You can apply different markups to annotate drawings in Bluebeam Cloud. The Markup Tools are aligned on the left of the Markup Editor’s window. It includes:
- Select
- Cloud
- Vector Pen
- Text
- Arrow
- Call-out
- Highlighter
- Image
Note: Some markups (supported in Bluebeam Revu only) are excluded from this selection.
The diagonal (Shaded) arrows at the bottom right corner of the selective markups (like Cloud, Call-out, Highlighter) indicate that these markup tools are nested (containing more markup tools within). For instance,
- The Cloud markup contains – Cloud, Rectangle, & Ellipse markup tools.
- The Call-out markup contains – Callout & Cloud+.
- The Highlighter markup contains - Highlighter & Pen.
Uncovering Markups
To explore the tools within nested markups:
– Double-click or tap + hold the markup to see all the markup tools dropped down from the button.
Select Tool
The Select tool allows you to move and edit the markups on your document.
To use the Select tool:
– Click the Select markup. 
– Click on the required markup to select it.
– Drag the selection to move it to the desired location.
– Drag to draw a selection around desired markups to select multiple ones at once.
– Or right-click on the selected markup(s) for additional options like
- Save to Tool Chest
- Rename
- Delete
- Group
- Ungroup
- Rotate Clockwise
- Rotate Anticlockwise
Note: Some options may appear unavailable based on the type of markup.
When you select a markup on your drawing, the “Markup Toolbar” appears and allows you to customise the appearance of the selected markup, including:
- Line Colour
- Line Width
- Line Opacity
- Line Style
- Fill Colour
- Fill Opacity
- Font Style
- Font Colour
- Font Size
Note: Some options are exclusive to the few markup types (For instance, Line Style is not available for Cloud markups and Font options are only available for text containing markups like Call-out & Cloud+)
For instance,
– Select Cloud + markup with the “Merge Chambers” label, and a markup toolbar will appear at the top.
– Change the Fill Colour (Blue to Red), Fill Opacity (15% to 40%), and Font Colour (Red to Black) of the given Cloud + markup, and it will appear like the one below.
Cloud Markups
The Cloud markup offers a total of three markup tools.
- Cloud
- Rectangle
- Ellipse
– If you click the Cloud markup once & it will select the previous selection (either cloud, rectangle, or – ellipse), or you can double-click or tap + hold to navigate your choice.
With Cloud markup, you can click and drag to draw a triangle or add individual anchor points to draw a polygon (A 2D figure with at least 3 anchor points or vertices). In the latter case double-click anywhere, and the last point will automatically create a join to the first point.
Unlike Cloud, Rectangle and Ellipse tools can only draw standard shapes with Click-Drag-&-Release functionality.
Rectangle and Circle tools in action
What if you want to draw a circle markup? Yes, you can do it with the help of the Ellipse tool, as a circle is an ellipse with both foci coinciding (lie at the same point) and its major and minor axes being equal in length.
Making a circle with an ellipse tool
You can change line colour, line width, line style, line opacity, fill colour, fill opacity, and markup name in the markup editor by selecting the tool mentioned in the Select markup section.
Vector Pen
As Rectangle and Ellipse tools can only be used to draw standard shapes with click and drag, how can you draw a custom polygonal shape? This is where Vector Pen comes in.
– Select the Vector Pen tool > Draw the shape
Vector Pen in action
You can draw a triangle with Vector Pen by simply clicking and dragging or adding individual anchor points to draw a polygon. You must join the start and end points manually, unlike the Cloud markup, as double-clicking the midway will form an open border shape.
Text Markup
The Text markup is simply used to create a text box.
– Select the text markup > Draw a rectangular > Type whatever you want to comment, suggest, or recommend.
The text box markup in action
Arrow Markup
The Arrow markup is used to draw arrows to direct the user's attention towards a specific aspect or area of the drawing. To draw an arrow in Bluebeam Cloud:
– Click on the Arrow markup > Click and drag (from Tail) to draw the arrow of the required length > release the markup by making the next click at the destination (at Head).
Arrow tool in action
Call-out Markup
The Call-out markup lists two more markups.
- Call-out (to draw an arrow with text)
- Cloud + (to draw a cloud with text)
– The navigation and drawing of both are the same as the arrow and cloud tools in the previous sections.
Call-out and Cloud + tools in action
You can select the markup to transform or move the test box and drawing independently to adjust the position.
Highlighter Markup
The Highlighter markup lists 2 different markups.
- Highlighter
- Pen
Highlighter and Pen tools in action
For the text in your PDF processed for “Optical Character Recognition” (OCR), the “Highlighter” tool can automatically be placed over the text you select and can stretch across multiple lines. If Bluebeam Cloud doesn’t recognise the text in your PDF, you can manually shade the required text with the highlighter. Whereas the pen tool can only draw irregular vectors manually with the help of cursor movement.
Note: If you’d like to use this feature to highlight the text in your PDF, you can run OCR on your document using Revu before uploading it to Bluebeam Cloud.
Image Markup
Image markup is used to place an image in your PDF.
– Click the Image markup > choose an image from your device > Click-Drag-&-Release to draw the image > Select the image with the “Select” tool to alter it.
You can resize the image with anchor points, rotate to align, and then drag it to the desired location on your PDF.
Learn more about how to revise, update, review, and annotate to edit markups on your drawings in Bluebeam cloud.
