QQuantumSteel Design

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Drawing revision viewer

Compare PDF drawing revisions, align sheets, add review pins, clouds, arrows and notes, and export marked comparison images.

Your PDFs and passwords stay in this browser tab and are never uploaded or saved. Choose PDFs up to 50 MB each; closing or reloading clears them. Review JSON and explicit project saves include source filenames, document fingerprints, page references, notes and marks, but no PDF bytes or passwords. Keep exported reviews with the controlled source issues.

Reference drawing

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Revision drawing

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Compare the sheets

Align the revision in overlay view

Positive offsets move the revision right and down. One point is 1/72 inch on the PDF sheet. Rotation and scale act around the revision's center. Side-by-side view always shows the original pages.

Choose a reference PDF and a revision PDF to begin.

Mark up your review

Choose a mark, then click a sheet for a pin or note, or drag for a cloud or arrow. Marks stay with this source pair and page pair. Changing alignment moves the PDF underneath overlay marks; verify their placement afterward. Keyboard placement uses percentages measured from the sheet's top left.

Place a mark with the keyboard

Marks are temporary until you export or save them.

    Up to 300 marks per review. Restoring a review requires reselecting both PDFs and verifying their issues. Use local drawing-set search to find text across several PDFs.

    Your selected drawing pages will appear here.

    Use the comparison as a visual review aid

    1. Select the drawing issue you are checking against and the revised issue. Choose the matching page in each PDF.
    2. Check the sheet number, revision, units, and page orientation. Side-by-side view helps confirm that the sheets belong together.
    3. Switch to overlay. Match a known grid intersection or control point with the offset, rotation, and scale controls; then check another point well away from the first.
    4. Move the opacity slider between the two issues and inspect the entire sheet. Use zoom and scroll for detailed areas.
    5. Export a PNG to support your review notes. Record the source issue and unresolved questions in your project workspace.

    This viewer does not identify every change or validate engineering information. It renders page artwork; interactive annotations, attachments, and signatures are not audited. Different sheet scales, raster scans, layers, or shifted crop boxes can obscure differences. Overlay content outside the displayed sheet bounds is clipped. Rendering is capped at 3 million pixels per sheet and 4,096 pixels per side; the status reports reduced resolution. Always verify against the controlled source documents.

    Continue with the release review checklists, the revision-cloud review lesson, or PDF Rescue for suitable vector geometry.

    This PDF needs a password

    Enter the document password to open it locally.

    Keep a drawing comparison tied to its source issues

    A useful revision review identifies the two source issues, aligns corresponding sheets, and records questions someone else can locate. The viewer supplies a visual workspace for that process; the reference PDF and revision PDF remain separate source documents.

    Start with an identifiable page pair

    1. Open the two PDFs and select the matching sheet in each. A sheet may move to a different PDF page number between issues.
    2. Use side-by-side view to verify the sheet identifiers and orientation before overlaying them. Start with a recognizable grid intersection or another shared point.
    3. Align the overlay, then check a second point away from the first. Inspect the sheet at more than one opacity setting before adding review marks.

    Example: record a changed reference

    Suppose a callout on the reference issue reads “3/S501” and the corresponding revision reads “5/S502.” Add a pin or cloud around the callout and a note identifying the sheet and the clarification needed. Record what you observed; do not use the markup to imply that either detail is approved.

    Marks belong to the selected source pair and page pair. If a mark seems to disappear after navigating pages, choose it from the mark list to return to its page pair. Overlay marks stay at their display positions while alignment controls move the PDF underneath, so recheck their placement after changing alignment.

    Choose the output that preserves what you need

    PNG exports the currently displayed comparison and visible marks. Long notes may be shortened on the image. Review JSON retains the full note text, mark coordinates, source names and fingerprints, and saved view settings; it does not contain either PDF. A project review also requires reselecting the original source files when reopened.

    During restoration, inspect the expected source names and verify the actual issues before applying marks. A fingerprint warning deserves a source check rather than an automatic acceptance. Keep controlled PDFs and exported images alongside your review record through your normal document process. Use drawing-set search to locate other occurrences of the reference, then record unresolved questions in the RFI log.

    A few practical answers

    Frequently asked questions

    Does the viewer find every revision automatically?

    No. It helps you inspect two documents visually. Align the relevant pages and review notes, schedules, and dependent details; a revision cloud is not a complete change list.

    Why do unchanged lines appear different?

    Differences in page size, scale, rotation, line weight, or alignment can create apparent changes. Check a stable reference point before comparing the affected area.

    Are the PDFs stored in my project backup?

    No. Keep the source PDFs separately. Saved review notes and references do not contain the original drawing bytes.