Simplifying Interior Wall Takeoffs Using Layers and Control Points in Bluebeam Revu Workflows

Streamline Interior Wall Estimating with Layer Management and Control Point Techniques in Bluebeam Revu

Discover how to navigate the process of interior wall takeoffs, which includes hiding previous takeoffs to avoid clutter and using layers for organization. Learn how to use the polylength tool for marking the interior wall and how to modify takeoffs with control points and other modifications in Bluebeam.

Key Insights

  • The article explains how to perform takeoffs of interior walls, starting by hiding previous exterior takeoffs to streamline the process and lessen visual clutter.
  • Layers are used to manage different segments of the takeoff, such as flooring and exterior walls. While typically different elements would each have their own layer, for simplicity, the article illustrates how easy it is to toggle on or off the visibility of certain takeoff items.
  • The author demonstrates how to use the polylength tool to mark interior walls, modify takeoffs with control points, and manage these elements in Bluebeam software. This includes adding control points to extend a takeoff, splitting takeoffs into separate segments, and potentially adding a takeoff to the tool chest for future use.

This lesson is a preview from our Blueprint Reading & Construction Estimating Course Online (includes software) and Construction Estimating Certification Online (includes software & exam). Enroll in a course for detailed lessons, live instructor support, and project-based training.

Alright, and now we're going to move into the interior and do some takeoffs of some of the interior walls. And really just kind of finish out our wood framing and drywall portions of the takeoffs. We're going to navigate ourselves to A2.1, and we already have some takeoffs done.

So what we're going to do is we're going to hide these to get them out of the way to make it easier for us to see what we're about to start taking off. You may remember that we used layering earlier on to assign the flooring takeoffs to layers. So let's go to that flooring layer and let's hit this eye icon to the left of the text.

As soon as we do that, you can see that all of those flooring takeoffs are simply hidden. And you know what, let's do that with all of these takeoffs too. Let's just do a edit lasso.

Let's just grab all of these takeoffs. And let's see if we can right-click on them. Sorry, let's do that one more time.

Let's get the lasso here. Let's go ahead and right-click on that and hit layer. And let's all just add them to that flooring layer as well.

Learn Construction Estimating

  • Nationally accredited
  • Create your own portfolio
  • Free student software
  • Learn at your convenience
  • Authorized Autodesk training center

Learn More

And then let's turn it all off. Great. So typically, we wouldn't put everything on the same layer.

If we were doing a larger, more complex takeoff, we would have the flooring layer as one thing. We would have the exterior walls as another. Just for the purposes of this course, I show you how easy it is to be able to toggle on and off the visual of certain takeoff items.

You can see that we've just hidden everything. It gives us an easy way to move forward with these takeoffs and not be too complex with what's in the way. We do have to remember that we did all of our exterior walls already.

We're going to do our interior partitions now. We can see this note number 13 here is going to be typical 2x4 interior stud wall. Let's just go ahead and finish that out.

Let's go ahead and grab a takeoff here. And we'll just go ahead and make one up. Let's make a polylength.

And we're just going to start taking off these interior walls here. Let's go to my properties and see what color we have. Yeah, that looks like it should be good.

Let's just go ahead and change this to a 2x4 interior stud wall. And let's go ahead and make this a little bit wider of a line. Let's go ahead and grab this interior wall here.

That's way too wide. Let's go down to about 2. And we will take off this wall also. I'm only doing one side of this wall, just from a takeoff standpoint.

We will include the fact that there's going to be drywall on both sides of these. Right now, I'm just taking off the wood framing. That is going to be the interior wall there.

I don't see a separate note for this section of wall here. It does visually appear to be a 2x6 wall. But it is an interior partition and I don't see anything different.

Let's just go ahead and we can show this as the 2x4 wall as well. We've got that in there. And this appears to be a little half wall that we can just go ahead and take off.

That's also a helpful trick that you can use. If you ever, let's say, accidentally click off a takeoff, and it deselects it and you don't have a tool made up in the tool chest, you could go grab a previous use of that takeoff. You could copy it and paste it and start a new one.

And then when you have that new one out, you can right-click on it. And you can do what's called add a control point. Adding a control point is really just going to add another length for you to be able to go ahead and continue your takeoff.

So I've added one control point. And that allowed me to take this from just a copy, which is just a one-line takeoff with two points. When I added that third control point, I was able to continue this takeoff.

So again, that's just if I right-click on a certain takeoff type, that is going to be into my control point. If I needed to split those out into separate takeoffs, I could do that. So the original section and the added section.

And if I do feel like I want to add this to my tool chest, I could do it from the right-click menu as well, in addition to going into the properties bar over here. So again, as I mentioned before in this class, there's just a lot of different ways to do the same functions in Bluebeam. It really comes down to what you are most comfortable with, what is most efficient for you as you are going through and doing takeoffs.

So that is going to be our interior walls. Let's just take a look and see if there's anything else that we missed. There's a little section right here.

So let's grab this and hit set to default. And let's grab a poly length. And let's grab this part of the wall.

I'm going to delete that a little bit. Okay, what else do we have here? I believe that is all of our other interior partitions as well.

photo of Ed Wenz

Ed Wenz

Ed started Wenz Consulting after 35 years as a professional estimator. He continues to work on various projects while also dedicating time to teaching and training through Wenz Consulting and VDCI. Ed has over 10 years of experience in Sage Estimating Development and Digital Takeoff Systems and has an extensive background in Construction Software and Communications Technology. Ed enjoys spending his free time with his wife and grandchildren in San Diego.

  • Sage Estimating Certified Instructor
  • Construction Cost Estimating
More articles by Ed Wenz

How to Learn Construction Estimating

Develop expertise in cost estimation and budgeting for construction projects.

Yelp Facebook LinkedIn YouTube Twitter Instagram