A free Bluebeam Revu alternative for PDF takeoff
pdf2takeoff is a free, open-source alternative to Bluebeam Revu for PDF takeoff: it measures, counts, compares revisions and exports quantities in your browser, and saves markups as standard PDF annotations that open in Bluebeam Revu and Adobe Acrobat. It is not a full PDF editor, and this page sets out plainly what it does and does not do.
How to take off in pdf2takeoff and open it in Revu
- Open the drawing. Open the PDF in pdf2takeoff in any modern browser. Nothing is installed and nothing is uploaded.
- Set the scale and take off. Calibrate from a dimension, a preset or the title block, then measure lengths, areas, perimeters and volumes, count items, or Scan to count a repeated symbol.
- Save into the PDF. Choose Export, then Save into the PDF. Markups are written as standard Line, PolyLine, Polygon and FreeText annotations with each measurement in the comment.
- Open it in Revu or Acrobat. The file opens in Bluebeam Revu and Adobe Acrobat with the markups as normal annotations. Reopen it in pdf2takeoff and the takeoff comes back.
What does pdf2takeoff cover?
- Measure: length, area, perimeter, volume, angle and count, metric or imperial, with a scale per page and viewports for details drawn at another scale.
- Magic Fill: click inside a room to read its area off the walls.
- Auto-count: click one symbol and Scan counts every match on the page in about 100 ms, with doubtful hits flagged for you to check.
- Scale you can check: presets, a known dimension or OCR auto-read of the title block, and a chip that flags a scale that disagrees with the sheet.
- Organise: a markups list with labels, statuses and layers, saved tool presets, and formula columns for waste and rates.
- Export: Excel (.xlsx), CSV, a printable quantity report, and markups saved into the PDF.
- Revision compare: overlay two revisions, with removed linework in red and added linework in blue.
- Files: PDFs including scans, images and phone photos, and DXF files from CAD.
- AI agents: a command line tool and an MCP server built on the same engine.
What does it not do?
pdf2takeoff is a takeoff tool, not a full PDF editor. Our public feature comparison with Bluebeam Revu tracks 54 capabilities: 41 are shipped, 2 are planned and 11 are deliberately not built.
- Planned: combining, splitting, rotating and extracting PDF pages.
- Not planned: a Windows desktop app, CAD plugins, document-management integrations, cloud project hosting, a mobile app (the browser app serves tablets), 3D PDF and IFC viewing, digital signatures and seals, creating PDFs from Office or CAD, bookmarks, headers and footers, and cloud AI drawing review.
- Limited: live sessions share a takeoff between tabs and windows on the same computer only; working together across machines is the next phase.
If your team depends on those, keep Revu for that work. pdf2takeoff can still sit beside it: do the takeoff here, save into the PDF, and open the markups in Revu.
How do price, platform and privacy compare?
Bluebeam Revu is sold as a paid per-seat licence. pdf2takeoff is free for everyone: no account, no paid tier and no file limits, and the Apache-2.0 licence lets you run it yourself, host it internally or build on it. Revu's full desktop app is made for Windows; pdf2takeoff runs in any modern browser on Windows, macOS or Linux, with nothing to install. Drawings are processed on your own computer and never uploaded, which suits confidential tenders.
FAQ
Is pdf2takeoff really free?
Yes. There is no account, no paid tier and no file limit. It is open source under Apache-2.0, built and maintained by Flowtivity.
Can Bluebeam Revu open pdf2takeoff markups?
Yes. Save into the PDF and the markups are written as standard Line, PolyLine, Polygon and FreeText annotations with the measurement in the comment, so they open in Bluebeam Revu and Adobe Acrobat.
Is pdf2takeoff a full replacement for Bluebeam Revu?
No. It covers PDF takeoff: measuring, counting, comparing revisions and exporting quantities. It does not edit PDF pages, sign documents or host cloud projects, so teams that need those can use it alongside Revu.
Does it run on a Mac?
Yes. It runs in any modern browser on macOS, Windows or Linux, with nothing to install.
Are my drawings uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser on your computer, and it keeps working offline once the page has loaded.
Try it on your next takeoff
Open a drawing, or try the sample, then save into the PDF and open the result in Revu.
Related guides
- Count symbols in a PDF drawing: one click counts every downlight or power point on a sheet.
- Compare two drawing revisions: see what was added and removed between revisions.
- Takeoff without uploading drawings: how your files stay on your own computer.
- pdf2takeoff home: free construction takeoff software that runs in your browser.
Bluebeam and Revu are trademarks of Bluebeam, Inc., named here only to identify the product. pdf2takeoff is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Bluebeam.