Bluebeam Tip: Create and Share Custom Hatch Fills in Bluebeam Revu

Custom fill patterns make hatch areas more readable and on-brand in Bluebeam Revu. Here’s how to build, standardize, and share them quickly.

• Create a hatch-ready area: Draw an Area (markup or measurement). Open the Properties panel and set Fill to Hatch or Image. Choose a base pattern, color, opacity, and line weight.
• Design a custom look:
  • For traditional hatches, adjust angle, spacing/scale, and color to match your convention.
  • For specialty materials, use Image Fill with a seamless PNG/SVG pattern tile. Keep contrast subtle so underlying content remains legible.
  • Use separate stroke and fill colors to distinguish materials at a glance.
• Maintain readability:
  • Set opacity around 20–40% for background hatches that won’t overpower text or linework.
  • Enable Snaps when outlining boundaries for clean, closed shapes and accurate takeoffs.
• Keep patterns consistent across sheets:
  • Calibrate page scale first; test a known dimension to verify appearance at print scale.
  • If using Image Fill, create tiles at print-intended resolution to avoid moiré or blur.
• Standardize and share:
  • Right-click your finalized hatch markup, Add to Tool Chest, and name it with discipline/material codes.
  • Distribute via Export Tool Set to your team so everyone uses the same patterns and colors.
  • Organize by trade (e.g., Arch, Struct, MEP) for quick access.
• Layer control and publishing:
  • Assign hatches to a dedicated Layer for easy on/off and print control.
  • Flatten before issuing to preserve visual fidelity and prevent unintended edits.
• Reporting: Use Measurement Legends to display hatch color/pattern with quantities for clear, print-ready summaries.

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