Note: (updated Jan 4, 2020) Bluebeam 2019 has been released with different view preferences.  Supposedly updates to the software have improved viewing speed.

When working on large projects sometimes our PDF files are hundreds of sheets. It is frustrating in Bluebeam when it slowly loads the pages filled with complex line work, even worse with CAD underlays. Somehow it never fails that the program slows down more when making an important presentation. After digging through Bluebeam’s preferences, it seems like there are some options to help speed up the engine under the hood. See some of my recent settings are shown below that have helped.

Although this prevents Bluebeam from slowly propagating the sheet with line work, there are still some issues. There is still a little load times for the sheets, but notably, the sheet preview thumbnails are slowest. Speeding up PDF viewing in Bluebeam is an evolving topic, but hopefully these are a couple steps to make things easier.

First posted on Linkedin

Bluebeam View Settings