LibreOffice Draw: The Best Free PDF Editor for Engineering Drawing Markups

By Glen Anyon January, 2024

Book cover

Introduction

Great engineers are great communicators. As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” and for engineers, that picture is often an engineering drawing—our shared language.

Historically, tools like Bluebeam Revu have been the go-to for marking up drawings, offering powerful features that make the review process seamless. However, without such tools, your marked up PDF drawing can look a bit like a kindergarten finger-painting.

If your company isn’t willing to invest in a Bluebeam license, LibreOffice Draw is a fully free alternative worth exploring. With a bit of experimentation, I’ve discovered it can replicate most of the functionality I relied on as a novice Bluebeam user.

This article isn’t a step-by-step tutorial but a guide to help you get started with LibreOffice Draw and make the most of its capabilities for engineering drawing markups. For detailed tutorials, check out YouTube or the LibreOffice website (www.libreoffice.org).

What is LibreOffice Draw?

LibreOffice Draw is part of the LibreOffice suite, which also includes Writer, Calc, Impress, and Base—alternatives to popular Microsoft Office programs. Best of all, LibreOffice is completely free and available for Mac, PC, and Linux (www.libreoffice.org).

Getting Started

Unlike many PDF editors, LibreOffice Draw converts PDF files into .odg format for editing. This isn’t a problem but means you should retain the .odg file for future modifications.

  1. Open LibreOffice Draw.

  2. Select File > Open, choose your PDF file, and click Open.

  3. LibreOffice will convert the file to .odg format. Save the file to your desired location and name it appropriately.

  4. Save your work frequently—editing large files can occasionally cause crashes.

Tips and Tricks

Setting Up the View

  • Drawing Tools: From the menu bar, go to View > Toolbars > Drawing to enable the drawing toolbar on the left-hand side.

  • Sidebar: Enable the sidebar via View > Sidebar for quick access to page properties, styles, shapes, and the gallery, which includes extensions for specialised shapes like those used in Piping and Instrumentation Diagrams (P&IDs).

Dimensioning and Measurement

To add or verify dimensions:

  1. Set the scale: Go to Tools > Options > LibreOffice Draw > General to adjust the unit of measure and scale.

  2. If the drawing scale isn’t provided, calculate it by measuring a known length on the drawing and dividing it by the real-world measurement.

  3. Use the dimensioning tool: From the drawing toolbar, select Lines and Arrows > Dimensioning.

  4. To simply measure distances without adding permanent dimensions, use the Dimension Line tool but press Esc before releasing the mouse button.

Drawing Changes

While LibreOffice lacks an erase or snip tool, you can create workarounds:

  1. Add a new layer for deleted items and draw over objects you want to “erase.” Match the background and border line colour to conceal them.

  2. Toggle visibility by right-clicking the layer name and selecting Hide Layer.

Callouts

Add annotations with callouts by selecting Insert > Callouts.

Extensions

Expand LibreOffice’s capabilities with extensions (LibreOffice Extensions). For P&IDs, try the Chemical Engineering Symbols Gallery for quick access to symbols like valves, pumps, and vessels.

Inserting Images

To add images:

  1. Use your device's screenshot tool and paste the image into the drawing.

  2. Right-click the image, select Compress, choose JPEG quality, and click OK to reduce file size for PDF exports.

Exporting Results to PDF

Once your markups are complete:

  1. Save your file.

  2. Select File > Export As > Export as PDF.

  3. Choose the desired PDF options and click Export.

  4. Rename the file, select a location, and click Save.

  5. Review the PDF to ensure all markups and images appear correctly. If there are any images that don’t appear, remember to compress the image.

Conclusion

LibreOffice Draw is an excellent, free option for engineers needing to mark up and edit engineering drawings in PDF format. While it may lack some advanced features, it’s a versatile tool that covers most needs for novice users. If you’re looking for a free alternative to Bluebeam Revu, head to the LibreOffice website and give it a try.

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