I finally switched from paper takeoff sheets to doing it all on a tablet

Used to print out every single set of plans and mark them up with highlighters and red pens. Last month on a 40,000 square foot retail build in Columbus, I tried using a tablet with a stylus and a markup app. It took me a couple days to get the hang of it, but now I can pull up details without shuffling through 20 pages. Has anyone else made the switch and found a good app that handles big commercial sets without crashing?

2 comments

2 Comments

leep8928d ago

The app situation is CRITICAL on big commercial sets. I found out the hard way when a 60 page MEP set crashed my tablet halfway through a takeoff and I lost an hour of markups. Bluebeam Revu has been the only one that handles massive PDFs without choking for me. Their studio sessions are a GODSEND when you need to overlay markups from the structural engineer and the MEP guy without printing layers. Just have to turn off all the auto-sync features or it'll eat your battery by lunch.

cameron_webb28d agoMost Upvoted

Dude I feel you, I had a 40 page set freeze so bad I had to reboot and lost my coffee break mood along with the markups. Bluebeam's the only thing that doesn't make me want to throw my tablet off a scissor lift.