[wishlist] SketchUp Viewer

Dan Rathbun

SketchUp Viewer Wishlist

A topic thread to post your feature requests / wishies, etc. for Trimble's SketchUp Viewer application.

For the general discussion topic: [talk] SketchUp Viewer.

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pbacot

I wish the license displayed on the download page did not read "SketchUp Pro License"

Dan Rathbun

@pbacot said:

I wish the license displayed on the download page did not read "SketchUp Pro License"

Well that's a webpage boo-boo. I reported it (and credited you for noticing it. I must have looked at that page 10 times today without seeing the license title.)

pbacot

@dan rathbun said:

@pbacot said:

I wish the license displayed on the download page did not read "SketchUp Pro License"

Well that's a webpage boo-boo. I reported it (and credited you for noticing it. I must have looked at that page 10 times today without seeing the license title.)

Thanks! somehow I couldn't resist. Some sort of smarty-pants syndrome.

beginner

Hi Dan,
From personal experience and from watching our clients' 'habits' we would like SU Viewer to have the following:

Select tool icon should be available like in SU
Tape Measure tool icon should be available like in SU
Protractor tool icon should be available like in SU
Display Section Planes + Display Section Cuts tool icon should be available like in SU
Dimension tool icon should be available like in SU
Layers tool icon should be available like in SU

NEW !
7. Entity Info tool icon can be made to get some basic info.
(we would prefer icon rather than context menu under 'mouse right click' - something similar to Model Info tool icon in SU)

And the last request:

all icons should be loaded by default (no hidden options available) and
loose as many top menu items (especially all the duplicated by icons/toolbars)
keep File and Help

At present we are asking anyone involved in our project (or 'happy to have a spin with our model') to download Free SU Version but:

they are overwhelmed with the amount of options available or
they are starting to change the model

Reading my wishlist again, it sounds like completely NEW SU Viewer

Dan Rathbun

Hey Gregory.. that hits alot of things that I noticed is missing from the SketchUp Viewer.

In addition:

8. Allow Viewer user to specify Units for the model, that apply to Dimensions and values displayed by the Entity Info inspector (that may differ from the units format the model was saved in.)

9. Update Pages after a pan, zoom, orbit, etc., so that the Viewer user can tweak animations. (Currently when you change a view in a scenepage, switch to another scene, then switch back, the view reverts to it's original camera.)

10. Implement basic Dynamic Component interaction, such as the InteractTool for onClick events, and Component Options dialog to change attributes.

Users will want to change shingle type / colors, stucco color, door styles, etc. for dynamic components.
11. Implement the DC Attribute Reporter so clients can output their desired settings to the architect / builder, for say a model of a Home, so that a quote can be returned to the prospective customer.

12. Implement Annotation and Markup features, that can be saved out to a component file on a customer specific layer. (The file is returned, and can be imported into the author's skp file so he can see the notes, and redlines, etc.)

Dan Rathbun

@beginner said:

Reading my wishlist again, it sounds like completely NEW SU Viewer

Well maybe not. For Windows 6+.. perhaps an edition that leverages the Metro style of applications, that use Ribbon interfaces instead of the 20+ year-old "plain-jane" button bars.

In this style of application the menubar is reduced to a single button.

To see what this might look like, see the MS Paint applet that distro's with Windows 7 (v6.1)

Dan Rathbun

13. Detect if the SketchUp Viewer is started from a Removable Drive, and save the settings to a .dat file (.plist file on Mac,) on the removable media with the binary files, instead of in the Windows Registry (or on the Mac workstation's hd.)

Dan Rathbun

14. Read-Only Encrypted SKPV File Format

ONLY the SketchUp Viewer can open this file format.
ONLY the SketchUp Pro edition(s) can write out this format, ( ... but cannot open / edit a .skpv file.)
A Protect feature that prompts the user for a password in the SketchUp Viewer, when a protected skpv file is opened. (The password is set when the file is created in SketchUp Pro.)

artmusicstudio

one for the wishlist:

a shadow override function, so regardless of scene setting saved per scene

shadow can be switched on and off for working in scenes and saving pictures and videos.

regards stan

pbacot

@dan rathbun said:

14. Read-Only Encrypted SKPV File Format

ONLY the SketchUp Viewer can open this file format.

ONLY the SketchUp Pro edition(s) can write out this format, ( ... but cannot open / edit a .skpv file.)

A Protect feature that prompts the user for a password in the SketchUp Viewer, when a protected skpv file is opened. (The password is set when the file is created in SketchUp Pro.)

This is good!

beginner

@unknownuser said:

Read-Only Encrypted SKPV File Format
ONLY the SketchUp Viewer can open this file format.
ONLY the SketchUp Pro edition(s) can write out this format, ( ... but cannot open / edit a .skpv file.)
A Protect feature that prompts the user for a password in the SketchUp Viewer, when a protected skpv file is opened. (The password is set when the file is created in SketchUp Pro.)

Wow...
SKPV, similar to AutoCAD's DWF - supposed to be a Read-Only format like PDF to protect content from 'Copy and Paste'.
I'm not sure about the protection - people would come with own ideas to access SKPV file (like they can access PDF or DWF).

The easiest way at present is to explode everything in SU and make one 'MASSIVE GROUP'

With regards to password - you could integrate ZIP Archive with Password when saving *.SKP file and UNZIP with Password when try to open.
SU + 7-ZIP = 2 in 1
http://www.7-zip.org/

Dan Rathbun

@artmusicstudio said:

a shadow override function, so regardless of scene setting saved per scene

This seems to work now until you switch to another scene. The Viewer does not "remember" the setting.

@artmusicstudio said:

shadow can be switched on and off for working in scenes and saving pictures and videos.

The Viewer does not save ANY TYPE of file currently.

Are you then requesting clients / users should be able to save scene images (unless the file is protected and the author has set some "save_images" attribute to false.) ??

I think writing out animation files, is something that should remain an editor only feature.

beginner

Dan,
I think artmusicstudio is talking about 'Global Shadow Override Button' in SU Viewer (ON or OFF) regardless on how the SU Scenes are set - good idea.
At present SU Viewer is reading Scenes settings set in SU.
If shadow was ON - is ON in the VIEWER - you cannot override the settings or update the Scene.
Of course you can Switch OFF but, is ON again when you jump to the next Scene which has shadow.

Dan, I agree with you on Animation.

Overall, SU Viewer needs to get few more buttons (ribbon would be nice) to have 'more room to maneuver'.
The buttons exist - somebody needs to switch them ON

Dan Rathbun

@beginner said:

The buttons exist - somebody needs to switch them ON

Unfortunately.. they do not. The button and cursor images for the extra tools we wish for, have been stripped out of the program, as well as dialog resources for the Entity Info inspector, etc.

So they went just a bit too far with their scissors.

The native MFC toolbars are not resources, they are built "on-the-fly" using C++ code, so it would be difficult to insert new buttons onto existing toolbars.
The size of executable is much smaller, so I would imagine they stripped out code to support any tools that they did not intend the Viewer to have.

So.. we will have to rely upon the Trimble Team in Boulder to make changes. (Besides it is likely a violation of the EULA and copyright to distro any "hacked" edition.)

That's just the way it is ...

However I wonder if it would make more sense, to have the Free edition, just run in "Viewer Mode" when a read-only viewer file is opened. Meaning the app "remembers" UI setups for "Edit Mode" and "Viewer Mode" and any not-supported feature in "Viewer Mode" is either hidden or grayed out. The main menubar would be replaced with a smaller "Viewer Mode" menu, etc.

alexschreyer

Great list of features already! One thing I have been missing ever since I used SketchUp to give a 3D presentation is a fullscreen option. This should be in all versions but can be really useful in the viewer.

Cheers,
Alex

beginner

Hi Dan,
They have to strip the Full Version again but not too far
The Free and Viewer Mode (2 in 1) make sense - you would save SKPV in PRO Version and open in Free Version as View-Only.
I have seen that somewhere. Can't remember where

Hi alexschreyer,
I would like to see the Full Screen 'button' in Full Version not just in Viewer - good idea

AutoCAD - Ctrl + 0
Photoshop - Tab
Various Software including IE, FF and so on - F11 or
we could have even more sophisticated button mode Professional Mode

Dan Rathbun

@beginner said:

I would like to see the Full Screen 'button' in Full Version not just in Viewer - good idea:

AutoCAD - Ctrl + 0
Photoshop - Tab
Various Software including IE, FF and so on - F11

Actually these are examples of special HotKey settings.

The base standard accelerator on Windows to toggle between Full Screen mode is ALT + ENTER (historical,) and later SHIFT + ALT + ENTER
If such a command is placed on one of the standard menus (MS usually puts it on the View/Views menu,) users can assign whatever hotkey they desire to it, for their own use.

You might see SilverLight apps allow ESC to exit from Full Screen mode, but this we cannot do in SketchUp, because the ESC key is the Tool reset key and "interrupter" Tool exit key (exit back to some edit tool, after suspending to say the OrbitTool.)

Dan Rathbun

Correction:

This MSDN page, which gives Guidelines on Window Frames for programming application, says that F11 should also be assigned as the Full Screen shortcut key.

brianb

It would be nice to be able to use a cut down form of viewer on an android tablet! (If we cant have the full program)