Safe and reliable electrotechnical systems protect human lives. That’s why it’s extremely important that they’re inspected before commissioning and maintenance and during operation to ensure flawless functionality. Technikeur Inspectie B.V. from Wormer in the Netherlands specialises in developing, maintaining and inspecting electrotechnical installations. The experienced technicians inspect, record and evaluate everything in accordance with the currently applicable laws and regulations and work in buildings and systems throughout the country. The technicians have been working with Bluebeam Revu since 2014. The software provides inspectors with comprehensive support through its simple and intuitive operation, good adaptability and ideal corrective functions for PDF-based technical drawings and functional diagrams.
“There’s a lot of information that we have to transfer digitally into our reports. The numerous measurements we carry out also need to be included in the reports. The program helps us to do that. We have the drawings available as PDF files and the software has all the right tools. That’s a big improvement from before!”
Thijs van Baar,
Managing Director
Technikeur Inspectie B.V.
In the Netherlands, electrical installations and protective systems must be regularly inspected to ensure they’re working correctly. The necessary drawing and data sets are often available as PDF drawings, which are now usually printed out, and then results, notes and required adjustments can be added after the system inspection. At Technikeur Inspectie B.V., which was founded in 1999, inspectors previously needed to rely on printouts of design documents or inspection plans to record their results and measurement data. Inspection information and results had to be added manually and then scanned and digitally passed on to the client. The potential for errors was high: illegible annotations, errors while scanning or forgetting to add corrections when transferring changes to CAD revision and system plans at the customer’s site were all risks. In addition, the scales on the scanned paper drawing and the original file had to be compared and rescaled again and again so that the system and inspection plans also matched the digital plans exactly.
Powerful features, in-house libraries and custom tools
The previous way of working was a tedious and cumbersome makeshift solution, but it was necessary for preparing inspection reports. From the start of its earliest inspection work, Technikeur was searching for suitable software. The difficult part was that the software had to meet the company’s requirements. The aim was to store the necessary information in a reporting tool, supplement it with additional technical information and send it to customers digitally and free of errors. Before the rollout, Technikeur tested out various providers and programs. “Many solutions couldn’t process the large amount of information that we had previously written in by hand,” recalls Thijs van Baar, Managing Director and himself an experienced electrician and technician. “Bluebeam Revu makes it possible. We can create the symbols and character sets important for our work, customise our own library and develop the right digital tool set.” Van Baar also makes the most of another highly useful basic feature: “We use the simple option of calculating area with the software. Being aware of space utilisation in square metres is important for us. With Bluebeam Revu, we can map this quickly in just a few clicks. We export this information and feed it into our calculations.”
Sales partner BPA Bouwplaatsautomatisering assisted with introducing the software and integrating it into work processes. Emil Kütter, founder and Managing Director of BPA Bouwplaatsautomatisering, convinced Technikeur of the advantages of Bluebeam. Eager to find out more, Van Baar booked an introductory course for four of his Technikeur employees. Having received this initial training, they created their first reports with Bluebeam Revu. To this day, Technikeur has maintained close contact with BPA Bouwplaatsautomatisering. Any questions are answered quickly; if necessary, Emil Kütter actually gets in his car and drives over to see the customer in Wormer.
Today, Bluebeam Revu is used across multiple projects, such as maintenance inspections at the largest hospital in the Netherlands, where results and measured values are entered directly into the PDF floor plan. Technikeur checks and measures numerous values for medical rooms, including the surface pressure of wall outlets, equipotential bonding points for medical devices, isolated installation of incorrectly conductive parts or the proper function of specially conductive ESD flooring. “We do the latter and other tasks by performing a walk-through test,” says Van Baar. "With Bluebeam Revu, we can then display the route of our walk-through test on the PDF floor plan.”
Digital integration instead of analogue printouts
“We’re still in control of our projects. Because with Bluebeam, we can always customise everything individually and for different customers.”
Thijs van Baar,
Managing Director
Technikeur Inspectie B.V.
The Dutch standard NEN 1010 (in part comparable to VDE 0100) specifies exactly which electrical systems are to be inspected and how. With the help of Bluebeam Revu, Technikeur can complete the electrical drawings and use them for the required inspections of the electrical equipment. All data can be inserted directly into the PDF file, so there’s no need to use a printout or cumbersome Excel files with comments on room use or area calculations. The report following a system inspection is just as straightforward, as it can be created directly from Revu. “We have to transfer a lot of information digitally into our reports,” says Van Baar. “The many measurements we carry out also have to be included in our reports. The program helps us with this. We have the drawings as PDF files and the software provides all the tools we need. That’s a big improvement on the past!”
Customers appreciate the professionalism and coordinated processes with which Van Baar and his employees approach the inspections. Digital design methods such as BIM currently play very little role in this. Van Baar sees the potential of model-based design in 3D for the future, but at the same time notes: “Our customers are not yet asking for BIM. At the moment, it’s not a top priority for them. The installations need to be checked, and they need the reports in order to fix any defects. The comprehensive information we can provide with Bluebeam Revu helps them do that.”
Future-proofing means responding to requirements
The market for technical services such as those offered by Technikeur Inspectie B.V. is changing, not only in the Netherlands but also in Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland. As a result, the use of process-optimising solutions such as Bluebeam Revu will become increasingly important for companies looking to stay up to speed and competitive in the coming years. After all, price increases, scarcity of resources and a shortage of skilled workers are not regional issues, but global phenomena. Van Baar believes he’s well equipped for this, which he attributes in part to Bluebeam: “We’re still in control of our projects, as Bluebeam allows us to customise everything individually and for different customers. The future looks very promising, as installations for every building constructed in the Netherlands must be inspected regularly before commissioning and during use. There may be fewer new construction projects in the coming years, but the market for inspecting existing buildings is far from saturated.”