# How does cloud sync work?

Same Project in the browser or a Mac or Windows app. Open a Document once; it stays on that device (even offline) and syncs as you edit. Share View or Edit.

Think of a Google Doc.

Nobody emails `bid-final-FINAL.docx`. The laptop at home and the shop PC are not two copies you merge at 6pm. Construction takeoff spent twenty years doing the opposite: a Windows install, a PDF on a stick, and a meeting called “who has the latest markup.” [Mac](/download) users got a VM or they didn’t measure.

Forward Layout is that Google-Doc model for a takeoff **Project**: one Project, on every device. Browser or a [Mac / Windows app](/download). After you open a [Document](/guides/project-documents), that takeoff lives on the device, even offline, and stays in sync as you edit. No install to start: [Browser desk](/guides/browser-desk-app). People on that Project: [Working together](/guides/working-together-collaboration). Two Edit seats measuring at once: [realtime multiplayer collaboration](/guides/realtime-project-collaboration). This page is the [Mac](/download) hole, the flaky trailer link, and which file is latest.

## Where this lives

**Recents** is this device: Documents and Projects you already opened here.

The **browser** is a first-class desk (Chrome, Edge, or another modern browser). Details: [Browser desk](/guides/browser-desk-app). **Download** is the same desk in a native window. [Mac or Windows](/download). Sign in with the same account. There is no Cloud SKU and no Windows-only markup OS beside it.

**Share** (or Project → **Members**) is who else is on that live Project: [View, Comment, Edit, Full control](/guides/project-access).

## How to use cloud sync

1. **Sign in** on the machine in front of you, browser or the installed app.
2. **Open the Project.** [New Project](/guides/projects) if this is a new client; otherwise pick the Project. **Add a Document** (a plan PDF: drop, File > Add documents…, or the Documents CTA) or open one you already uploaded. The **first** visit of a file needs a connection so this device can hold it.
3. **Measure.** Calibrate, Length / Polylength / Count / Area, CSV when you’re back online. [How it works](/how-it-works).
4. **Switch devices.** Shop desktop, home laptop, a trailer Chromebook. Sign in. Same [Organization](/guides/organizations), same Projects, same markups. Recents on _this_ machine fills in as you open sheets here.
5. **Work through a bad link.** After that visit, airplane mode still shows the takeoff you already opened. Draw the lengths. When the radio comes back, those edits go up and you see what the other estimator did.
6. **Hand the Project to a person, not a folder.** Project → Collaborators or **Share**: invite by email. [Org member](/guides/organization-members) if they belong in the company; [guest](/guides/project-collaborators) if they don’t. Grant **View** (read the desk), **Comment**, **Edit** (measure and upload), or **Full control** (archive, assign Full). [Teams](/guides/organization-teams) if you keep granting the same crew.
7. **Take it back.** Remove the grant, demote the role, or pull them off the Team. They don’t keep a blessed copy of the bid. Restricted Projects don’t leak to people who were never invited.

Desktop, first launch: connect **once** so the app can pin the desk on that machine. Cold install with the ethernet unplugged will ask you to connect. After that, Projects you already opened follow the same offline rules as the browser.

## What works offline (and what does not)

Job-trailer links fail. After you open a Document, that takeoff stays on the device. First visit of a new PDF, comments, Follow, and CSV export need a connection.

| You can                                                          | You need a connection              |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| Open Recents and Projects you already visited on **this** device | First visit of a **new** Document  |
| See markups and scale on those sheets; keep measuring            | Upload a brand-new PDF             |
|                                                                  | Extract / AI                       |
|                                                                  | Comments, Follow, presence         |
|                                                                  | Summary CSV / shop export at click |

That’s the honest contract. A desktop file works offline because it is a copy on disk. That copy is also how the wrong revision gets emailed.

## File-era takeoff vs a live Project

This is the tax Windows-install markup tools trained the industry to pay. Bluebeam Revu is the one shops actually name.

| File on a PC                                                                                                                                             | Cloud sync on a Project                                                                                                      |
| -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Latest set is whoever emailed last. `S-201_markups_v4_ADAM.pdf`.                                                                                         | One [Project](/guides/projects). Open it. That’s the set.                                                                   |
| USB, Dropbox, “did you overlay my file?”                                                                                                                 | Same desk from the browser or [the Mac / Windows app](/download).                                                           |
| Revu is a local Windows install. [Mac](/download) users get a VM, a different Cloud client, or they don’t measure. | [Mac](/download) is not a consolation SKU. Browser and desktop are the **same** product. |
| Collaboration arrived later as **Studio**, itself two products (Project checkout vs a Session you **Finish**), plus Bluebeam Cloud as a third surface. | One app. Open the Project on the other machine. Same markups. People work together on [one Project](/guides/working-together-collaboration). |
| Adding a person means sending a PDF, buying another desktop seat, and teaching them which product to open.                                               | [Invite](/guides/project-collaborators). View or Edit. Guest if they’re not payroll.                                                      |
| Removing a person means hoping they deleted the folder.                                                                                                  | Revoke the grant. The Project is the permission. Details: [who can open a Project](/guides/project-access).                         |
| Tool Chest and markups live in that install or a file you emailed.                                                                                       | Markup names on the desk stay Revu grammar. The **takeoff** lives in the Project, not in an export you forgot to send.       |

Keep Revu for punch and RFIs if that’s the desk. The file-era problem is specific: **the takeoff was a document on one PC**, so sharing and revoking were afterthoughts. Studio and Cloud were how a Windows app coped. One cohesive app does not need that family.

Google Docs is the right picture for **the file**. It is the wrong picture for **the caret**. Two estimators are not co-typing inside one Callout character by character. If both change the same markup, the last accepted write wins. You still get one Project, on every device, without merging PDFs.

## Access control is the other half of sync

Sync without permission is Dropbox with extra steps. Permission without sync is a shared drive and a lockout spreadsheet.

- The **[Organization](/guides/organizations)** is the company: admin vs member, and the default for who inherits a new Project (shop: All members can edit; GC: Restricted).
- The **[Project](/guides/projects)** is the bid **and** the live room. Access is Project-wide, not a checkbox on each PDF. [Documents](/guides/project-documents) follow the Project.
- **[Organization members](/guides/organization-members)** is payroll. **[Project collaborators](/guides/project-collaborators)** is who can open _this_ takeoff. Guests never inherit “all members.”
- **[Teams](/guides/organization-teams)** are named lists you grant once (Estimating, Shop, that GC’s PMs) instead of forty emails every hospital bid.
- **[Roles](/guides/project-access)** are View, Comment, Edit, Full control. Inherit is never Full control. Extra grants only go **up**. Kick someone: they lose the Project on the next successful reach, including the copy that was sitting in Recents on their laptop.

A commercial precon team uses Restricted Projects, Teams, and guests so the wrong crew never saw the takeoff, and so offboarding is a grant, not a folder hunt. A one-person desk can ignore Members until the second hire. The model is already there.

## Shop vs several devices vs a GC

| When                           | What you actually do                                                                                                   |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| One person, two machines       | Sign in on both. Open the Document once per machine. Ignore Members.                                                   |
| Second estimator in the LLC    | Org **member**, keep All members can edit. Both on **Edit**. Same Project at 4pm.                                      |
| Outside estimator or a GC’s PM | Project invite: **guest**, View or Edit. Don’t put them in the company directory.                                     |
| Departments, many bids         | Restricted + [Teams](/guides/organization-teams) + revoke without chasing files. Maybe a second Organization for a second company. |

Phone and tablet as a thinner layout of this same app are later. A field iPad SKU has not shipped.

## Evaluating this

If your bake-off question is “does this run on a [Mac](/download), and is the other office the same Project as this one,” this page is the answer. Two people on the sheet without emailing a PDF is [Working together](/guides/working-together-collaboration). If the question is “does every Revu tool exist yet,” that’s a different conversation. Job A is calibrate → measure → CSV, [how it works](/how-it-works). Measuring the set, with stairs as the worked package: [quantities](/resources/measuring-a-commercial-set). A measure desk, not another estimating platform: [takeoff without a platform](/resources/takeoff-without-a-platform). That’s takeoff, not a priced bid: [takeoff vs estimating](/resources/takeoff-vs-estimating).

Windows desktop takeoff falling apart is [leaving PlanSwift](/resources/leaving-planswift). Still in Revu and retyping the list: [Bluebeam into Excel](/resources/bluebeam-to-excel). Pick the job first: [choose takeoff software](/resources/choose-takeoff-software).

Install: [download the Mac or Windows app](/download) · [Browser desk](/guides/browser-desk-app). People on the Project: [Working together](/guides/working-together-collaboration). Simultaneous Edit: [realtime multiplayer collaboration](/guides/realtime-project-collaboration). Containment and people: [Organizations](/guides/organizations) · [Projects](/guides/projects) · [Documents](/guides/project-documents) · [delete and restore](/guides/delete-and-restore-archived) · [organization members](/guides/organization-members) · [Project collaborators](/guides/project-collaborators) · [Teams](/guides/organization-teams) · [who can open a Project](/guides/project-access).


## FAQ

### Does takeoff work without internet?

After you open a Document while signed in, that takeoff stays on the device. Airplane wifi, a flaky job-trailer link, a captive portal. Recents and the sheets you already visited still open. First visit of a new PDF, extract, AI, comments, Follow, and CSV export need a connection.

### Does this work on a Mac?

Yes. Chrome on a [Mac](/download) is a first-class desk, not a Windows VM ([Browser desk](/guides/browser-desk-app)). [Download](/download) is the same product that works on the browser, [Windows](/download) and [Mac](/download). Same login, same Projects, same markups. There is no Windows-only markup OS with a thinner Cloud app beside it.

### Can two people measure the same Project at the same time?

Yes, if both have Edit. Start with [Working together](/guides/working-together-collaboration). The simultaneous-edit walk is [realtime multiplayer collaboration](/guides/realtime-project-collaboration). This page is devices and offline: shop PC and laptop are one Project, not two PDFs you merge at 6pm.

### If I remove someone, do they keep the takeoff on their laptop?

They lose the Project. Next time the app can reach us, that Project drops off their list. Access is the Project (View, Comment, Edit, or Full control), not a file they copied.

### Why is this better than Bluebeam on one Windows PC?

Revu grew up as a local Windows install. Sharing was bolted on later as Studio and a separate Cloud client. Here the Project is the live takeoff on every device. [Mac](/download) is first-class. Kick someone in Share; you don’t chase a folder of PDFs.