Sketchup Blog - News and Notes from the Sketchup folks

SightSpace 3D: A SketchUp iPad Viewer with AR

Have you ever wanted to take your SketchUp models on the go? Our friends at the Boulder-based start-up, Limitless Computing, have a solution for you: their recently released SightSpace 3D app allows you to view SketchUp models on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod (Android support coming soon).


I gave it a whirl and the viewer is quite good. Orbiting a SketchUp model with single finger, panning with two, and pinching to zoom in and out is very satisfying. Loading models onto your mobile device is easy too; the Google 3D Warehouse is integrated in the app and you can also load models through Dropbox and email.

The 3D Warehouse is integrated into the app making it easy to load models

The mobile viewer would be neat enough, but SightSpace 3D’s killer feature is the Augmented Reality (AR) viewer, which gives you the ability to overlay 3D models onto the physical world. Any geo-located Google SketchUp model can be exported to a KMZ file, placed on an iPad 2 or iPhone 4, and viewed in real-time, in a real place letting you actually walk through the space. As you can imagine, this is useful for previewing construction projects, displaying kitchen designs, urban planning and much more.

An apartment complex is superimposed on undeveloped land, to scale. (Model courtesy of Hilliard Architects, San Francisco, CA)

Additional features include bookmarking views, taking snapshots in both Viewer and AR mode, and the ability to annotate and email notes directly from the app.

Annotations and photos of a model get added directly to an email

SightSpace 3D is available now in the iTunes store now for $15 US, so go download it today.

Posted by Gopal Shah, SketchUp Marketing

Permalink | Links to this post |
The comments you read here belong only to the person who posted them. We do, however, reserve the right to remove off-topic comments.

12 comments :

Edrington said...

I'm ready for an Android version. Get it together.

bb said...

Get with the rest of the world and get an iPad Edrington. BTW, SightSpace rocks!

thom said...

It's immensely shortsighted to think a viewer is what will rock yr world.

A simple modeller for tablets is an essential tool.

One that saves .skp files is even better.

bb said...

Modeling with a touch screen is not practical.
A quality viewer is one of the best uses for a tablet.

Mark Roberts said...

Are the imported files, say via DropBox, .skp files, or is there an intermediate conversion that happens before viewing on the model on an iPad with Sight Space 3D?

If there is a conversion that happens, you should be describing the entire process before telling us to go out and spend $15 on the app.

Anonymous said...

How about a version of SketchUp that runs on my LinuxMintDebianEdition?

That would be a wonderful improvement.

pacey said...

The app is great and the main reason I chose my IPad over an laptop,BUT despite buying a 32gb model it can not hold more than two medium size 3D models, in my experience.Any one else having this problem?

drchuck said...

...or you can get NaviCAD for a dollar, that has been serving up 3D Warehouse models for a couple of years now...

Marcos F said...

Thank you for everybody who helped to make this whole set: SU+SS.
Many times people ask me "What Do You Do", and having no computer in hand, it is hard to explain what I mean with "I make 3Ds".
Now the time has come to sell them what they thought they never need it.

Orlando Sardaro, Design8 NL said...

Not sure what this is doing on the Google SketchUp blog ... no reading of SKP files, KMZ only!!! NaviCAD lacks AR and cannot load local files, but as a model viewer for a buck is great.

Mercedes said...

I just purchased 3d Cad software for my graphic design company and the pictures above look just like what I see on my officer computers. It is so easy to maneuver and lifelike. Definitely a great buy!

bllana20 said...

Is it possible to transform a picture into a Intercad drawing?