Drawing Processing Part 3 - Batch Link

Part 3 of Drawing Processing is the final step in a processed set of drawings. Here you will learn to use Bluebeam’s most widely known tool, Batch Linking

Batch Linking

Now that the drawings are all set up, we can finally get into the final step which is to hyper link all the callouts. Fortunately, Bluebeam’s Batch Hyperlink tool will do most of the work for us.

1. Start with a blank Bluebeam window (Nothing should be open at this time
2. In the Ribbon go to File --> Batch --> Link --> New
   
3. Click on Add Folders and select the whole folder which contains the drawings (Do not select subfolders separately)
4. Press ‘Next’
5. Select the FileName radio button to search by FileName
6. Click on Settings
   • Set Filter Mode to First from Start
   • Use an underscore _ as the filter character
     
7. In Part 1, we added a footer with “INDEX”. Now we will change our Custom Index Dashboard that we created with the RXDS Indexer, to the word INDEX. See below:
8. IMPORTANT!!! Because our Custom INDEX was already linked using the RXDS Indexer, we do not want to relink it using Bluebeams Batch Link tool. For this reason we will go back and Uncheck it
   • Click Back
   • Right click on the First Line Item, which is the Main Folder which holds our Custom Index, and select Uncheck
   • Press Next
9. Set link options by clicking on Link Options. See below for RXDS Standard Settings
10. Press Run and let Bluebeam Process

Finished

At this point your drawings have been linked but you will want to open up the Drawing_Index.pdf and double check a few pages to make sure:

• your Index works
• callouts got linked
• INDEX footer takes you back to the index