Bluebeam has added PDF/A Archival Compatibility and AutoCAD and Revit 2012 support to its newly-launched tool to streamline PDF-based paperless workflows for the design and construction industry, PDF Revu 9.2.

"User feedback remains a priority for us in developing the PDF workflow tools that optimize productivity and usability," said Bluebeam Software VP of Engineering Don Jacob. "With Revu 9.2, we've incorporated new suggestions and requests to expand Revu's functionality, giving architects and designers a complete package for greater efficiency, collaboration and future-proof documentation."

To support long-term archival of PDF documents, Revu 9.2 now offers the ability to save files according to the PDF/A specification. PDF/A is an International Standards Organization (ISO) defined specification for electronic document storage that embeds all content, including text, raster images and vector graphics, fonts and color information, within the file to provide for exact duplication for years to come.

This archival compatibility ensures that all markups and edits made to PDF project drawings in Revu will be preserved in perpetuity for future reference, eliminating file format incompatibilities that often prevent retrieval and efficient use of historical project documents.

For Revu CAD and Revu eXtreme users, version 9.2 also extends Bluebeam's PDF plugin capabilities for one button and batch PDF creation to AutoCAD 2012 and Revit 2012. In addition, Revu 9.2 Standard, CAD and eXtreme are available in updated localized versions of Swedish and German with new localized versions added for Spanish, Danish, Norwegian and Finnish.

Bluebeam also includes several new features added this March with the release of Revu 9. New 3D PDF viewing capabilities enable users to navigate through complex models on screen and rotate, spin and zoom to gain a dynamic view of the project. Using just a mouse, users can refine their perspective and vantage point, as well as isolate and view various specific elements, make transparent layers to drill down into masked details and even save these specific views in the document so that project collaborators can have the same perspective.

The VisualSearch function allows users to search for a specific visual element or symbol across the current document, all open documents, recent documents or files in a specific folder, and even instantly apply markups and hyperlinks simultaneously to all identified VisualSearch results. The highly-requested area cutouts feature in the measurements tool enables architects and designers to account for and provide detailed measurement specifications for room obstructions. PDF to MS Office functionality makes it easy to seamlessly convert PDF files back to their original native MS Office file formats with export capability to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

Finally, the new Bluebeam PDF Revu eXtreme provides advanced tools for PDF power users including PDF forms creation, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for transforming scanned PDFs into text searchable and selectable files, powerful scripting tools for automating multi-step processes and redaction for permanently removing sensitive text and images from PDFs.

Revu 9 was recently recognized during its Australian debut at designEX with a Sustainability Award for providing architects with an easy-to-use solution to digitise project workflows and go paperless.