GUIDE
Deleting things
from a PDF drawing.
A superseded revision cloud, a wrong note, a consultant’s old markup. Removing it depends on what it actually is — and PDFs hold two very different kinds of thing.
How do you delete text or a revision cloud from a PDF drawing?
It depends what the thing is. If it is an annotation — a markup someone added in a PDF tool — import it, select it and delete it, and it is gone from the exported file. If it is page content printed from CAD or flattened into the sheet, it cannot be selected; use Erase content, which clips the page's own content so the area is genuinely absent in every viewer.
The quick test: if clicking it in a PDF tool shows a properties box, it is an annotation. If clicking does nothing, it is page content. Erasing is not certified redaction.
Is it an annotation, or is it the page?
Everything you see on a PDF drawing is one of two things:
- Annotations — markups added on top by a reviewer in another PDF markup tool: clouds, comments, stamps, boxes. They sit in a layer of their own and can be selected individually.
- Page content — the drawing itself, printed from CAD: walls, text, dimensions, title block. Also anything that was "flattened", which permanently merges a markup into the page.
The quickest test: if another tool lets you click it and see a properties box, it is an annotation. If clicking does nothing, it is page content.
Deleting annotations
Open the drawing in Redline and it offers to import the annotations the PDF already carries. They become ordinary markups: select one, check who wrote it and when, and delete it — or restyle it, reply to it, or change its status. Export afterwards and the deleted ones are gone from the file. This is the right route for a superseded revision cloud someone added as a markup. The rest of the review, from status to replies, is in the drawing review workflow.
Erasing page content
When the thing is part of the drawing — a flattened cloud, an obsolete note printed from CAD, a line that should not be there — use Erase content. Drag a box over it, or click a single word to erase exactly that word. On export, the page's own content is clipped so the erased area is genuinely absent in every viewer, at any zoom, while your markups drawn over it stay intact. Redline records the words removed alongside the erase, so the change is auditable. Erase content is a Pro tool; the plans are compared here.
Erasing is not redaction
Worth being precise: erasing hides content in every viewer, but the underlying bytes remain in the file, so a forensic tool could still recover text from it. That is fine for tidying a drawing. It is not sufficient for removing confidential information before sending a file outside your organisation — that needs certified redaction, which is a different operation.
Hiding a whole layer instead
If the CAD export put revision clouds on their own PDF layer — often named REV, CLOUDS or A-ANNO-REVC — you can switch that layer off and it disappears from the view and from the export. Layers can be hidden rather than deleted; that is a property of PDF, not of any one tool.
Open the demo and try it on the sample drawing — no account needed.
Can you delete text that is part of the drawing itself?
Yes, with Erase content: drag a box over it, or click a single word to take exactly that word. On export the page's own content is clipped, so the erased area is absent in every viewer at any zoom, while markups drawn over it stay. Redline PDF records the words removed alongside the erase, so the change can be audited.
Is erasing content from a PDF the same as redaction?
No, and the difference matters. Erasing removes the content from what the page draws. Certified redaction is a controlled process with its own standards and evidence, which Redline PDF does not provide. Do not use erasing to remove confidential information from a document that will be released.
How do I remove someone else's revision cloud?
If they added it as an annotation, import the PDF's annotations, select the cloud and delete it; export and it is gone. If it was flattened into the page before it reached you, it is page content, and Erase content is the route. A cloud on a scanned sheet is pixels, so erasing is the only option there.
Next guide
Try it on the sample drawing
Redline runs in the browser — nothing to install. Open the demo to try tools on a sample drawing. Demo edits are temporary; your own files, saving, signatures, exporting, printing and downloads come with an account, which starts with 30 days of Pro, no card. Then Free unless you choose Plus or Pro; your drawings stay. Plus is $9 a month or $90 a year; Pro is $15 a month or $150 a year. Compare the plans.
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