Revit Export API and Bluebeam

[Ceorl82]

I have an interesting situation and I'd like to know if anyone else has ran into this before.  I have some code I wrote to export pdf files from Revit.  Everything works well, the pdf files look good, and the file size is small.  Everybody's happy...almost.  Whenever we load any of the pdf files into Bluebeam's signing and sealing utility, only the top-righthand corner of the file is displayed.  It's not scaled in any way, but rather 3/4th of the file simply doesn't display.  We've contacted Bluebeam and they don't have an answer, so I thought I'd reach out to y'all to see if anyone has possibly dealt with this.

Oh,

Revit 2022/Bluebeam Revu 20 and 21

Thanks in advance. 

[jeremy_tammik · Accepted solution]

This behaviour sounds very special indeed. Never seen anything similar. Maybe you should share your export code. Are there any code bits or other settings to import into Bluebeam, or just their pure generic standard UI? Are the exported PDF complete in al other contexts? Does the Bluebeam import work for all other PDFs that you tried? Very weird. Sounds almost magical. Did you cross a wizard?

[Ceorl82]

The exports look and act fine in all other aspects.  If we use the conventional method of printing pdfs, the pdf files behave normally in Bluebeam's signing and sealing tool.   The issue only arises using the code below.

Public Sub ExportToPDF(mydoc As Document, FolderName As String, Sheets As List(Of ProjectSheet), color As Boolean)

Dim pdo As New PDFExportOptions
pdo.Combine = True
If color Then
pdo.ColorDepth = ColorDepthType.Color
Else
pdo.ColorDepth = ColorDepthType.GrayScale
End If
pdo.ExportQuality = PDFExportQualityType.DPI600
pdo.PaperOrientation = PageOrientationType.Landscape
pdo.PaperFormat = ExportPaperFormat.ARCH_E1
pdo.PaperPlacement = PaperPlacementType.LowerLeft
pdo.ZoomType = ZoomFitType.Zoom
pdo.ZoomPercentage = 100
pdo.HideCropBoundaries = True
pdo.HideScopeBoxes = True
pdo.ViewLinksInBlue = False
pdo.AlwaysUseRaster = True

count = 0
notifyObserver(count, Nothing, False)

For Each ps In Sheets
pdo.FileName = ps.PDFName
Dim pdf As IList(Of ElementId) = New List(Of ElementId)
pdf.Add(ps.SheetID)
Try
Dim y As Boolean = mydoc.Export(FolderName, pdf, pdo)
count = count + 1
notifyObserver(count, pdo.FileName, True)

Catch ex As Exception
Debug.Print(ex.ToString)
Continue For
End Try

Next

End Sub

[jeremy_tammik]

Aha. Do you see similar setting in the UI and in the API? Are you sure you are using the same settings? Can you try using different values for ExportQuality, PaperFormat, PaperPlacement, ZoomType, ZoomPercentage and others that may affect the resolution, zoom factor or cropping in any way?

[Ceorl82]

I do know Paperplacement and AlwayUseRaster didn't have any impact.  I'll try some of the others.

[Ceorl82]

Good to know I'm not alone.  https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/PDF-Export-from-Re...

[Ceorl82]

The same issue is happening when we print from Revit's built-in export function.  I'm going to start looking through Bluebeam's technical support pages.  Thanks for the help Jeremy, but I think this goes above being an API issue.

[dtpeter2901]

Bluebeam has provided us with the following insight for resolution.  Which basically says, don't use the Revit Export to PDF function.

I can gladly look into this for you. This may have occurred due to the PDF being created using Autodesks PDF viewer or another PDF viewer besides Revu. To resolve, you will need to recreate the PDF. 

Recreate the file

1. First, export any markups on the original PDF by going to the  Markups List > Markups > Export Markups (Ctrl+F2).
   Be sure to save the export in a location/folder that is easy to access when you re-import the markups on a new PDF.
2. Then make a copy of the affected PDF(s).
3. Open the copy in Revu.
4. Delete any markups on the PDF (if present). To delete your markups:
1. Open the  Markups List  (Alt+L).
2. Select a markup from the  Markups List, then press Ctrl+A to select all markups.
3. Press Delete on your keyboard to clear all markups from the PDF.
5. Save the copy by pressing Ctrl+S, then close the file.
6. Go to File > Create > From File. The File Explorer window appears.
7. Select the same copy and click Open. The Save As dialog box appears.
8. Click Save. The file is recreated.
9. If you had markups on the original PDF, you will need to re-import them:
1. Go to the  Markups List > Markups > Import. The File Explorer window appears.
2. Select the export file you generated in Step 1 and click Open.

The newly generated file will now have all of your markups.

We recommend using the Bluebeam PDF Printer or the Bluebeam plugin whenever generating PDFs from the source files. This will ensure high-quality PDF creation and prevent many file-specific issues from occurring.

Please let me know how this works for you. 

Regards, 

[Ceorl82]

"This may have occurred due to the PDF being created using Autodesks PDF viewer or another PDF viewer besides Revu."

*sigh*   There's no other software involved and no markups.  The file is directly exported from Revit and immediately brought into Bluebeam's signing and sealing feature.  The only reason this is posted in the API section is because that's how we discovered the issue.  We didn't know this has been an ongoing issue for multiple releases (2022, 2023, and 2024 - maybe earlier, we don't know).  The workaround has been, once the file has been exported from Revit, print the first sheet from Bluebeam to pdf, remove the sheet, and then bring the newly printed sheet back into the set.  We only care about reprinting the first sheet so we can see where to place the AOR seal.  The other workaround would be for us to move the seal location to the top-right corner of our drawings.

Thanks for looking into it,

Chuck

[Ceorl82]

"This may have occurred due to the PDF being created using Autodesks PDF viewer or another PDF viewer besides Revu."

*sigh*   There's no other software involved and no markups.  The file is directly exported from Revit and immediately brought into Bluebeam's signing and sealing feature.  The only reason this is posted in the API section is because that's how we discovered the issue.  We didn't know this has been an ongoing issue for multiple releases (2022, 2023, and 2024 - maybe earlier, we don't know).  The workaround has been, once the file has been exported from Revit, print the first sheet from Bluebeam to pdf, remove the sheet, and then bring the newly printed sheet back into the set.  We only care about reprinting the first sheet so we can see where to place the AOR seal.  The other workaround would be for us to move the seal location to the top-right corner of our drawings.

Thanks for looking into it,

Chuck

[Ceorl82]

I should also point out we've tried both Bluebeam 20 and 21 and we get the same results.

[aflamishS9HNH]

Jeremy,

When does the team believe they are going to have this issue resolved? This is causing a hiccup in our workflow when it comes to signing and sealing documents in our firm, and I am having to use a 3rd party extension for printing. Also, we can't utilize the OOTB print method since it allows you to save every sheet individually instead of running it in the background like the export tool. We want to use the export feature but must find an alternate route. I even installed the 2025.2 update, hoping it had been fixed in that version, but it had not.

[jeremy_tammik]

Sorry, I do not see any issue ticket number above or any reference to a discussion with the development team, so I have no way to check what they may or may not have done regarding this issue. Do you have any ticket number or other reference to having raised this issue with the development team in the past? If not, the best way to proceed would be to submit a minimal reproducible case for analysis:

• https://thebuildingcoder.typepad.com/blog/about-the-author.html#2

Before doing so, however, please explain in what way you are using the Revit API to programmatically encounter this problem, and what the standard end user behaviour in the UI does when not driving this functionality programmatically. If it is a pure end user issue, then this is not the right place to discuss it anyway.

[jeremy_tammik]

Here are some existing tickets:

• REVIT-208186 PDF Export from Revit fails to create a full image in Bluebeam Batch Seal and Sign
• REVIT-191812 Missing "Application" field in PDF causing delete exception when using Bluebeam PDF viewer
• REVIT-191667 Bluebeam does not allow deleting pages from a PDF exported from the native PDF exporter tool in Revit 2022

Do any of them ring any bells?

[Ceorl82]

Jeremy, it's not an API issue.  The behavior happens when exporting using Revit's interface.  It was only discovered using the API.  It's a problem for everyone using Bluebeam's Sign and Seal functionality if they're exporting from Revit.

[jeremy_tammik]

In that case, I would suggest discussing it in the larger and more UI-knowledgeable general architecture forum:

• https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/revit-api-forum/this-forum-is-for-revit-api-programming-questions-not...

[Ceorl82]

"Do any of them ring any bells?"

The first one.

[jeremy_tammik]

Hi Chuck, 

Thank you for the feedback! That issue is unresolved so far. I added a note of this thread to it and raised its priority.

Would you or any of the others participating here like to provide a business case to help motivate the development team to take a deeper look and invest more? 

This issue is important to me. What can I do to help? This issue needs to be assessed by our engineering team and prioritised against all other outstanding change requests. Any information that you can provide to influence this assessment will help. Please provide the following where possible:

• Impact on your application and/or your development.
• The number of users affected.
• The potential revenue impact to you.
• The potential revenue impact to Autodesk.
• Realistic timescale over which a fix would help you.
• In the case of a request for a new feature or a feature enhancement, please also provide detailed Use cases for the workflows that this change would address.

This information is crucial. Our engineering team has limited resources and must focus their efforts on the highest impact items. We do understand that this will cause you delays and affect your development planning, and we appreciate your cooperation and patience.

Cheers,

Jeremy

[Ceorl82]

Yes.  I'll start putting something together.

[jeremy_tammik]

Thank you Chuck for your business case, received via private email message. I attached it to the ticket REVIT-208186 [PDF Export from Revit fails to create a full image in Bluebeam Batch Seal and Sign] and asked the development team for feedback.