Bluebeam vs. CoConstruct

As stated before, the mobile application is a great companion to the desktop version. Either one works great in viewing, editing and saving documents. While the measurement tool is handy to have, we have found the precision to be lacking when measuring scaled drawings (construction design drawings). While it is a good rough place to start for measurements, we wouldn't recommend relying on the precision of the measurements taken on something with a very large scale.

Incentivized

CoConstruct is a great program for small to mid-size residential and commercial projects. It still has a ways to go with subcontractor engagement but the groundwork is there for this to be a good program. The needs and requirements for a residential or remodel project always are different and unique, but CoConstruct is very well suited to address these needs.

Incentivized

• Overlaying pdf drawings to identify changes made by architects.
• Scaling dimensions when the architect has not provided required dimensions to proceed with work in the field.
• Hyperlinking construction documents with required information makes it much easier to look through multiple sheets in less time.

Incentivized

• The integration of all aspects needed to run a remodeling company efficiently: project scheduling and management, financial planning and customer service. Since it’s an all-in-one suite and cloud-based, it enables our team to keep track of all our projects in real-time. Communication breakdown is the last thing we want, so being on the same page is not only desirable but makes for the best possible relationship with our clients.
• Product education - We like how CoConstruct helps new users and get them to start using the tool right away. The dashboard resource materials are incredibly useful. We don’t have to spend a lot of time training new hires on the system and onboarding new clients.

Incentivized

• If you have several tabs open and you try to drag one out for a side by side view then you do not have all the modification options and you have to combine them back together.
• There is a lag time when hitting the print option.
• There is also a lag time when opening files, sometimes I think the window is frozen.
• I wish the basic version also had basic file editing, as in editing a document as Adobe does.

Incentivized

• Estimating is still done on third party software and pulled into the program. If you do manual takeoffs and work on a spreadsheet, this is relatively simple to do - and you could probably enter it straight into Co-Construct. However, if you use automatic takeoffs for accuracy and speed, you will end up doing a bit of double handling as you re-enter the output into Co-Construct. Ideally, you would be able to do the takeoffs within the program, entering the data only once.

Incentivized

Bluebeam is a powerful PDF viewer and mark-up tool. We are more familiar with it than Adobe Acrobat Pro or other viewers, and it has more features geared towards construction document managers than Acrobat Pro does.

Incentivized

I'm constantly finding that Bluebeam Revu does more than I knew it could. And when I find something that it can't do, I've found that Bluebeam truly listens to its user base and will work to incorporate any good suggestion when feasible.

Incentivized

Its hard for me to give a rating on this one as we rarely have to use the support feature for Bluebeam. However, when we have used it, they have been ultra supportive in helping us get exactly what we needed. I know another engineer was trying to figure out a feature and the rep gave a detailed tutorial on how to complete the task

Incentivized

• The customer support for CoConstruct is hands down the best I have ever experienced from a software company. Any time I send a support request through the help center, my questions are either acknowledged or answered and solved within 20-30 minutes. For more complicated items, they will keep in touch with me as the team works through the problem.
• I often offer enhancement requests which they take seriously, and over the years, some of the changes that I have wanted to see have been implemented.
• Excellent customer service!

Incentivized

Bluebeam is a diverse program with many functions and tools, whereas competitive programs only specialize in one or few tasks. Although there are many tools within the program, users can still quickly learn how to use the program to best fit their needs. There is always a help tab for any assistance needed.

Incentivized

CoConstruct has a lot of similar functionality as comopared to Buildertrend and when it came down to selecting one over the other, CoConstruct won our business because of this fact. The fact that it does almost all of the same things at a fraction of the cost of Buildertrend was ultimately the reason why we selected CoConstruct for our business needs.

Incentivized

• A major positive aspect is being able to take your computer home without taking the entire set of paper drawings. They have made it so easy to navigate a set of drawings that I can work at home using only the digital drawings.
• Collaboration with owners and architects has been a great feature. Setting up a Bluebeam studio and having everyone get in and mark things up, then having the architect be able to go in and see what markups have been added, has made the constructability review process much much better.
• Even when not working on drawings, Bluebeam is a very good tool for working with standard PDF documents. The markup tools are very easy to use.
• The negative aspect is the takeoff function because some people would like estimators to use the Bluebeam takeoff because it would make their job easier down the road; however, the actual act of doing a full scale takeoff in Bluebeam would require much more time.

Incentivized

• CoConstruct has reduced our time spent estimating.
• CoConstruct has increased profitability by capturing communication details and preventing important items from being overlooked.
• CoConstruct has led to more referrals, as customers are pleased with the software and the way it helps them stay informed about their project.

Incentivized