Big Sur / Bluebeam Revu for Mac

[BrisbaneLee]

you are correct , I have uninstalled V2 and installed V1.93 and all loads and runs fine .... both my V1 and V2 serials do not work so hopefully an email to release serials and just maybe ill be up and working in some form ?

update
2nd Dec 2020 - Got license released and downgraded to V1 license so all good for now ....

 

[andyrhicks]

I have managed to get working with the old version (1.9) as well. I have also successfully registered my one licence as it was released when I did a clean install. Just need to get the second one released now with going through that pain!

 

[almeallin]

By chance did you try installing 2.0? I wonder if it would work doing a clean install of 2.0 after the Big Sur upgrade.

I tried with no luck. Anyone else get anywhere?

 

[BayouTiger]

Bluebeam is my favorite Love/Hate app. There is just nothing to replace it easily, but the user interface is maddening, performance is spotty, licensing is draconian, and of course they dropped Mac support. I call BS on them not having resources to port an AS version over. Really doesn’t hold water since they do have an iPad version that actually, though feature poor, does perform quite well.

As to running the Win version under Parallels, I have run it just fine under Fusion, though that is on my 16” i9. I do find that many VM users just don’t give their VM’s enough resources to run at their best. I give mine 7 cores (physical - 1) and at least 8 GB. Many will say that this makes the Mac slow, but the VM does not suck up the resources unless they are needed and the Mac side still runs just fine. But then this is using Fusion, I ditched Parallels years ago as Fusion was just more solid and handled I/O better (no I do not play games).

 

[jstoyanov]

I have the same exact issue / frustration and contacted Bluebeam as well. I did just try one of the other commenters suggestion of using v1.9 and it works. Really strange to me but at least a work around. It also still shows as registered.

 

[coach_ditka]

Wow, these are great developments!! Thank you for sharing!

@BayouTiger I feel the same way!

 

[andyrhicks]

Just following up on this. Although I have managed to get version 1.9 working I haven't actually been able to register as it doesn't seem to recognise my licence details even after I asked them to release my licence from Revu 2 that no longer works. I will contact them again to see if there is a way around this so I can at least get a full version of 1.9

 

[coach_ditka]

Just following up on this. Although I have managed to get version 1.9 working I haven't actually been able to register as it doesn't seem to recognise my licence details even after I asked them to release my licence from Revu 2 that no longer works. I will contact them again to see if there is a way around this so I can at least get a full version of 1.9

Thanks for the update. Hopefully you can let us know what they say.

 

[andyrhicks]

I am now up and running with two registered versions of 1.9. They had to reissue the licences but did this fairly quickly

 

[coach_ditka]

I am now up and running with two registered versions of 1.9. They had to reissue the licences but did this fairly quickly

Excellent - that is great to hear! I am going to wait out for the next update of Big Sur, and if still not compatible I will request the downgrade as well.

 

[SnoShark]

Bluebeam is my favorite Love/Hate app. There is just nothing to replace it easily, but the user interface is maddening, performance is spotty, licensing is draconian, and of course they dropped Mac support. I call BS on them not having resources to port an AS version over. Really doesn’t hold water since they do have an iPad version that actually, though feature poor, does perform quite well.

As to running the Win version under Parallels, I have run it just fine under Fusion, though that is on my 16” i9. I do find that many VM users just don’t give their VM’s enough resources to run at their best. I give mine 7 cores (physical - 1) and at least 8 GB. Many will say that this makes the Mac slow, but the VM does not suck up the resources unless they are needed and the Mac side still runs just fine. But then this is using Fusion, I ditched Parallels years ago as Fusion was just more solid and handled I/O better (no I do not play games).

I've been in construction for 30 years including ammonia and the digitizers. Blueballs is the epitome of love/hate app for me. You nailed it. Can't replace it, but that interface and don't get me started on performance.

Always had iPads and iPhones but was a windows user until two weeks ago when I received my first MBP, 16 and wishing I would've done so years ago. Bluebeam is the only tie I have left to windows and desperately trying to cut that cord. I'm running BB 2019 on Parallels and finding it usable. I've had the best performance with 2019 compared to previous versions, but it's still not silky. I've just been searching for that replacement for a few years and harder now that I want to eliminate windows and a VM. I emailed Bluebeam too. I would settle for an online version if it's the same as their desktop version.

 

[coach_ditka]

Well, I upgraded to Big Sur 11.1 on my older Macbook Pro and.....same problem!!

 

[coach_ditka]

Confirmed that 11.2 does not fix the issue.

Can anyone summarize what features are lost if I downgrade to 1.9?

 

[SnoShark]

I've been in construction for 30 years including ammonia and the digitizers. Blueballs is the epitome of love/hate app for me. You nailed it. Can't replace it, but that interface and don't get me started on performance.

Always had iPads and iPhones but was a windows user until two weeks ago when I received my first MBP, 16 and wishing I would've done so years ago. Bluebeam is the only tie I have left to windows and desperately trying to cut that cord. I'm running BB 2019 on Parallels and finding it usable. I've had the best performance with 2019 compared to previous versions, but it's still not silky. I've just been searching for that replacement for a few years and harder now that I want to eliminate windows and a VM. I emailed Bluebeam too. I would settle for an online version if it's the same as their desktop version.

I’m still learning Parallels but believe I had a desktop version running alongside the app version at times? That “?” isn’t a mistake. I had two different parallels icons running at times and deleted what I thought was app version. Reminder this is my first Mac. Since doing that, BB crashes way less than it did before, and I’m back to tolerating it. I’m doing takeoffs bs researching alternative software.

I also changed parallels settings and increased from 4 to 8mb, I believe. I basically went to ~75% for both settings. I wanted to give BB the whole 9 yards since everyone else is helping them, but decided against that. It hasn’t effected Mac side at all, and definitely sped BB rendering up. I can have 3 files open at same time on different monitors, and create page labels on 200+ pg doc loaded with layers and takeoffs without crashing! This may not help you if owning Mac BB license, but my guess is VM or Parallels may be the next BB crutch until 20 years from now when their online version works and I’m speaking about these days during my self thrown retirement party.

BB speed on parallels isn’t on par with PDF expert or preview, but it’s doable now for takeoffs on heavy PDFs.

I’ll regret this post tomorrow at login.

 

[bartabum]

Man, I appreciate reading everyone who is in the same boat with losing Bluebeam for Mac. It was such a great app with a lot of promise and the way Bluebeam abandoned it without even releasing a web version after hinting at it is beyond frustrating. The architecture firm I work for has been evaluating different options while avoiding upgrading to Big Sur for as long as possible. Interesting that Bluebeam 1.9 works on Big Sur, but I do not want to pursue that as a long-term solution.

I tried installing the Windows version of Bluebeam with CrossOver on my Mac, but I could not get that to work. I am curious if anyone else has tried that. I do not want to pursue Bluebeam in Parallels/VMWare/VirtualBox as a solution because of the cost and also security risks of Windows.

PDF Expert has a nice interface and is easy to use, but the features are way too limited, and there is no collaboration function like Studio for Bluebeam. Same with Preview. Acrobat is horrendous for marking up CAD drawings.

The best alternative we have found so far is Drawboard.com, though that is also quite expensive and does not have a complete match of all the Bluebeam features, however, it does do collaboration pretty well across Mac, Windows, and iOS. One other annoying thing is that Drawboard is browser-based instead of being app-based.

One final thought: has anyone tried running the Bluebeam for iPad app on an M1 Mac since the Apple Silicon Macs should have native support for iOS apps? In theory this would also make it super straightforward to port the iOS Bluebeam app to a native Mac app. However, I am not sure what features Bluebeam for iOS is missing compared to the desktop version.

Thank you for reading and I hope someone out there has found a solution since Bluebeam is giving us Mac users the cold shoulder. ='(

 

[AVGrump]

Man, I appreciate reading everyone who is in the same boat with losing Bluebeam for Mac. It was such a great app with a lot of promise and the way Bluebeam abandoned it without even releasing a web version after hinting at it is beyond frustrating. The architecture firm I work for has been evaluating different options while avoiding upgrading to Big Sur for as long as possible. Interesting that Bluebeam 1.9 works on Big Sur, but I do not want to pursue that as a long-term solution.

I tried installing the Windows version of Bluebeam with CrossOver on my Mac, but I could not get that to work. I am curious if anyone else has tried that. I do not want to pursue Bluebeam in Parallels/VMWare/VirtualBox as a solution because of the cost and also security risks of Windows.

PDF Expert has a nice interface and is easy to use, but the features are way too limited, and there is no collaboration function like Studio for Bluebeam. Same with Preview. Acrobat is horrendous for marking up CAD drawings.

The best alternative we have found so far is Drawboard.com, though that is also quite expensive and does not have a complete match of all the Bluebeam features, however, it does do collaboration pretty well across Mac, Windows, and iOS. One other annoying thing is that Drawboard is browser-based instead of being app-based.

One final thought: has anyone tried running the Bluebeam for iPad app on an M1 Mac since the Apple Silicon Macs should have native support for iOS apps? In theory this would also make it super straightforward to port the iOS Bluebeam app to a native Mac app. However, I am not sure what features Bluebeam for iOS is missing compared to the desktop version.

Thank you for reading and I hope someone out there has found a solution since Bluebeam is giving us Mac users the cold shoulder. ='(

So, I hate to be the harbinger of doom here... but, in order to even try running the iPad version of Bluebeam on my new M1 MBP, I'd have to re-purchase it. Most iPad apps purchased with the same Apple ID appear available for download to my MBP, but not Bluebeam.

If I can't find a workaround soon, I may be tempting to sink $10 into testing this.

I'm in a similar position to you folks here. I could live with another platform for punch list and markups online, but unless there's a robust platform out there with an offline mode, I don't think I'll be able to work efficiently without a full-featured app like Revu for daily use.

 

[kendot240]

So, I hate to be the harbinger of doom here... but, in order to even try running the iPad version of Bluebeam on my new M1 MBP, I'd have to re-purchase it. Most iPad apps purchased with the same Apple ID appear available for download to my MBP, but not Bluebeam.

If I can't find a workaround soon, I may be tempting to sink $10 into testing this.

I'm in a similar position to you folks here. I could live with another platform for punch list and markups online, but unless there's a robust platform out there with an offline mode, I don't think I'll be able to work efficiently without a full-featured app like Revu for daily use.

Experiencing the same issues as everyone here. My 2013 MacBook pro is very near the end of its life but I've been holding off on ordering a new one hoping that a solution will come regarding bluebeam. Is it possible to run the iPad version of bluebeam on the new macbook? Or, can someone confirm that it is possible to run revu 1.9 on the new macs?

 

[bartabum]

Can everyone go like and retweet my tweet, trying to get some traction with Bluebeam:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1374476346403950593

 

[Airch]

Hi folks! New here! So I have spoken to Bluebeam about this topic in depth and basically, every time they’d get the software right, Apple would make changes to the OS and put them back at square one (ish). Long story short, it just wasn’t worth them trying to keep it going for such a small audience. Now what I haven’t read in this thread is who actually did the easy solution and run this through boot camp? And of those people who did what was the result?

 

[coach_ditka]

Hi folks! New here! So I have spoken to Bluebeam about this topic in depth and basically, every time they’d get the software right, Apple would make changes to the OS and put them back at square one (ish). Long story short, it just wasn’t worth them trying to keep it going for such a small audience. Now what I haven’t read in this thread is who actually did the easy solution and run this through boot camp? And of those people who did what was the result?

Nope, still running Revu 2.1 on Catalina. I guess I need to install 1.9, make sure it works, then request the license downgrade. I have a 2020 MBP with Intel chip, so I don't have any concern over the M1. Hopefully that's an issue for another year.

 

[Airch]

Nope, still running Revu 2.1 on Catalina. I guess I need to install 1.9, make sure it works, then request the license downgrade. I have a 2020 MBP with Intel chip, so I don't have any concern over the M1. Hopefully that's an issue for another year.

Ah that’s disappointing! I really wish someone had tried it in boot camp

 

[SergeT]

Hi folks, I am running newest Bluebeam in Bootcamp, its runs just fine - the downside is you have to reboot your mac and run it as a windows machine all the time - so i ended up using "bootcamp mode" as a working session and "mac mode" for everything else - music, leisure etc

 

[Airch]

Hi folks, I am running newest Bluebeam in Bootcamp, its runs just fine - the downside is you have to reboot your mac and run it as a windows machine all the time - so i ended up using "bootcamp mode" as a working session and "mac mode" for everything else - music, leisure etc

Thank you for letting everyone know they can still use it just fine. I figured that was the case but really wanted to hear someone’s experience

 

[BayouTiger]

Hi folks! New here! So I have spoken to Bluebeam about this topic in depth and basically, every time they’d get the software right, Apple would make changes to the OS and put them back at square one (ish). Long story short, it just wasn’t worth them trying to keep it going for such a small audience. Now what I haven’t read in this thread is who actually did the easy solution and run this through boot camp? And of those people who did what was the result?

I don't doubt they told you that, but I think it's a crock. Not that it's untrue, but that it's a poor excuse. Bluebeam seems to have gone out of their way to create a user interface that is like no other app, so I put it on them as I would bet that they are taking all kinds of workarounds rather than sticking to standard APIs and standards.

 

[Airch]

I don't doubt they told you that, but I think it's a crock. Not that it's untrue, but that it's a poor excuse. Bluebeam seems to have gone out of their way to create a user interface that is like no other app, so I put it on them as I would bet that they are taking all kinds of workarounds rather than sticking to standard APIs and standards.

Probably truth. But frankly, 90%+ of the crowd for bluebeam are windows users. I’m only one of two people I know tied into design/construction who even thinks of using a Mac.