If your firm keeps drawings in Bluebeam Studio, the Revu 20 deadlines are a data question before they are a software question. Per Bluebeam's own notice, Revu 20 reaches End of Support on July 31, 2026 and End of Life on December 31, 2026, and at End of Life access to Bluebeam Studio, both Projects and Sessions, closes for Revu 20 users. Until you pull them down, your markup and your files live on Bluebeam's cloud, not on your drive. This guide walks through backing up Studio Projects, Studio Sessions and your preferences to standard local PDFs before the cutoff, following Bluebeam's documentation, and then how to keep opening and marking up those exported files locally on Windows and Apple Silicon Mac. The backup steps matter right up to the deadline. The keep-working-locally part stays useful long after it.

Your Studio data lives on Bluebeam's server, not on your drive

Studio Projects and Studio Sessions are cloud-hosted, which is the point of them, but it also means the data is not sitting in a folder you control until you export it. Per Bluebeam's notice, Revu 20 reaches End of Support on July 31, 2026, when technical support, license registration and the ability to move a license from one computer to another all end. Revu 20 then reaches End of Life on December 31, 2026, when access to Bluebeam Studio (Projects and Sessions) and other cloud services closes for Revu 20 users. A live Session is the sharpest version of the problem: the running Session, with its markup history and chat, lives on the server, not as a file on your machine. If you do nothing before the cutoff, you can lose the way to pull that data down. Migrating to Revu 21 keeps your Studio content accessible, because it is tied to your Bluebeam ID, but Revu 21 is subscription only at roughly 260 to 590 US dollars per user per year, and Bluebeam still recommends keeping local backups. So the first job, whatever tool you use next, is getting your own data onto your own drive.

Back up Projects, Sessions and your preferences, step by step

These steps follow Bluebeam's own documentation. Bluebeam can change a menu or a permission at any time, so confirm the current version at support.bluebeam.com before you rely on them, and run one test export before you do the whole library. Studio Projects. Sign in to Studio inside Revu 20 and open the Studio panel, Projects tab. Open the Project, right-click the root Project folder (or any subfolder you want), and choose Download Copy. Pick a local or network folder as the destination, then repeat for each Project. One caveat from Bluebeam's docs: folders whose permissions are set to Hidden will not download, so the Project owner has to grant download permission before those come across. Studio Sessions. A Session works differently. You cannot simply download a live Session with its history; per Bluebeam's documentation you Finish the Session, which needs Host or Full Control permission. First make sure no other users are still active in the Session. Then, from the Session dropdown, choose Finish Session. The dialog gives you three things worth setting deliberately. Include Markups lets you choose whose markups get baked into the final PDFs, and once they are flattened in they are permanent. Save In Folder sets the local or network destination, with an optional Session subfolder. Generate Report exports the chat log, markup history and attendee activity as a PDF or CSV, which is worth keeping for the record. Finishing the Session downloads the files to that folder and permanently deletes the Session from Bluebeam's cloud server, so treat it as a one-way action and check the destination before you confirm. Your preferences and tool sets. If you have built custom tool sets over the years, back those up too: in Revu 20 open Preferences (Ctrl+K), go to Admin, then Options, then Backup, and save the .zip somewhere safe. You can bring it back later with Restore. What comes out. Download Copy gives you standard PDFs. A Finished Session gives you standard PDFs with the chosen markups flattened into the pages. Both are ordinary local files now, sitting in the folder you picked, which is exactly what you want for the next part: opening and continuing to work on them without depending on the cloud.

Opens the exported set locally
Ncored opens your Download Copy and Finished Session PDFs straight from the local drive, including heavy 50-200 MB+ project sets exported from AutoCAD, Revit, and ArchiCAD. It opens fast, then stays smooth on scroll, zoom, pinch and pan.
Your flattened Session markup shows
Markups that were baked into the Finished Session pages are part of the PDF now, so they render when you open the file. Standard PDF annotations that were left un-flattened render too, because Ncored reads the same standard annotation streams.
Keep marking up, saved as standard PDF
Add your own markup with freehand pen, rectangles, revision clouds, highlight, text and comment pins, plus a stamp made from your own uploaded image. Saving writes standard PDF annotation streams that open in Adobe Acrobat, Bluebeam, Foxit and Apple Preview.
Buy once, and nothing leaves your machine
A one-time 159 EUR lifetime license per seat, with 12.99 EUR per month and 79.99 EUR per year also available. Files stay on your drive, no cloud upload is required, and it works offline after install. 14 days free. No signup, no email, nothing to enter.
Windows and Apple Silicon Mac
Native on Windows 10 and 11 and on Apple Silicon Mac (macOS Big Sur 11 and up, no Rosetta). There is no Intel Mac build, so the same exported files open on current hardware on either side of the office.

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What Ncored does and does not replace

To be clear about the boundary: Ncored is a local desktop editor, not a replacement for Bluebeam Studio. It does not host live Sessions or real-time cloud collaboration. Multi-user real-time collaboration is on Ncored's roadmap, not shipped today, so do not plan around it as if it were here. If your team lives inside Studio Sessions day to day, co-marking the same drawing in real time, the honest answer is that a Revu 21 subscription still does that and Ncored does not. Where Ncored fits is the part that comes after the backup. Once your Projects and Sessions are exported to local PDFs, Ncored is the buy-once, local way to keep opening those files and adding your own markup, on Windows and on Apple Silicon Mac, without paying a recurring subscription just to maintain a back-catalogue. Teams share the exported files the way they share any file, over email, a network drive or their own cloud storage, run by you rather than by Ncored. A few limits to plan around today: Ncored has no measurement or takeoff, no markup-list or CSV export, no document compare or overlay, no OCR, no form filling, no signature creation, and no arrows or leader-line callouts (Ncored uses comment pins for notes). Keep a master copy that still opens in Bluebeam for anything that depends on Bluebeam-specific objects, and test your real files in the free trial first. Individual experiences may vary depending on hardware, file structure and how each PDF was marked up.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens to my Bluebeam Studio data at the Revu 20 deadline?
Per Bluebeam's notice, Revu 20 reaches End of Support on July 31, 2026, when technical support, license registration and computer-to-computer license transfers end, and End of Life on December 31, 2026, when access to Bluebeam Studio (Projects and Sessions) and other cloud services closes for Revu 20 users. That is why the backup is time-sensitive: get your Projects and Sessions onto local storage before then. Confirm the current details at support.bluebeam.com.
How do I back up a Studio Session, not just a Project?
A Project can be pulled down with Download Copy, but a live Session cannot be downloaded with its history. Per Bluebeam's documentation you Finish the Session (which needs Host or Full Control permission): make sure no one else is active, choose Finish Session from the Session dropdown, then set Include Markups (whose markups get flattened in, permanently), Save In Folder (your local or network destination) and Generate Report (the chat and markup history as a PDF or CSV). Finishing downloads the files and permanently deletes the Session from Bluebeam's server, so check your destination first. Verify the current steps at support.bluebeam.com before you rely on them.
The Finished Session PDFs have the markup flattened in. Can I still open and add to them?
Yes. Once markup is flattened, it is part of the page, so it displays when you open the file in any conforming PDF viewer. Ncored opens the exported PDF locally and you keep marking up with your own tools, freehand pen, shapes, revision clouds, highlight, text and comment pins, saved back as standard PDF annotations. Test your own most heavily marked-up files in the 14-day free trial first.
Do I have to keep paying Bluebeam to open my exported drawings?
No. The exported files are standard local PDFs, so they open in any conforming PDF viewer without a Bluebeam license. Ncored is a one-time 159 EUR lifetime license per seat, against roughly 260 to 590 US dollars per user per year for Revu 21. The one thing to weigh: if your team still needs live Studio Sessions and real-time collaboration, Revu 21 does that and Ncored does not. For opening and marking up an exported back-catalogue locally, Ncored is the buy-once route.
Do my drawings get uploaded anywhere when I use Ncored?
No. The PDF stays on your local drive. No cloud upload is required for any feature and the app works offline after install, which suits confidential project work. The 14-day trial is full-feature, with no signup, no email, nothing to enter, so you can back up a Session, open the exported files in Ncored and check the whole flow before you decide.