GUIDES
Working with
drawings.
Practical notes on reviewing, measuring and taking off PDF construction drawings. The method, and where the traps are.
Measure a PDF onlineA free tool: open your own drawing, set its scale from one known dimension and measure lengths, areas and counts, with nothing to sign up for.Redline PDF, at a glance.Redline PDF is a browser-based PDF drawing review, markup and takeoff workspace for individual architects, engineers and reviewers.PDF markup software for drawing review.A practical guide to choosing a PDF markup workspace when the drawing itself, the measurements and the review conversation all need to stay together.How to redline a PDF drawing.To redline a construction PDF, mark the exact location, write the change or question, track its status, and issue a checked review set. Redline PDF keeps these notes attached to the drawing in a browser workspace.Drawing review for one person.Most drawing-review software is sold per seat, per year, to firms. If you are one architect or engineer doing the work yourself, here is what changes.Measuring and marking up drawings on a Mac.The most common question from Mac-based architects: the four routes, and what each one costs.Measuring area on a PDF.Getting a square-metre or square-foot figure off a PDF plan, in a way you can defend later.Measuring and marking up drawings on an iPad.The tablet is the natural place to review a drawing — on site, in a meeting, on the train. Here is what works.Deleting things from a PDF drawing.A superseded revision cloud, a wrong note, a consultant’s old markup.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.Quantity takeoff from a PDF drawing.A PDF takeoff turns a drawing into lengths, areas, volumes and counts. In Redline PDF, calibrate each page, mark each quantity, deduct openings, then review the totals and rates before exporting.Calibrating a PDF drawing.Measurements are only as good as the calibration behind them. This takes a minute per sheet and saves an argument later.Redline against Bluebeam Revu.Revu is the established tool for construction PDFs, and for firms running coordinated sessions across a project team it earns its place. Redline is built for the architect or engineer who needs the review and takeoff part, in a browser, at a smaller price. This is where each one fits.Redline and Adobe Acrobat.Acrobat is the general PDF tool most offices already have, and for documents, forms and signatures it is the standard. For drawings at a scale, the question is whether a general tool does the particular job of review and takeoff.Bluebeam for Mac, what works in 2026.Revu for Mac is gone, but Bluebeam has not left Mac users with nothing. This is what Bluebeam itself says works on a Mac today, what still needs Windows, and where Redline fits.Four Bluebeam alternatives.People look for an alternative to Revu for different reasons: the price per seat, working on a Mac, or simply needing less of it. These are four tools worth weighing. We make one of them, so everything said about the other three comes from their own pages.Revu 20 end of life, 31 December 2026.Revu 20 has been out of support since 31 July 2026, and on 31 December 2026 it loses Studio. A perpetual licence keeps running on the computer it is installed on. These are Bluebeam’s dates and terms, what they change for a practice, and how markups and takeoffs move to Redline.Revu for iPad is gone.Bluebeam took Revu for iPad off the App Store at the end of 2025. This is what Bluebeam says replaced it, how the replacement is rated, and how Redline calibrates, measures and marks up drawings in Safari on an iPad, with an Apple Pencil or a finger.