SoftPlan User Editorial
Steve Haarmann: “How I Use reView to Communicate Better with My Clients”

The digital age had provided us with the opportunity to communicate with friends, family and customers in unprecedented ways. From ‘snail-mail’ to fax to email to remote server access we have an increasing range of options for effective communication. Fortunately, SoftPlan gives us the tools to use all of these options to better serve our customers and to run our businesses in a streamlined and profitable manner. One of these tools is SoftPlan reView and it has been very effective in my business.

I love reView, and I have used it with all of my customers. Its most basic use is to generate scaled .pdf files directly from SoftPlan. There is no need to use print drivers to create these files. They are reliably and quickly generated and stored directly in my SoftPlan job folders. But the .pdf communication is only one-way. My customer must mark up the drawing by hand and fax or scan it back to me. Or they must invest in Adobe Acrobat® to electronically annotate the file.

The true power of reView is found in the proprietary reView file. I give my customers the free reView software that enables them to view, print, and mark up the files that I send to them. I have successfully used this process with builders, individual clients, lumber yards and other trade contractors. It gives them many tools to improve communications throughout the design and building process. Unlike read-only .pdf files, my customers can take measurements, check clearances, zoom in to better study a particular detail or area. It is intuitive and easy for them to use. They can add notes or sketch their ideas directly on the drawings. They feel like they are participating more directly in the design process. Decisions get made faster and more effectively which allows me to do my work more efficiently.

When we used to use faxed drawings there were many opportunities for missed or poor communications. Everything was black and white and letter or legal size. It was hard to read and easy to miss a marked up area on the drawing. With reView, we import the marked up drawing directly into the original SoftPlan drawing! It is in color, to scale and easy to print and read. One of the biggest advantages is that all of the notes that were marked up on the drawing can be listed in a separate schedule. I no longer have to worry about missing an annotation. If the change is on the drawing it is on the list.