Bluebeam Studio Sessions and Projects: how long markups are kept

How long are markups kept in a Studio Session?#

Markups in a Studio Session are kept for as long as the Session exists, and a Session is built to be temporary: it opens for a review, attendees mark up shared copies of the PDFs, and the host ends it when the review is done. After that, what survives is whatever someone saved.

Session limits, expiry options and storage rules depend on your Bluebeam plan and Revu version, and they change over time. Check the current settings in Studio and in Bluebeam's documentation rather than relying on how long an old Session happened to stay open.

The practical rule follows from that: treat every Session as disposable, and treat the saved files and markup summary as the record.

Studio Sessions versus Studio Projects#

Studio Sessions and Studio Projects solve different problems, and firms that blur them lose markup history. A Session is a shared review room; a Project is a shared file cabinet.

Review history is most exposed at the boundary between the two: the review happens in a Session, but nobody moves the result into the Project or the firm's document system.

What markup history actually contains#

Markup history contains far more than clouds on a sheet. Each markup in Revu's markups list carries fields that turn a drawing review into a structured record of who raised what and how it was resolved.

A Session also keeps a record of attendee activity while it is open. Save it with the files if your QA/QC procedure needs proof of who reviewed a set and when.

• 1Subject and comment text, which hold the reviewer's reasoning.
• 2Author and date, which show who raised the issue and when.
• 3Status and replies, which show whether an issue was accepted, rejected or completed.
• 4Page label and layer, which place the comment on a sheet and a discipline.
• 5Custom columns, which firms use for discipline codes, RFI numbers or severity.

Closing checklist before a Session ends#

A closing checklist protects the review and takes little of the host's time. Build it into the host's routine so it happens on every Session, not only on the ones that feel important.

• 1Confirm all attendees have finished and every markup has a status.
• 2Save the marked-up PDFs from the Session to the project folder, with file names that include the review type and date.
• 3Export a markup summary from the markups list, including author, date, status, comments and custom columns.
• 4Save the Session record or attendee report if your QA/QC procedure needs it.
• 5Link the saved files to the RFI, submittal or review entry in your project management system.
• 6Only then end the Session.

Where markups belong in the project record#

Markups belong with the review they document: internal QA/QC checks, submittal reviews, RFI responses and coordination reviews. Filed that way, a markup summary shows how a design issue was found, discussed and closed, which is easy to lose when only the issued drawings are filed.

Set retention for these files with the rest of the project record. Owner contracts, professional liability considerations and state rules all shape how long architects and engineers keep project files, so decide once at the firm level rather than Session by Session.

Name markup files the same way on every project, with project number, review type, sheet range and date, so they sort and search consistently years later.

Signs your firm is already losing markup history#

The signs of lost markup history show up in claims, staff turnover and quality audits rather than in Bluebeam itself. If several of these sound familiar, the closing checklist is overdue.

Each sign points to the same fix: decide where review records live, name who saves them, and check a sample of recent reviews each quarter to confirm the habit holds.

• 1Issued drawing sets in the document system have no companion review file.
• 2RFI responses refer to comments that nobody can now find.
• 3Old Session invitations in email point to Sessions that no longer open.
• 4Reviewers keep personal copies of marked-up sets on their own laptops.
• 5QA/QC logs record that a review happened but not what it found.

Illustrative: a structural engineering firm stops losing review comments#

Illustrative: a fictional structural engineering firm runs internal QA/QC reviews of drawing sets in Studio Sessions. Senior reviewers mark up each set, project engineers respond, and the project manager ends the Session when the set is issued.

During a claim on an older project, the firm finds the issued drawings but none of the review comments, because Sessions had been ended without saving marked-up copies or summaries. The COO adds the closing checklist, a custom column for discipline, and a rule that every summary is filed against the review in the firm's Deltek project record.

The outcome: each issued set now has a companion review record showing what was caught and how it was resolved. The summaries also become a teaching resource for new engineers, sorted by issue type.

Who owns markups, and can review history be licensed?#

Ownership of drawings and markups depends on the owner agreement. Standard EJCDC owner-engineer agreements, for example, say documents prepared by the engineer are instruments of service and that the engineer retains an ownership and property interest in them, including the copyright and the right of reuse. Other contracts give the client more, so check each project's terms.

Review comments often capture the firm's own expertise: how a senior engineer spots a load path problem or a missing detail. SourceX looks at such records through the SourceX five-step transaction (Supply, Rights, Preparation, Approval, Delivery). The Rights step separates firm-owned review history from client-controlled drawings, and Preparation removes project names, addresses and personal details before the firm approves anything.