I’ve run into a consistent issue that’s causing real headaches. When we create and publish markups in ACC, they look fine in the web or mobile viewer — but they’re invisible through Desktop Connector or when the file is opened in any other PDF tool.
From what I understand, ACC stores markups as an overlay in its own viewer, not as an actual change to the PDF or DWG file in Docs.
That means the underlying file never gets updated, so Desktop Connector doesn’t see a new version to sync. If you open that same file in Bluebeam, PDF-XChange, or anything else, you’re looking at the unmarked original.
Here’s why that’s a problem:
- Not everyone on a project uses ACC for markups. Many consultants, subcontractors, and clients already use their own tools — Bluebeam, PDF-XChange, etc. They should be able to keep using those without losing markup visibility.
- The only workaround is to manually export a new PDF with markups baked in and upload it. This creates duplicates and breaks the 'single source of truth' principle.
- If you’re offline or have poor connectivity, you won’t see markups at all unless someone sends you an exported version.
The improvement we need:
- An option in ACC to embed published markups into a new file version in Docs.
- Markups should be on a togglable PDF layer, so anyone opening the file — in any PDF viewer — can turn them on or off just like in ACC’s viewer.
- Desktop Connector should sync this updated version automatically.
- The original, unmarked version should still be available in the file’s version history for reference.
- This will increase functionality with Desktop Connector.
This isn’t about forcing everyone to use ACC’s markup tool — it’s about making sure markups are universally visible and usable, no matter which viewer or workflow someone is in, particularly if some of the markup tools are sub-par. Right now, ACC is great for those inside the ecosystem, but it leaves a blind spot for everyone else.
