A Mobile Viewer That is Actually Useful
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Hi All,
Was recently having a converstion with Dan Rathbun and we figured it would be worth sharing.
The basic idea is how EXTREMELY valuable a mobile sketchup viewer would be that one could take measurements from. I know there is an iPad viewer but, as I understand it, there is no way to take dimensional info from it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sketchup-mobile-viewer/id796352563?mt=8
Having a mobile viewer with dimensional data would save me a lot of complexity in working drawings, enable better communication between designers and fabricators etc.
Examples of Useful Mobile Viewers:
SolidWorks eDrawing:
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/products/edrawings-mobile.htmThe Open Design Alliance Teigha Viewer is extensible so tools can be added to it.
It looks very similar to the SketchUp Viewer, but allows selecting objects, so their properties can be inspected (Properties pane.) Allows some simple editing (but may likely be turned off, by removing those extensions.)
http://www.opendesign.com/guestfiles/teigha_viewerThe AutoDWG Viewer allows measuring in the current release (and has a Pro version that does markup.) Has Windows and ActiveX editions. Supposed to have an Android edition.
http://autodwg.com/dwg-viewer/Found these via Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_CAD,_CAM_and_CAE_file_viewersAn older thread which is a wish list for the Sketchup Viewer: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10%26amp;t=47991
Other alternatives for a useful SU mobile viewer:
If you cannot wait, then there is the Make version, which might run on a Tablet PC. (You can always mark the SKP file as Read-Only.)There are also items like this from Simlab but they appear to not support measurement of any kind: http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=323%26amp;t=49843
Summary:
Short of porting to another 3D file format, there is quite a lot of work in creating a really useful mobile SU viewer.The current tapemeasure tool actually creates geometry (construction lines) which is beyond the scope of what a mobile viewer should do. The trick then is to have a way to view the 3D data but retain the ability to take dimensional info from it.
If someone has the capacity or some of the capacity to execute this, I for one would be willing to chip in some cash to make it happen.
Anyone else willing to chip in or can contribute insights?
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You can take realtime measurements (imperial and metric) from your model using the LightUp iPad Player.
Get it here:
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/lightup-player/id799429520?mt=8%26amp;uo=4 -
Adam, do you have a short demo video I could post here so others can see what you're talking about and consider the usability of it?
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As you know its not possible to screen capture an iPad, so its going to be a faff to film it.
You could just download the free iPad Player and have a go. Just hold your finger over a surface to activate the measuring to an opposite facing surface.
Adam
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Do you know a killer feature for a client to fall in love with your viewer?
1 - Dynamic components interaction. Our clients could then change materials of some stuff, open/close doors, select group/component alternative geometry...
2 - Sections, styles and scenes
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LightUp iPad Player supports the Dynamic Components LightUp supports - so opening doors should work fine.
It also supports Scenes and you can toggle face outlining too.Adam
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Adam, I Just played with the free version and am quite impressed. I think its really exciting that you have the measuring functionality in there. However, I did struggle to get measurement to work on certain surfaces - is the measurement functionality on the paid version any different?
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Here is a cloud-based reviewer, uses Google Drive:
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@unknownuser said:
Spread3D-Review for SketchUp
The reviews aren't great, about half of the reviews are distinctly negative "it doesn't work".
Adam, I'm really excited about the potential of your app but I'm pretty measurement focused at this stage (personally I can't see why anyone who does mechanical design isn't screaming for mobile measurement so they can cut down on extensive working drawings). I've been trying to get measurement to work cleanly on your free version and am worried I'm doing it wrong. I can kinda get measurements but certainly not on any entity.
I'm borrowing someone's iPad to test it (as I won't buy one till I have an app that can communicate sketchup measurements) so I'm pretty new to the iPad interface and its likely I'm doing something wrong.
Will it make a difference if I buy the full version of the app?
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Doing CAD-like operations on a tablet poses some challenges. Hence the SU Ruler tool interaction style just wouldn't work on a tablet.
Looking at the use-cases for LightUp iPad Player, I decided to implement a "Laser measurement" style interaction of holding your finger over a surface triggers sending out a perpendicular ray until it hits another surface. It works, its simple and it covers common use-cases.
Having a general measurement tool would be more difficult - not sure it could be justified..
Adam
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@ashscott said:
@unknownuser said:
Spread3D-Review for SketchUp
The reviews aren't great, about half of the reviews are distinctly negative "it doesn't work".
Yes I saw that.. but also a note that the app had a recent overhaul.
It is free, so what could it hurt to try.
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Hi all,
Sorry for the radio silence - just got my hands back on the village iPad which had been taken away for a few days.
Adam, could you provide some instruction on using your app - I can't get it to load any files other than that default building by Aerelius (I'm pretty iPad illiterate so it'll no doubt be my fault).
Dan, I don't have anything android based that'll run Spread3D - can anyone else get it to work?
I'll post a video of Lightup's app once I get it running
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NO Android myself.
Eventually we'll need to start a comparison chart similar to the ones on wikipedia, but specifically for SKP viewers.
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FYI: the new Android viewer: http://sketchupdate.blogspot.in/2014/06/sketchup-mobile-viewer-now-available.html
Adam, from where I'm sitting you appear to be leading the curve in this department - could you post a video or similar of you using your viewer (particularly the measurement tool).
I think the old iPad I have is struggling with some of the functionality but am really excited that you have pushed the envelope in this department - I might even buy a new iPad if you can show that is what is needed to get good measurement functionality on the run.
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Tracked down a neat little app (Reflector) to record an iPad screen.
Here's a better video of taking realtime measurements on an iPad model. The ruler is placed next to where my finger is dragging on the screen.
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Wow, that is really cool!
Seems to work really well within buildings etc.
How well could it be made to make external measurements? Say, of a piece of steel?
Also, why is this not getting promoted more?
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To try to summarize things a little:
For those needing measuring tools in SU mobile viewers it really appears the Adam B is the farthest along this route.
It is obviously a hard nut to crack and definitely doesn't have the versatility of SU's native measurement tools.
Adam, are there any suggestions you would like to make that would make measuring on a mobile device a usable thing that could replace (or partially replace) engineering and working drawings on a worksite?
I think the potential to eliminate at least some of the labor of documenting working drawings is a potential big win for a lot of people's workflows.
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AppStore just approved the latest version of the iPad LightUp Player. Yay!
Very cool new feature is animated, realtime Section Planes on the iPad.
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Congratulations Adam, love your work
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