrinks the page to fit within the margins of the paper.

    Multiple Pages per Sheet: Prints multiple pages on each sheet of paper. Activates the following additional settings:

    Pages per: Determines the number of pages to a sheet. Choosing a number other than 1 will result in the defined number of pages being shrunk to fit the page.

    Layout: Chooses the orientation and direction of the pages on the sheet.

    Print Border: Draws a box around each page on the sheet to create separation.

    Center: Automatically centers the content on the page. To manually position the content, turn off this option and enter the X and Y position of the upper-left corner of the content.

    Dim Page Content: Dims the page content so that annotations appear more prominently in the printout.

    Dim Filtered Markups: Dims the markups so the content of the page appears more prominently.

    Print Spaces: Shows Spaces on printed page.

    Print Visible Hyperlinks: Shows Hyperlink markups that have the "Visible" property enabled on the printed page.

  8. Select Print.

There are some navigation tool behaviors specific to Sets:

Hyperlinks: When viewing a document that is in a Set, and when that Set is open, selecting a hyperlink that points to another document in the Set will automatically open the latest revision of the document.

Thumbnail View mode

Navigation Arrows for Stacked Revisions: When viewing a Set that is configured to stack revisions (in the Sets: Advanced Options dialog box), a set of navigation arrows are provided to make scrolling through revisions easier.

List View mode

Navigation Bar: When a Set is open, certain elements of the Navigation bar automatically adapt to the Set list. Selecting either the Next Page or Previous Page arrow automatically opens the next or previous document in the Set list (if the document has multiple revisions, the latest revision is automatically targeted). Similarly, the First Page (Home) and Last Page (End) buttons automatically open the first or last document in the Set (again, if there are multiple revisions of the targeted document, the latest revision is opened). Finally, the text field will show the name and position of the Set document that is currently open. Entering a query in the text field will locate the corresponding Set document, favoring the latest revision.
Keyboard shortcuts

HOME: Press to jump to the first document in the Set.

END: Press to jump to the last document in the Set.

CTRL+LEFT ARROW: Press to jump to the next page in the Set

CTRL+RIGHT ARROW: Press to jump to the previous page in the Set.

Related topics

Sets Panel

Working with Tags

Sets Preferences

Auto-Matching