Bluebeam vs. Soda PDF

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

The ease of use of My Soda PDF makes it the go-to software for anything PDF-related. I love all the features - converting documents to PDF, PDF to MSWord, or other types of Microsoft Office files. Forms creation keeps documents professional looking instead of having them handwritten. We use SODA to upload forms sent to us, then fill in via the PDF filler. I love how easy SODA is to use via Mac/PC, tablets, and phones. Now that the work environment has changed, remote staff at home or on the road—we can access SODA to ensure our work continues seamlessly. PDFs created can be saved to the Cloud, Desktop, or even e-mailed.

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

• OCR comes in handy when you need to scan a document image for embedded text for edits. This feature is a common tool but the accuracy of OCR helps for quick edits.
• Conversion options are a plus and a must-have when you need to convert between Microsoft Office and PDF.
• During the pandemic, the ability to offer digital signing with personalized signatures is a major plus. Glad to have this tool available when needed.

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

• After the edit when I see my documents in full screen view, I find the header of my documents blocked by editing tools.
• Its Url to PDF creator doesn't work well.
• It does not have mobile application for PDF editing

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

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

I tried Smallpdf for sometime. It is also a very good tool for pdf related tasks but it doesn't provide a comprehensive functionality to edit a pdf document. I couldn't modify the text of my pdf documents in Smallpdf. But SodaPDF gives me the functionality to edit/change the text of my pdf documents. So I shifted from Smallpdf to this software.

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

• It saves our printing cost for signing documents. We sign our documents electronically.
• It creates a very good impact on our clients when we send them documents in PDF formats. All the documents in PDF formats look neat and clean.
• Password protection of our confidential documents is our necessity and this software is able to achieve it.

Incentivized