3D PDFs with Bluebeam Revu

At its core, Bluebeam Revu is a collaboration software that enables users to develop workflows, standards, strategies, and so much more around the use of PDF documents. In doing so, a unique method of developing a different kind of PDF has emerged: 3D PDFs. The simplest way to describe a 3D PDF is that it is a PDF document containing interactive 3D objects. A model is created through a modeling software and converted to a 3D PDF. This enables users with Bluebeam Revu, and other supported PDF viewers to view, markup, collaborate and interact with the 3D modeling without the use of modeling software such as Revit, AutoCAD, Navisworks, Solidworks, and more. Here are a few ways that 3D PDFs can help you.

Model Visualization

Visualization is a big part of how a project is communicated to a team, a client, or for your own information. Being able to develop a model utilizing sometimes expensive software is a big part of the AEC industry in this BIM-centered age. 3D PDFs within Bluebeam Revu give users an avenue to view a model without the requirement of expansive software or hardware requirements. Simple, easy to understand visual tools give the user the ability to turn objects off, make them transparent, change colors, add clarity, and so much more. The visualization tools in Bluebeam Revu for 3D PDFs brings intrinsic value to a project and its team.

Sharing Object Data

3D PDFs not only provide a brilliant means in visualizing your model, they also provide the user key object-based modeling information for the user. A user can determine exactly what they are looking at; be it a wall, floor, piece of conduit, a light fixture, a door, a desk, the list goes on and on. As long as the object was named that way in the modeling program prior to generating the 3D PDF, the intelligence comes along. This provides transparency into the model itself as well as the elements making up that model that can be easily understood by the user.

BIM-enabled software has been the norm these days in generating an intelligent and parametric design model. That BIM data is important to have throughout the design, construction, and operations phases of a building. However, simply being able to read that information has been difficult for other software to take advantage of. If a user does not have Revit to open the BIM project file, then the BIM data is almost useless to that person. 3D PDFs enable BIM data to transfer from the modeling program to an easy to use 3D PDF. Using the 3D Model tab and Properties tab built within Bluebeam Revu, users are able to read the intelligent BIM data for any object appearing within a 3D PDF. Design data can be right at your fingertips, providing a means of communication, collaboration, and efficiency like never before.

Improving Project Collaboration

If you are a Revu user and utilizing 3D modeling software then 3D PDFs are one of the best formats to use when collaborating with project teams, vendors, clients, the list goes on. Powerful visualization tools enable users to change the modeling to fit their needs within Bluebeam Revu. Object-based intelligence help users decipher what makes up their model. BIM data can be right at your fingertips without requiring sometimes expensive and over-bearing software.

Want to learn how to create 3D PDFs? Reach out to us or visit me during the Bluebeam Revu Extreme Conference North America and look for my class, "Revuing 3D PDFs: Generating and Working with 3D PDFs."