From paper to digital
Vinic Surveying Services has used Bluebeam for ten years. Previously, estimates were done manually, using printed plans and measuring by hand. As jobs became more complex, Vince shifted to a digital solution.
As well as speeding things up and improving accuracy, this significantly reduced print costs and paper usage.
“We started looking at digital measuring packages as we were getting fed up with measuring by hand, and there had to be a better way of doing things,” he explained.
“After trying a couple of others, I came across Bluebeam. We picked it up quickly, and it was great.
“Previously, when we were measuring groundworks, many site layouts were over three or four drawings, maybe more. And if we wanted to create a master layout, we’d have to print separate drawings and literally cut them and stick them together.
“If revisions to the drawings came in, even with some other software programmes, we would then have to start again from scratch.”
Bluebeam for collaboration
“If you’re working with the same tools, you have consistency. If someone isn’t in the office and another person picks up their drawing, they can instantly see what has been done.”
Vince French,
Owner,
Vinic Surveying
Vince finds the ability to share information digitally with his clients invaluable. It enables transparency and collaboration, in addition to speed and cost savings.
For those working in teams, individuals can work together to share profiles and tools.
“If you’re working with the same tools, you have consistency,” explains Vince. “If someone isn’t in the office and another person picks up their drawing, they can instantly see what has been done.”
An example of this is the Gateway Project for Vistry Homes, a site featuring blocks of flats, a community centre, and sports pavilion, as well as 750 homes. Vince worked with specialist groundworks and civil engineering firm Foxdown Construction and on site, both teams used Bluebeam to collaborate.
“I work from home, Foxdown works from their office, and we have a team onsite. We all use Bluebeam. We can all markup the same drawing at the same time and work effectively,” says Vince.
Dave Hiscock, Foxdown’s managing director explains how Bluebeam has helped them improve efficiency:
“Bluebeam enables us to work with external consultants who also understand the same tool chests and use the same process. It streamlines our business.
“Whether we are measuring things internally or pumping that across the construction department of the company that we’re working with, we get that same consistency again across the whole of the business.”
95% time saving with Bluebeam
Working with Bluebeam saves Vinic Surveying a substantial amount of time. By automating manual processes, Vince has transformed his business.
“On one project, I was looking at 60 bending schedules to calculate the reinforcement required for foundations,” says Vince. “Before switching to Bluebeam, I would have used a spreadsheet and manually entered each line. With thousands of lines of data, this would have taken a day and a half. But with Bluebeam, I can combine all those documents, export directly to Excel and have all the information I need in about 15 minutes. This is more than a 95% time saving on the manual way.”
Projects typically involve multiple revisions and with Bluebeam, these are quickly and easily managed. Vince adds: “I can copy the markups from the old version, put them onto the new and then just adapt where needed – it saves so much time.
“With big site layouts, managing revisions by comparing printed drawings and trying to see the changes was previously very difficult. With Bluebeam, it’s very quick and easy as you can digitally overlay the new version.
“A revision job that previously took an hour, where there was a risk of potentially not picking up every change, now takes a couple of minutes.
“And with Bluebeam’s AI feature this can be reduced to just 15 seconds.”
For companies like Foxdown, using Bluebeam helps them save both time and money. Dave explains, “As a conservative estimate, we are potentially three to four times faster in producing a tender for a client than what we would have previously been using hand-drawn methods.
“Time is money, and we work in an industry where margins are tight. The more efficient that we can be, the better.”
Having gained detailed knowledge and skills in using Bluebeam to work with subcontractors like Foxdown, Vince now offers bespoke training courses to enable others to benefit from his expertise.
Edd Randell, quantity surveyor and technical manager at Foxdown, added:
“We’ve had in-depth training from Vince and that’s given us the confidence to use Bluebeam to its full potential. It has everything that I need, it’s really efficient to use and it’s easy to make changes and correct any issues or mistakes.”
“When you’re small, it’s important to have something that is easy to use and can help you to achieve consistency across the project. Bluebeam helps with that. Time is money, and we work in an industry where margins are tight. The more efficient that we can be, the better.”
Dave Hiscock,
Managing Director,
Foxdown
A custom workflow: Combining Bluebeam with Excel
Vinic wanted to find a software programme that would cope with all the details on the drawings and provide customised outputs quickly and easily.
“Bluebeam isn’t just a measuring package. The level of detail and information you can load into the custom tools is very useful,” Vince explained.
“With other packages, you can just mark-up and measure – but if you want to put the information back into Excel, you have to do that by hand,” he adds. “With Bluebeam, you can create tools that will extract and categorise the different types of data, and then when you export it to a CSV file and import it into Excel, it’s all already completed.”
Vince’s workflow combines Bluebeam and Excel, offering greater time savings and flexibility while avoiding manual data entry.
“My combined workflow includes custom columns in Excel with pre-populated information. . The manual entry involved in the process is kept to an absolute minimum, often meaning there is no copying data across.
“If I get a revision in, for example, if the brick type is changed, I change it in Bluebeam, export the CSV, hit refresh in Excel and all my measurements have changed across the whole site. Previously, this might have taken an hour, now it’s just a few minutes.”
And with Bluebeam, subcontractors can gain a level of trust in the information. “Bluebeam gives us a tremendous amount of confidence,” says Dave.
“As it’s a very visual program, you can see exactly what is measured and what’s been allowed. It’s very easy to switch the layers on and off, and it’s far more user friendly than other traditional software packages.”
Stitching plans together
On another recent project, Vinic worked on a large housing estate with 300 houses. There were 21 A1 drawings for the site layout and drainage.
“Using single drawings can be very time-consuming, so using Bluebeam, I can ‘stitch’ them together to create one master drawing. This means things don’t get missed.
“Completing the estimations is 3-4 times faster now. For a typical house type, I can now measure the brickwork and scaffolding and produce payment breakdowns, all in 15 minutes, with the workflow I have. Before, it would have taken an hour or more.”
A suite of tools for automation and accuracy
Custom columns allow Vince to collect and manipulate information, automating previously manual processes.
“When I measure a house for the brickwork in Bluebeam, I measure the elevations and the cut-outs for the windows. With the area measurements for the windows, I can then calculate the lintels I need and their correct lengths. It automatically starts to create a little schedule for me. All of this is calculated from pasting a markup which takes one click.”
Vince has also created custom profiles for measuring different subcontractor works and includes standard sizes for construction projects.
“When measuring groundworks, for example, I use several profiles. One for measuring foundations, one for drainage, one for retaining walls, and another for external work. You need to capture different information. The feature enables you to create and use profiles to work with the information you want.
“Sometimes drawings come in, but the foundations haven’t been drawn to the standard sizes for a digger bucket. With Bluebeam, I can quickly automatically make the relevant adjustments, as we will need to price the job for the standard sizes.”
Vince provides further value to his customers by carrying out basic clash detection using Bluebeam by overlaying multiple drawings.
“For example, in some jobs I might have a drainage layout, an external works layout, and a retaining wall layout – from different engineers and drawn to different scales and rotations. I can take all three drawings, overlay them and see where the clashes are.”
Building competitive advantage
Reflecting on the wider benefits of using Bluebeam, Vince explains that the software provides advantages in a competitive market while offering assurance in accuracy.
“Timescales to return tenders are very tight these days, so speeding up the process means we can respond much faster,” says Vince.
“Moreover, the level of detail and accuracy we have with Bluebeam gives us much more confidence in what we’re producing.
“We’re not relying on a generic rate to cover something like a sewer run for example. Instead, we are pricing the exact pipe, backfill, fittings, etc. We have more accuracy in our estimates, and with our workflow, the costs are calculated automatically.
“When estimating for brickwork for a house, some competitors will measure an elevation and not remove the windows, as they don’t have time. But it means the final price isn’t accurate. But with Bluebeam, because the process is so quick and all the tools are built in, there’s no need to guess.
“If we need to go tighter on a job, we know what our costs are going to be. We are confident in the information and the measurements. Bluebeam gives us that higher level of assurance.”
Vince advises other smaller companies to look at Bluebeam, to get a free trial, jump in and try it.
“You can save the value of a licence on a single job. For some jobs, I’ve reduced the time spent from a day and a half to just 15 minutes,” says Vince.
