Release notes · Version 1.1.5
What's new in Project Blueprint 1.1.5
1.1.5 lets you edit the drawing itself, sign and archive PDFs, print by scale, and price takeoff with assemblies. It's a free update for every 1.x licence.
Project Blueprint 1.1.5 is a free update for every 1.x licence. You can now edit a PDF's own text, sign and check signatures, save PDF/A copies, print at a chosen scale or tiled, and build takeoff assemblies with labour, costs and reports. It also brings units, built-in profiles with their own colours, free download packs, and snapping on dense Revit and Archicad drawings.
How to update
1.1.5 is free for every 1.x licence, Founder or regular.
- On 1.1.4: open Blueprint and choose Help ▸ Check for Updates.
- On 1.1.3 or earlier: download the latest version from the release notes page, then drag it into your Applications folder, replacing the old app.
Edit the drawing itself
- Edit PDF Text: change the drawing's own text (not a markup) in place. It stays real, searchable text.
- Erase Content removes what's wholly inside the area and keeps the rest of the page sharp and searchable (it used to turn the page into a picture). Anything crossing the edge, and pictures and shading drawn inline, are hidden, not removed; use Redact when it must be gone for good.
- Edit Text on the Page: click the drawing's own text and type. Return or clicking away saves, Esc cancels. Lettering drawn as lines by CAD isn't text and can't be edited this way.
- Crop by dragging a box: drag around the part to keep, on one page or all pages of the same size.
- Deskew straightens scanned pages.
- Grayscale and Black & White now keep linework sharp and text searchable.
- Headers, footers and Bates numbers are now real page text. Apply them again to update them, or remove them all.
Smaller, cleaner, archival files
- Reduce File Size now keeps text, linework, links and forms by default. The old picture method is still there for scans.
- Repair PDF can now rebuild damaged files that wouldn't open before.
- Sanitize Document saves a clean copy without hidden information: document details, who wrote each markup and when, scripts, attached files, content on hidden layers (except inside patterns and markup appearances) and old saved versions. The copy has no password. Comments stay unless you choose to remove them.
- Save as PDF/A writes a copy for archiving. If a contract requires PDF/A, check the copy with a validator.
- Attachments: see, add, save out and remove files attached to a PDF.
Signatures and forms
- Sign with Certificate: sign a PDF with a certificate file (.p12 or .pfx), or a certificate macOS can reach on a USB token or in your keychain. You can also certify. Earlier signatures stay valid.
- Check Signatures tells you whether each signature is intact and whether the file changed after it was signed.
- Signatures you place from your signature library are now named and locked so they aren't moved by accident.
- Form calculations now work in other PDF apps too, and you can set the tab order of form fields.
Layers and spaces
- Rename layers, nest them, reorder them, and choose what happens to their markups when you delete one.
- Save layer views (which layers are shown) and switch between them.
- A PDF's own layers now show for any PDF, including nested layers and the PDF's saved views.
- The Spaces panel shows spaces as a tree with markup counts, warns when two spaces overlap, and closed shapes can be turned into spaces.
Search, Markups List and reports
- Save searches and run them again later. Export search results to a spreadsheet.
- Phrases are found even when the drawing breaks them over two lines.
- Saved Markups List filters now remember the sort, grouping and columns.
- Summary export adds XML and a choice of separator (comma, semicolon, tab or your Mac's setting).
- The PDF summary can come after the drawing pages, with each row linked to its markup.
Printing and export
- Print a page range, the current view, at actual size, at a chosen scale, or tiled across several sheets.
- Print a box you drag on the page.
- Choose the paper in Print Options, including A sizes, Letter, Legal and Tabloid.
- Export pages as PNG, JPEG or TIFF images, or the text as a text or RTF file.
Sets and batch work
- Batch Link now links sheet numbers across a whole folder of drawings, not just within one file.
- Batch Overlay and Slip Sheet match drawings even when the new revision has a different file name, and show you the pairs first.
- Batch folders can include subfolders.
- Batch Scripts: save a list of steps (rotate, crop, colour, deskew, headers and footers) and run it on many PDFs.
- The drawing log lists every revision, and published sets get a bookmark for each sheet.
- If a superseded stamp can't be added, Blueprint now tells you why.
Drawing and measuring
- See the length, angle and running total in the status bar while you draw, and width and height for boxes.
- Ortho (F8, or Ortho in the status bar) keeps lines straight without holding Shift. Hold Shift to free a point.
- Set what the mouse wheel does: zoom or scroll (Settings ▸ General). ⌘ always zooms.
- Callouts can have a horizontal landing: a short level line where the leader meets the box.
- Shift-click edits a path's points only once that path is selected. On anything else it just adds to the selection, so it can't change a measured area by accident.
Images and stamps
- Paste or drag in screenshots and images at full size, with transparency kept.
- Images have a Keep proportions switch, plus resize, rotate, opacity and lock in place.
- PDF stamps come in at real size with a transparent background, trimmed to the ink and sharp enough to print. Seals print at true size.
- Working Area Beside the Page (View menu): keep markups and images off to the side. They save with the file but don't print or flatten.
Tool sets and hatches
- Imported tool sets now draw every part of a symbol in place at real size. Symbols with text stay editable, so section marks and weld notes can be typed over.
- Each imported set gets its own tool set, so tools with the same name in different sets are all kept.
Compare
- Overlay Compare has an opacity slider for each drawing.
- Split view with two PDFs now stays in step whichever one you turn.
Workspace
- Each drawing reopens at the page, zoom and split you left it at.
- Split the window with a second drawing and keep them in step.
- Pin files in named groups in File Access.
- Back up and restore all your settings (your licence is never included).
- Profiles now also save your keyboard shortcuts.
- Import photos, sketches and document scans straight from your iPhone or iPad.
- VoiceOver can read markups on the drawing.
Takeoff assemblies
- The assembly buttons now work, and if something can't be saved or placed you're told why.
- A shared library across drawings, with groups, duplicate, import and export, plus metric starter assemblies.
- Inputs can calculate from a formula, and a component can use an earlier component's quantity.
- Labour and equipment rates give hours. Cost codes, per-unit prices, and a report you can export to CSV.
- Put one assembly's components into another.
Units
- Choose inches, centimetres, millimetres or points in Settings ▸ Measure ▸ Units. A Mac set to the US starts in inches.
- Imperial scales still work as before, such as 1/4" = 1'-0" in Set Scale.
Page labels
- Label Pages rebuilt: label from bookmarks or from an area on the page, choose the page range, and open More Options when you need them.
Your workspace, your colours
- Built-in Basic, Standard and Advanced profiles.
- Each profile can have its own theme colour, chosen from a set of themes, with a confirmation and Reset to Default.
- Tool buttons are colour-coded by type, so measuring tools and special tools are easy to tell apart. You can turn this off.
- Drag toolbar groups into the order you like with the grip beside each group. Each profile keeps its own order. Right-click the toolbar to reset it.
Download packs
- Free tool sets, Markups List columns and profiles to download and import, metric and imperial, by trade and role.
Tool sets (.blueprinttools): Metric Takeoff, Imperial Takeoff, Site Manager, Project Manager, Quantity Surveyor, Architect Review, Electrical, Plumbing and Mechanical, Painting and Finishes. Open the Tools panel, choose Import, and pick a file. Each arrives as its own set.
Markups List columns (.xml): Quantity Surveyor Columns, Project Manager Columns, Site Manager Columns, Architect Columns. With a drawing open, use File ▸ Import Revu Assets and pick the file.
Profiles (.blueprintprofile): Quantity Surveyor, Project Manager, Site Manager, Architect. Use Profiles ▸ Import Profile. Each sets the layout, the columns and its own colour theme.
Basic, Standard and Advanced are built into the app under Profiles ▸ Built In.
More tools
- Pages panel: show pages as a grid, drag a page out as a PDF, drop PDFs in to add them.
- Ruler and protractor lying on the page. Turn it, stretch it, and draw along its edge.
- Lasso Crop cuts an image to a shape you draw.
- Signature from a photo: the paper is removed and the ink kept.
- Audio notes on any markup.
- Copy Text from Area works on scans too.
- Pen lines follow pressure on a drawing tablet.
- Ink to shape, graph and lined page styles, alignment guides while dragging, a magnifier, and Share.
Fixes
- Fixed a likely cause of a crash when using the colour picker.
- Snapping now works on dense drawings exported from Revit. Pages with heavy hatching keep their lines to snap to, and a page exported as a picture says so.
- Recovery copies are now saved as one whole unit, so pages and markups always belong to the same moment, and recovered pages keep their rotation, crop, links and forms.
- A damaged library or markup file no longer loses everything: what can be read is kept, and the file as it was is saved beside it.
- Sanitize now removes what it says wherever it hides: attached files, scripts in bookmarks and form fields, layers hidden by default, and details stored on images and other objects.
- Grayscale or Black & White on chosen pages no longer changes title blocks shared with other pages.
- Batch Split and Batch Overlay with subfolders no longer overwrite sheets with the same name.
- Headers and footers keep names with macrons readable (Tāmaki prints as Tamaki).
- The Markup Summary PDF is landscape again, so the Comment and Measurement columns fit on the page, and long comments no longer run into the next row.
- ⇧⌘E opens Export Flattened PDF again.
- Flip Horizontal is now ⌥⇧⌘H, because macOS keeps ⌥⌘H for Hide Others.
- Cropping a page that is turned 90° or 270° no longer moves your markups off the drawing.
Not in 1.1.5
Signing with a USB token through the token's own software (rather than through macOS) is coming in 1.1.6. Tokens and certificates macOS can already see work now. If there's something else you'd like to see, email support@blueprintformac.com. I read every message.
Looking for the previous update? See the 1.1.3 release notes.
Frequently asked questions
Is Project Blueprint 1.1.5 a free update?
Yes. Every Project Blueprint licence, Founder or regular, includes all 1.x updates, so 1.1.5 costs nothing extra. Trial users get it too.
How do I update Project Blueprint to 1.1.5?
On 1.1.4, choose Help ▸ Check for Updates. On 1.1.3 or earlier, download the latest version from the release notes page and replace the old app in your Applications folder.
Can Project Blueprint edit existing text in a PDF?
Yes, from 1.1.5. Edit PDF Text changes the drawing's own text in place, and it stays real, searchable text. Lettering that CAD drew as lines isn't text and can't be edited this way.
Can Project Blueprint digitally sign a PDF?
Yes, from 1.1.5. Sign with a certificate file (.p12 or .pfx) or one macOS can reach in your keychain or on a USB token, certify a document, and check whether each signature is still intact.
Why doesn't snapping work on my Revit drawing?
Earlier versions stopped snapping on very dense pages. 1.1.5 keeps the lines to snap to and leaves hatching out first. If a page was exported as a picture rather than lines, the status bar says so; export with vector processing to keep the lines.