CloudsCarsCameras: Using Bluebeam Revu to assist in upgrading a Revit Project

Saw this post on CloudsCarsCameras.com that I thought I would share with you. Great idea.

Posted on July 7, 2013

Using Bluebeam Revu to assist in upgrading a Revit Project

With a new release of Revit every year, it makes it increasingly difficult not upgrade an active Revit project.  What makes it even more difficult is the uncertainty when Revit upgrades your project.  Are all my objects there?  Is everything in the right place?  In this post and video we are going to go thought the steps to upgrade your Revit project from 2013 to 2014. Then we will use Bluebeam’s Revu to help us find any items that may have changed or gone missing after the upgrade process.


If you want more information regarding Bluebeam please drop me a note at bill@bim9.com

Here are the steps I use in the video:

Step 1  Backup

You should always create a backup of your or your companies work when ever you make a change that will impact the entire project, this would be one of those times.  Here are some ways that you can backup your project:

• Copy to local workstation
• Copy to USB drive
• Rely on your I.T. department to have a backup.
• Use a service like CrashPlan or Dropbox to copy your project files off site.
• You only need to archive/backup the .RVT files and its links.

Step 2  Check your Project

You should always check each central file before the upgrade process. It is always a good idea to know what errors are in the file before you begin the upgrade process.

1. Open each .RVT file and check for errors.
2. Document what files are linked to where.
3. Use Bluebeam to create a PDF of each sheet and view in your project.

Step 3  Copy the Project to a new folder

You may or may not want to have a new folder for you project, but I find that its a good idea to do so.  you don’t need to make an entirely new project folder just a new folder to store your central files.

1. Create a new folder.
2. Copy the RVT central files to that folder.
3. Rename the central files if necessary to have the version number in the name.

Step 4:  Upgrade Project

1. You will want to start with the files with the least amount of links.
2. Here is the order for my example project:
   MEP
   Structural
   Architectural
   Site
3. Use Bluebeam to Create a PDF of each sheet and view in your project.

Step 5   Check your work with Bluebeam

Now for the fun part; we will use Bluebeam Revu to compare both PDF files created in the earlier steps.

1. Use Bluebeam Revu to compare the 2013 and the 2014 project files.
2. When you select the 2013 PDF you will see all the changes in the Markup List.
3. Double click the markup to see both the 2013 and 2014 versions.
4. Using Bluebeam Revu you can quickly find all the differences.

If you want more information regarding Bluebeam please drop me a note at bill@bim9.com