A Budapest-based multi-disciplinary engineering and management firm has halved the time it takes to make design reviews thanks to Bluebeam® and GRAPHISOFT® software.

Márkus Engineering needed a reliable online project collaboration platform to maintain information flow between project teams on- and off-site during the Covid-19 lockdown.

As the pandemic intensified, the firm was in the middle of managing a major renovation project in the heart of Budapest—the creation of a new Radisson Collection Hotel.

With delivery of the high-stakes project under threat, Márkus needed a solution that would help them stay on schedule and on budget. Crucially, the solution had to work with Archicad, GRAPHISOFT BIM software, which was used by the project’s designers and architects.

By using Bluebeam Revu®, Márkus was able to switch seamlessly to remote work thanks to Archicad’s Bluebeam Connection, which integrates the BIM authoring tool with the design review workflows in Revu.

As well, switching to digital collaboration with Revu significantly streamlined working processes, leading to time and cost savings across the project, managing director Tamás Márkus said.

Márkus has made the switch to Revu permanent.

“In Hungary, 89 per cent of architects work in Archicad. Revu was the right solution for us because it integrates seamlessly with the Archicad software,” Márkus said.

“It’s versatile and cost-effective, which is important to us as a small business. We saved 50 per cent of our time on design reviews and completed quantities and estimations five times faster.”

With Bluebeam Connection, all markups created in Revu are imported as native Archicad entries, appearing in the correct location on design layouts, without any manual work. This seamless compatibility delivered the time saving.

Márkus set up a system to leverage Studio Projects to host a Digital Dashboard, using it on a daily basis to access up-to-date project information, from construction drawings to RFIs.

Digital Dashboard is a customisable navigation interface which links to a folder structure granting quick access to important project files. Using this feature, the team could easily find information they needed among the 1250 plans and 15,000 links stored on the Digital Dashboard.

Studio in Revu allows users to invite team members from anywhere in the world to collaborate, giving external stakeholders the ability to mark up and review documents in real time. The Márkus team kept up its weekly project meetings during lockdown with Studio Sessions. Because Revu is accessible online all of the time, there was no need to wait for face-to-face meetings for approvals.

Quantity takeoffs and estimations are critical for every construction project. Thanks to the measurements and quantity calculation functions in Revu, Márkus was able to complete quantity takeoffs and estimations five times faster than before.

“It speeds up a lot in checking quantities and controlling material costs,” a Márkus employee said.

As well, Márkus saved thousands of euros in paper printing costs with Revu and it also helped eliminate human error. Previously, the team had to manually red-line delivered prints and digital PDF files, risking mistakes. Now, they mark up directly onto digital deliverables.

The transition to Archicad-Revu has helped the firm level up their digital workflows, reducing overall work hours on the Radisson project. Time is money in construction, and any time saved adds profit to the bottom-line.

The team has a new digital strategy in place, which includes GRAPHISOFT and Bluebeam on all future projects to keep pace with the industry, staying agile and competitive.

“Our ethos is: You either keep up, or you fall behind. With the help of Bluebeam, we’re taking the first steps on the technology ladder,” Márkus said.

“It’s helped us put our small business on an equal footing with bigger players to gain a competitive edge in the local market.”

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