16 Aug
Reviewing complex designs and construction drawings is crucial to ensure errors are resolved in time to avoid costly rework and project delays. AEC teams cannot rely on limited PDF markup tools to cater to the complexities of the construction documents they deal with, hence the need for robust document markup tools, allowing for a seamless and flexible review process.
Through our discussions with AEC professionals and teams, we recognized the need for an array of specific markup tools (like cloud annotations and callouts) and a more advanced experience to streamline collaboration on documents. That’s why we’re introducing zipBoard’s New and Improved PDF Player.
Below, we give you a walkthrough of how some key features of the enhanced PDF markup tool can contribute to your document review and approval processes and help you complete projects faster without delays and the need for rework.
Boost Productivity with a Streamlined User Experience
The enhanced user experience will make navigating the review dashboard easier in little to no time. Here’s what this means for you and your team:
1. The left side panel allows you to quickly click through different pages of your document without having to scroll endlessly. This helps save you time and helps you identify pages to review faster and easier. There are also outlines within the thumbnails of the pages, reducing search time.
2. The view controls allow you to tailor the document viewing experience to your needs with tools like page transitions, orientation, layout, and more.
3. Have a specific item you’re looking for in the drawing or design but don’t have the time to review the entire document? Use the search feature to find what you need with ease. This feature ensures that information retrieval within documents is quick and less tasking.
4. With the enhanced comments panel, you can now approve comments directly from the review dashboard and also manage your comments by editing or deleting them. This reduces the friction of moving to the task manager to approve comments or manage them during reviews. These new features have been added to the existing features in the comment tab like search, sort, and filter – to streamline the review process.
5. The settings menu allows you to customize your viewing experience with options such as full screen, dark mode for reduced eye strain, and translate – enabling you to translate the content on the review dashboard, not the document you’re reviewing
Overall, the new PDF player experience ensures a customized and coherent review process without delays. It also enhances team collaboration and ensures everyone is on the same page without leaving the review dashboard.
Work Seamlessly Across Devices
Whether you’re reviewing plans on your desktop in the office or referencing drawings on a tablet or mobile phone at a construction site, you can access and annotate PDFs with ease. This cross-device compatibility keeps projects moving forward, no matter your location.
More so, all project information is synced across your devices in real-time. This helps give feedback quickly to avoid delays and enhance collaboration with all project stakeholders.
Expanded Annotation Options
You asked and we listened! Limited annotation tools are now a thing of the past. In the new and improved zipBoard PDF markup tool, we’ve added several PDF annotation tools, categorized them for easy identification of annotation tools and to ensure more accurate contextual reviews, especially on complex drawings. Here’s what this means for you:
1. You now have access to a dedicated View tab that allows you to view documents without any noise (read annotation tools, outlines, comments, etc) in the background. So if you want to view a document first before proceeding to markup or comment, the View tab is a good place to start
2. The Annotate tab offers existing features like highlight, free text, rectangle, and free hand – in addition to new annotation tools like underline, strikeout, and squiggly! The GIF below shows it all.
- In this same tab, you also have tools that allow you to customize your annotations – like changing the color, opacity, stroke thickness, text styles, and more.
- Want to undo, redo, or erase an annotation? Locate the undo and redo arrows and the eraser at the far right of the annotate tab and make changes to your work easily.
3. Regular annotation tools like the rectangle, text underline, and so on will enable you markup areas of a drawing or design that is straightforward or does not have a lot of curves. However, if you want to review more complex drawings or give feedback on certain areas, you’ll need tools that allow for precise markups – into corners, etc.
That’s why in the New PDF Player, you have the Shapes Tab that provides you with 10+ shapes for more accurate markups. They include ellipse, arc, polygon, cloud, line, polyline, and arrow. See how they work:
Improve PDF Markup with Cloud Annotations
Among the many markup tools in the new PDF player is “Cloud”. This feature in zipBoard works like the cloud markup tool in Bluebeam that gives you the flexibility to annotate specific areas in a document without being confined to a predefined shape.
This translates into effortless, precise, and more accurate markups to highlight key areas and corners of submittals and drawings that need attention.
It’s worth noting that the cloud annotation feature comes with customization options that allow for clarity and visibility. Examples include the ability to add a link or page within the document (for extra context), changing the color, opacity, and thickness of the cloud stroke, and so much more!
Stay Organized with Dynamic and Run-Time Stamping
After reviews, come approvals. In addition to adding digital signatures and approval stamps to show approval, the new PDF markup tool now gives you several features to show approval even before you add your official stamp. These new features will help improve the approval process and help keep track of changes. Here are the new additions and how they help streamline the approval process:
- The Cross (X) tool enables you to mark items as incorrect, highlight errors, or indicate items for removal within documents.
- Use the Tick (or Check) mark to confirm or approve items, validate completed tasks, or indicate correctness within documents.
- Want to indicate points of interest, highlight specific areas, or mark items for attention within documents? Use the dot (.)
- The Calendar stamp allows you to add date and time stamps to documents for record-keeping, tracking changes, or establishing document timelines.
Add More Context for Clarity: Effortlessly Insert Images & Files
The new zipBoard PDF player allows you to add more context to markups to improve collaboration – by seamlessly inserting images and files directly into PDFs. For instance, you can upload and insert reference photos, sketches, or other visuals alongside your markups. This improves clarity, eliminates confusion, and ensures everyone is on the same page regarding project details.
Additionally, you can close feedback loops by incorporating visuals into your reviews. For example, add a sketch to a blueprint to illustrate a specific change request. This simplifies communication and reduces the need for lengthy written explanations.
Adding images within files allows for more detailed explanations and visual aids. Makes feedback clearer and easier to understand.
Easily Reference Document Pages and External Resources with Hyperlinks
The new PDF markup tool allows you to link to relevant pages and add URLs to documents, specifications, or external resources that might be relevant to the annotation you made – right within the document under review. For instance, you can now link a callout in a drawing to a detailed specification in another document, saving time and ensuring everyone refers to the latest information
This gives context to reviews, improves clarity, and also saves time on sharing resources through emails and other communication channels. It also creates a central hub for all project information, eliminating the need to search through folders or track down separate files.
Final Notes
The New zipBoard PDF Player provides AEC professionals and all relevant stakeholders with a streamlined document review experience that boosts efficiency and improves collaboration.
Ready to save time on reviews and avoid costly rework?
Try the New and Improved zipBoard PDF Markup Tool for Free
Be among the first to experience zipBoard's New PDF Player and shape the future of document collaboration in AEC. Have any questions or feedback? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us via [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you!
Book DemoStart Free TrialAuthor’s bio:
Dorcas Kpabitey is a Content Marketing Specialist at zipBoard. She began her content marketing journey alongside her BA in Political Science and Spanish at the University of Ghana. If she’s not tapping away at her keyboard or spending time on Twitter and LinkedIn, she spends her day reading articles, newsletters and books.
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