Bluebeam MCP

Give Claude (or any MCP client) a working knowledge of Bluebeam Revu PDFs: read takeoff quantities, see drawings, search sheets, and add Bluebeam-style markups - without a Bluebeam Max subscription.

Bluebeam stores a lot inside the PDF: measurement markups carry their scale and quantity, Cloud+ markups are grouped callouts, replies and review statuses hang off their parent, layers are optional content groups. This server reads and writes that structure directly with PyMuPDF, so it works on any Bluebeam-marked PDF on disk - open in Revu or not, one file or a whole folder of sets.

What you can ask

"Give me the takeoff totals on the site plan, grouped by subject." "Export every markup in this set to Excel like Revu's Markups List." "Show me sheet C-101 and cloud the headwall at station 12+50 with a note to verify grade." "Which sheets mention 'riprap'? Build me a sheet index." "Compare the markups in rev 2 and rev 3 - what was added or closed out?" "Flatten the redlines into a copy and extract sheets 7-9."

Related MCP server: PDF Tools

Example

bb_takeoff_summary on a plan with area, length and count takeoffs (trimmed):

{
  "rows": [
    {"group": {"subject": "Riprap Area"},   "kind": "area",   "markups": 2, "total": 10121.53, "unit": "sf"},
    {"group": {"subject": "Riprap Area"},   "kind": "volume", "markups": 1, "total": 96.45,    "unit": "cu yd"},
    {"group": {"subject": "Concrete Slab"}, "kind": "area",   "markups": 1, "total": 3333.33,  "unit": "sf"},
    {"group": {"subject": "Inlet Count"},   "kind": "count",  "markups": 1, "total": 3,        "unit": "count"}
  ],
  "scales": [{"page": 2, "scale": "1 in = 30 ft' in\"", "units_per_point": 0.4166667}],
  "warnings": []
}

Quantities come from the value Bluebeam itself displays; the geometry is recomputed as a cross-check, and any markup where the two disagree (cutouts, arcs, edited captions) is flagged.

Features

Quick start

Requirements: Windows, Python 3.11+. Bluebeam Revu is only needed for bb_open_in_revu.

git clone https://github.com/walkerladams01-rgb/Bluebeam-MCP-.git bluebeam-mcp
cd bluebeam-mcp
py -3 -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Claude Code

claude mcp add --scope user bluebeam -- "$PWD\.venv\Scripts\python.exe" "$PWD\server.py"

Claude Desktop (%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "bluebeam": {
      "command": "C:\\path\\to\\bluebeam-mcp\\.venv\\Scripts\\python.exe",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\bluebeam-mcp\\server.py"]
    }
  }
}

Restart the client, then ask for bb_revu_status to check the connection.

Tools

Conventions: pages are 1-based and ranges look like "1,3-5"; coordinates are PDF points (1/72 in) from the top-left corner; markup ids are Bluebeam's own /NM GUIDs.

Safety

• Nothing is overwritten silently. Every write takes output_path (a new file; the source is untouched). Without it the file is edited in place after the original is copied to .bb_backups\<name>.<timestamp>.pdf beside it. A call that changes nothing writes nothing.

• Revu does not lock the PDFs it has open and would overwrite outside edits when it saves. The server refuses to edit the file in Revu's active tab (or one another program holds open) and adds a warning to in-place writes whenever Revu is running.

• bb_flatten writes <name> (flattened).pdf unless told to flatten in place.

• Read tools never write. Logs go to stderr; stdout is reserved for the MCP protocol.

Bluebeam's official MCP server

Revu 21.9+ ships its own MCP server, which drives Revu directly. It requires a Bluebeam Max subscription and an admin setting (Preferences > Admin > MCP). This project needs neither and is complementary: it works on files rather than the live Revu session, handles many files at once, and focuses on quantities. bb_revu_status tells you whether the official server is available.

Limitations

• Bluebeam's annotation format is undocumented; the parser follows what Revu writes into real takeoff sets. Volumes (depth units), custom columns and how Revu displays markups written here (especially measurements) should be spot-checked in Revu. Volume rows are marked volume_unverified until then.

• Revu itself can only be asked to open a file (Revu.Launcher COM); it cannot be told to close, save or refresh one. Reopen a file in Revu to see changes made on disk.

• Windows only (COM and file locking); the PDF tools themselves are pure Python.

Development

.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pip install -r requirements-dev.txt
.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pytest -q                  # no Revu needed
.venv\Scripts\python.exe -m pytest -m integration      # talks to the local Revu

Tests build synthetic PDFs with tests/bb_synth.py, which reproduces the structures Revu writes (indirect /Measure dictionaries, Cloud+ groups, count groups, replies, review states, layers, UTF-16 page labels, viewport scales), so no drawings are needed or committed.

server.py                  FastMCP entry point (stdio)
bluebeam/core.py           errors, paths, page ranges, markup ids, safe writes
bluebeam/markups_read.py   Bluebeam markup parser            -> tools_read.py
bluebeam/takeoff.py        quantity math and grouping
bluebeam/render.py         page and markup rendering
bluebeam/markups_write.py  markup writers                    -> tools_write.py
bluebeam/pages.py          page operations, document info    -> tools_pages.py
bluebeam/revu_native.py    Revu.Launcher COM and status      -> tools_native.py

Credits

Started from mblakebaugh-hub/bluebeam-mcp and rebuilt with Claude Code. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Bluebeam, Inc.; Bluebeam and Revu are trademarks of Bluebeam, Inc.

License

MIT