^7/1/26 Did you know that measuring to scale in a PDF works really well in GstarCAD, too? It’s a little more difficult than with Bluebeam, but not for anyone who’s already learned to use AutoCAD. When you open GstarCAD, you’ll immediately see a row of buttons; you’ll need the “PDF Underlay” button to place a page from a PDF file at the origin of your drawing. If you’d like to know more, please feel free to contact us.

An added benefit of this method is that you can also overlay or underlay a DWG or DWF (both from AutoCAD) or a DGN (from MicroStation).

Yes, there are other options besides Bluebeam when it comes to measuring in PDFs. Another advantage: you only need to purchase the GstarCAD license once. After that, there are no annual fees, so it ends up being more cost-effective starting in the third year.

^8/1/26 Fortunately, deliveries have resumed today at Bluebeam.

^7/1/26 We still do not know why Bluebeam is not making deliveries, but for now, nothing seems to be changing. We have not received any deliveries at all in 2026, and we have no information on how much longer this will continue.

So if you’re still waiting for your licenses, please accept my apologies—also on behalf of Bluebeam—and thank you in advance for your patience.

You might want to consider requesting another trial license using a new email address. That will give you another 14 days. Please note, however, that it is not legally permitted to use the software for production work in this manner.

There is no good alternative to Bluebeam if you want to take measurements on drawings at scale and collect and export those measurements. You can, however, import a PDF drawing into GstarCAD as a base layer and then take your measurements there. Feel free to contact us if you’re considering that approach.

^12/3/25 The interim update for GstarCAD 2026, called SP1 (Service Pack 1), has been available since early November. The manufacturer reports the following:

1. 1. Speed Improvements
      • Moving, mirroring, rotating, and copying objects in complex 3D models has improved by more than 100%, and undo and redo operations are up to 5 times faster.
      • LISP Optimization: SSGET is 5 times faster.
      • Sorting layers and lists is twice as fast.
      • Optimizing the command line: Drawing lines by pasting large sets of coordinates is more than 15 times faster.
      • Hatching is 4 to 5 times faster when calculating large hatching areas.
   2. New and Improved Features
      • Automatic input method switching: automatically switches between English input for commands and the current input language for text entry, eliminating the need to manually switch input methods.
      • Smart copy and paste between applications (COPYCLIP): intelligent cropping and customizable paste settings (range, color, formatting). Supports DWG, WMF, and raster formats.
      • User interface improvements: tabs for hatching and an improved image editor.
      • New tools for centerline and center point, CENTERLINE and CENTERMARK, with customizable system variables for size, spacing, and layer management. They are currently disabled by default, but can be enabled in the App Manager in GstarCAD2026 SP1. They are also compatible with AutoCAD.

Download the latest version from our download page. Downloading from the GstarCAD website still appears to fail if you log in from within the EU. We are working on this.

If you use Bluebeam’s cloud solution, your data is stored on a server in Germany, because the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR; known asthe AVG in Dutch) applies in that case. However, since March 23, 2018, this data is likely also subject to the U.S. CLOUD Act and is therefore accessible to the FBI, because Bluebeam—even though it is now part of the German company Nemetschek—serves a large number of U.S. customers.

I quote specialist Rick Goud of Zivver: “A German company with no U.S. branch, no American colleagues, and contracts governed exclusively by German law still fell under U.S. jurisdiction. The reason? The website was in English, there was no restriction on access for U.S. users, and over the course of three years, the company had 156 customers in the U.S. with revenue of just under $200,000. The court ruled that the company should reasonably have anticipated that U.S. law might apply.”

I can hear you thinking: “My company doesn’t have any U.S. customers, and the data (company and personal names, cell phone numbers, email addresses and messages, invoices, etc.) isn’t stored in the cloud.” Does that also apply to your backup? At IDEOMA, the answer is currently still: no, so if the FBI wants to, they can access our data as well. Even though we only keep the bare minimum of personal data about you, we’re still going to take appropriate measures for our backups. It’s a shame that this is necessary, but stay tuned for updates.

IDEOMA has been collaborating with Bluebeam for so long that we’ve gotten to see almost everyone who started working there. When we run into one of the new collegues, we often joke, “What do you want to know about Bluebeam?” Nevertheless, we, too, need to keep up with Bluebeam’s increasingly professional standards, so we have to participate in the time-consuming circus of certifications. Just like the online user training courses, Bluebeam has also set up a fantastic environment for us, its international partners, to brush up on our knowledge—which actually makes earning one of these certifications quite an enjoyable experience.

There you go: