Working together
One live Project for the team. Measure together. Same desk in the browser or on Mac and Windows. Share View or Edit. No Session to start or Finish.
Takeoff is rarely a solo afternoon anymore.
A second estimator needs the same set. A PM wants to see the qty without a screen share. The GC’s estimator needs View on this bid, not your whole company. You leave the shop PC at 5pm and finish a length on the laptop. The old answers were emailing a PDF, starting a Session, checking out a file, or hopping products so the same drawing shows up again. Those answers worked. They also trained shops to merge markups at 6pm and argue which file was latest.
Working together here means one Project: the drawings and the people. Anyone with permission opens the same desk. Edits save as you go. There is no Session to start or Finish. Cloud sync is that Project on every machine. Realtime multiplayer collaboration is two Edit seats measuring at once. Share is who gets View, Comment, Edit, or Full control.
This page is the map. The siblings teach the clicks.
Where this lives
Open a Document in the Project. That is the live desk.
Share in the header (same list as Project → Members) is named emails, Teams, and Request access. Not anyone-with-the-link. Avatars show who else is on the sheet. Follow rides their view. Comments pin on the page. Presence, Follow, and comments need a connection.
You stay solo until you invite someone, or until Organization Project access already puts org members on the Project (shop default: All members can edit). Restricted orgs Share on purpose. Live work should not surprise a one-person desk.
Why shops care
These are the outcomes estimators name when they pick software. Not a second product family. Not a meeting room bolted onto a Windows install.
| Benefit | What that means here |
|---|---|
| One set, not a folder of PDFs | The Project is the takeoff. Open it. That is the set. |
| Two people at the same time | Permission is the gate. With Edit, both measure. No checkout lock. No Finish ritual. |
| Any machine | Browser desk, Mac, or Windows. Same login. Same markups. Cloud sync. |
| Offline after a visit | Open a Document once. Keep measuring when the trailer link fails. Presence waits for a line. |
| Clean invite and revoke | Named people and Teams. Guest for a GC or outside estimator. Revoke and they lose the Project, including the copy in Recents. |
| Qty handoff stays honest | You still calibrate, measure, and export CSV. Collaboration does not price the bid. |
Stairs and rails are how we show the package. The desk is a general measure tool. You name the Subject. Shop still prices.
Not a meeting room, not a suite hop
Construction takeoff spent a long time treating live markup as a temporary meeting. Host starts a room, hands out an ID, attendees join, someone Finishes so chosen markups write into a PDF and the room goes away. The filing cabinet was a different product: checkout, one writer, everyone else waits. Bluebeam called that split Studio Sessions vs Studio Projects, with Cloud as another surface. Keep Revu for punch if that is your desk. Markup names on our sheet stay Revu. The meeting model does not.
Large construction suites solve a different problem: many modules, many republishes of the same PDF, product toggles per person. Useful for some companies. Heavy when the job is “two estimators on one stair set before lunch.”
Modern tools people actually use together learned a simpler rule: the file is the collaboration. Permission is the gate. You hop in and out. You do not export a copy so someone else can see it. That is the Figma-shaped multiplayer model for a takeoff Project: join at the same time, edit at the same time when you have Edit. It is not a Figma canvas. The desk grammar stays Revu.
Short contrast. The deep table lives on realtime multiplayer collaboration. Devices and offline live on cloud sync.
| Old habit | Live Project |
|---|---|
Email S-201_markups_v4_ADAM.pdf |
One Project. Open it. |
| Start a Session. Finish it. | Open the Project. Edits persist as you go. |
| Checkout: one writer | Two Edit seats. No waiting on a lock. |
| Studio vs Cloud vs the desktop install | One app. Browser desk or download. |
| Screen-share because they are not in the file | Avatars. Follow. They’re on the sheet. |
| Kick someone = hope they deleted the folder | Revoke the grant. Access is the Project. |
Pick the next guide
| Your question | Open this |
|---|---|
| Takeoff in the browser with no install? Invite without a .exe? | Browser desk |
| Same Project on the shop PC and the laptop? Offline after a visit? Mac? | Cloud sync |
| Two people measuring now? Presence, Follow, comments? Guest vs org? Two setups with a client? | Realtime multiplayer collaboration |
| What is a Project, and why it is not a Session? | Projects |
| View, Comment, Edit, Full control? | Project access |
| How do I invite by email? Guests? Request access? | Project collaborators |
| Company directory vs this bid? | Organization members |
| Grant Estimating without forty emails? | Organization teams |
| Who holds Projects and Documents? | Organizations · Project documents |
| Calibrate → measure → CSV? | How it works |
Shop vs second desk vs a GC
| When | What working together looks like |
|---|---|
| One person | You never look at avatars. Recents, measure, CSV. Ignore Share until you need it. |
| Second estimator in the LLC | Org member. Keep All members can edit. Both Edit. Same Project. |
| Reviewer / PM | View or Comment. Follow the estimator. Don’t give them Edit. |
| Outside estimator or GC’s PM | Guest on this Project only. Not the company directory. |
| You measure on their Project | They Share you as a guest. Keep your own Organization for bids you own. |
| Departments, many bids | Restricted + Teams. Revoke without chasing files. |
| Bid is over | Revoke. CSV if they still need quantities. |
What still needs a connection
Job-trailer links fail. Not every button works with no line.
| Online | After a visit, offline is fine |
|---|---|
| First open of a new PDF | Recents and sheets you already opened |
| Presence, Follow, comments | Measuring those sheets |
| CSV / shop export at click | |
| Extract / AI |
Same contract as cloud sync. Collaboration does not replace it.
Limits
Say these once so a bake-off does not invent features we do not ship.
- No anyone-with-the-link. Share is named people and Teams.
- No per-Document lock inside a Project you can open. Access is Project-wide.
- We do not move a Project into another Organization. Export is interchange.
- Presence, Follow, and comments are online-only.
- Two people are not co-typing inside one Callout character by character. Last accepted write on the same markup wins.
- Takeoff is quantities. Estimating is price. You still put the rate on it.
Evaluating this
If the bake-off question is “can two people take off the hospital stairs without emailing a PDF, a Session ID, or a Finish button,” start here, then read realtime multiplayer collaboration. If the question is “is the shop PC the same Project as the laptop, including offline after a visit,” that is cloud sync. If the question is “can a GC look without joining the shop,” that is guests and Project access.
Job A is still calibrate → measure → CSV: how it works. Measuring the set, with stairs as the worked package: quantities. Shared viewing without emailing a file is the collab people name in software-choice threads: choose takeoff software. A measure desk, not another estimating platform: takeoff without a platform. That’s takeoff, not a priced bid: takeoff vs estimating. Still in Revu and retyping: Bluebeam into Excel.
Install: download the Mac or Windows app · Browser desk. Deep people walks: organization members · Project collaborators · Teams · who can open a Project. Containment: Organizations · Projects · Documents · delete and restore.
Straight answers
- Do I start a Session to work with someone?
- No. There is no Session product, no 9-digit room, and no Finish so the PDF ‘exists.’ Open the Project. That’s joining. Edits save as you go. The deep walk is realtime multiplayer collaboration.
- What is the difference between cloud sync and collaboration?
- Cloud sync is the same Project on every device, including offline after you open a sheet. Collaboration is people on that Project at the same time: Share, presence, Follow, comments, and two Edit seats measuring together.
- Can two estimators measure at the same time?
- Yes, if both have Edit. Anyone with permission can be on the Project at once. Anyone with Edit can change unlocked markups at once. Last accepted write on the same markup wins. You still measure. Details: realtime multiplayer collaboration.
- Should I invite a GC into my Organization?
- Usually no. Share the Project as a guest. Organization members inherit Edit when Project access is All members, the shop default. That would list other bids. Restricted plus a guest keeps one bid off the rest of the shop.
- What works when the trailer link fails?
- After you open a Document while signed in, that takeoff stays on the device. Keep measuring. Presence, Follow, comments, first visit of a new PDF, and CSV export need a connection. That contract is cloud sync.
- How is this different from emailing the PDF?
- One Project is the set. You are not arguing which `v4` is latest. Grant View or Edit. They open the Project. When the bid is over, revoke. Hand them the CSV if they still need quantities.
- Do I keep Revu?
- Yes, if that’s still the punch and RFI desk. Markup names on our sheet stay Revu (Length, Polylength, Count, Area, Markups List). The meeting model is not Studio Sessions. The measuring loop is still how it works.