How You Can Bring Your PDFs to Life with 360° Photography

The three major stakeholder groups in construction – architects, contractors and owners – have at least one thing in common: a commitment to complete projects on time and within budget. It is critical to reduce project risk and capture construction conditions to benefit all project stakeholders. One way this can be achieved is by using photographs to convey a message. There is value in depicting conditions – a snapshot in time – using a photo, and the value increases when that is a 360° photograph versus a static image.

Another tool for reducing or eliminating costly rework and construction errors is Bluebeam Revu .

You can get the best of both tools by combining Revu with photography to multiply the power of each:

• Portray the current built environment.
• Capture photos that enable users to experience a space at any time wherever they are.
• Link information-rich content to any 360° image, maximizing the usefulness of the PDFs and the information they contain and convey.
• Create, share and distribute PDFs with 360° images by integrating mobile devices with Revu. Bluebeam makes it easy to do.

A new way of documenting

In his most recent webinar, Bluebeam Certified Instructor Rick Kremer discussed the benefits of using Bluebeam Revu with 360 photography. He explained how to transform a regular PDF into what he calls a “PDF 2.0”- a PDF with additional layers. Rick said, “…the idea here is not only to document the information in the PDF but convey an idea of what it was like while you were there to experience it and walk around the space.”

Using the Insta 360 and Bluebeam Revu, Rick demonstrated the steps to creating a more efficient workflow, while also sharing some smart tips for before and after taking pictures:

• Plan the walk before the visit and keep a consistent walk pattern. This will make it easier to lay out the spots in the site plan when adding images ( ex. walking the job site clockwise).
• Group images of the same area within the site into folders when uploading; it will save you time.
• Rename the pictures according to the walkthrough (ex. Pic 1, Pic 2, etc.).

When choosing a camera, there are two key features to consider: ease of use and image quality. Once you have a camera and are ready to walk a jobsite, there are three additional tools you can use to help capture images: a selfie stick, tripod, or an adhesive mount on a hard hat. 

Sharing progress and collaborating with teams

When Revu is integrated with a 360° camera, the enhanced workflow created from the capture, edit and sharing of images can be used in a PDF construction document set.

Team members can collaborate and make comments directly on the photographs about any changes or updates to the project, minimizing trips taken to the site. To add comments, you can use the custom tool feature in Revu to notify other users there are 360 imageries in the document. To leave comments, simply right click the document and select Reply.

In addition, you can facilitate better communication using Bluebeam Studio Projects and Studio Sessions.

The opportunities are endless when it comes to embedding 360 photography into your PDFs. To see these tips and features demonstrated by Rick Kremer, you can watch the full webinar on demand.

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