It's CAD. It just happens to be a PDF.

Draft on the drawing, not just annotate it

MarkupClaw treats a drawing PDF as something to draft on. Other software treats it as a page to review or a document to edit. This is the one that snaps to your geometry.

What it does

Object snap, right on the sheet

Endpoint, midpoint, center, intersection, perpendicular, nearest. Hold Shift and it locks to horizontal, vertical or 45°. You would normally have to go back to CAD for this.

Layers that leave the PDF and mean it

Draw on a user layer and it exports as a real DXF layer and a PDF OCG: not a flattened raster, not a markup layer only one vendor can read. Your redlines arrive as usable geometry.

Redline to sealed deliverable

Stamp a PE seal (engineer, license, state, date) as a real command, not a scanned signature pasted on. Assemble calc sheets, drawings and markups into one package.

Workflows

What a day on a drawing set looks like in MarkupClaw. Every screen below is the app itself, on a sample framing plan.

Measure and take off

1. Set the scale once per page from a dimension you trust.
2. Measure with Dimension, Polylength, Area, Angle and Count. Object snap locks every pick to the drawing's own lines.
3. Read the length and area totals in the Markups list, filtered as you filter.
4. Export the list to CSV, or the measured geometry to DXF at real-world scale.

Redline and review

1. Cloud the change, add a callout or a leader, and give it a status.
2. Every markup lands in the Markups list with its page, author and status. Select all of one type, colour or status at once.
3. Send markup files (XFDF) to people on other software, and bring theirs in.

Layers to CAD

1. Draw on named user layers, the way you would in CAD.
2. Turn layers on and off, lock them, and colour by layer.
3. Export them as real DXF layers and PDF optional content (OCGs), so your redlines arrive as usable geometry.

Seal and issue

1. Stamp a PE seal (engineer, licence, state, date) as a real command, not a scanned signature.
2. Crop, rotate, insert, merge or split pages to build the set.
3. Save the issued PDF; your files never leave your machine.

Built for real drawing sets

Measurement totals in the list

Per-page scale, then length and area totals live in the markups list, filtered as you filter.

Select every similar markup

Select all of one type, colour or status at once.

Markup exchange

Import and export markup files from other software, so you can work alongside its users.

DXF export

Push measured geometry out to CAD at real-world scale.

Full page operations

Crop, rotate, extract, insert, merge, split, overlay, compare, watermark, redact.

Blocks and stamps

A library of reusable blocks, including ones with sizes to pick from, like a dynamic block.

Your files stay local

A desktop app. No cloud upload to open or mark up a sheet.

Live Sessions

Mark up one sheet together. The host invites people by email and sets what each may do; pages stay as uploaded unless the host allows edits.

Markups to 3D BIM (IFC)

Tagged markups build an IFC model that links into Revit and ArchiCAD. Works today with a companion service; not yet turnkey.

Free browser viewer

Send a share link; anyone opens the marked-up sheet in a browser, free, without an account.

Plugins and companions

MarkupClaw is the host. Separate programs plug in, each with one job, and each page says what state it is really in. See all plugins.

Why MarkupClaw exists

A good, cheap PDF editor for the markups people do every day, with the smart parts offered as opt-in plugins, never as a lock on your own files.