AR Viewing in 3D Warehouse

We’re excited to announce augmented reality (AR) viewing — via a QR code — for 3D Warehouse. Upload a model to SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse and send clients and team members the QR code for AR viewing. With AR Viewing, you can let the technology do the hard job of explaining how your model will look in real life. Architects can send their clients a custom built-in for a new house, interior designers can send tenants redesigned workstations for an open space office concept, and contractors can show sub-contractors project phasing before shovel hits pavement. Use AR viewing for professional work, home remodels, or just for fun!

Getting started

Follow our steps below to start using AR viewing in your workflow:

  1. Head over to the 3D Warehouse.
  2. On your desktop or laptop, search for a 3D model you’d like to see in your space like “Turnstone Buoy” (that’s a fun one). Your search result will appear.
  3. Click on the model name to head to the model details page.
  4. Here you’ll notice a new button, View in AR. Click on that, and you’ll see a QR code.
  5. Use your mobile device to take a photo of the QR code and watch the magic happen!
  6. Send the QR code to your clients or friends — psst…you don’t need a SketchUp license for viewing.

If you’re ready to view your models in a new dimension, go ahead and pop on over to 3D Warehouse and try out AR viewing for yourself.

Need help? Here are some troubleshooting tips:

As we learn about things that impact AR viewing for 3D Warehouse, we will enter them below.

  1. Use Safari as your native iOS browser and Chrome as your native Android browser. Anything outside that may not give the results you want.
  2. The experience will look great for most models viewed on Android devices, but the iOS experience is still in an early beta release. Trust that we are working to improve functionality!
  3. SketchUp subscribers can download a .glb file right from the standard model download menu and use it for any AR or virtual reality (VR) software you would like!
  4. If you hover over the View in AR button and see “This model is currently too large to view in AR,” it means the model is too large for most mobile devices to display without freezing up. When searching, stick to models with less than 200,000 polygons and are smaller than 10MB by using the Properties filters.
  5. If you’re viewing a model in AR, you will want to make sure you are in a well-lit area. If it’s too dark, you may notice the model drift on the floor or not show up.
  6. Not that we have ads in the QR code, but some people have said that their iPhone wouldn’t show their model in AR, and it seems like the AdBlocker had something to do with it. The closer your device is to its “stock” configuration, the better the chances it will work.
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I have a Samsung Galaxy A01. When I took a photo of the QR code nothing happened. Am I missing something.

You point your camera at the QR code, then look for an overlay option to appear. Touch that and you should go to the right page. Don’t take a photo of the QR code.

This is the link, you could touch it while looking at this forum page on your phone:

https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/ar-view/u6b628d0e-766b-457a-ab1e-17944f5fe7f7

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You’ll also want to make sure your Android device supports ARCore. You can find out here:

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Thanks, it looks like the problem is that my phone does not support AR

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When I first tried it, my phone also advised that it did not support AR - I have a Motorola . But, I thought, there’s a freakin’ app out there for almost everything…so I started looking around. But before I could possibly get myself in trouble…by sheer accident, I discovered thru the Google Store that ARCore was already installed on my phone. So I kept on diggin. I then read in one of Guz’s posts that you needed to use “Safari as your native iOS browser and Chrome as your native Android browser,” and that anything else [would not work]. Pays to read…eh? :rofl:

I do not have Chrome set as my default browser on my phone. So what I did was scan the code, copy the URL, paste the URL into Chrome and go! I was looking at one of my own models right here in the room. Pretty cool.

Anyway…I’m not endorsing anything, and with a lotta stuff found online it’s ‘buyer beware,’ but I’m just putting it out there that before I found ARCore was already on my phone, search results indicated that any android phone is AR compatible. Might or might not be worth looking into.

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how did you scan the code and copy the URL? I don’t know anything about these URL codes. What do you have to do with a phone to scan a URL code?

@booneyrex … First, you have to have a QR scanner or reader. You can get one from where ever you get any of your other mobile apps. Launch the reader, clik on the “View in AR” for the model you want to view so the QR code will come up. My reader will hone in on the code and capture it automatically. I do not know if they all work that way or if you would have to clik on something (as you would in camera mode) to capture the code.

NOTE: I only did the copy & paste thing b/c I use Firefox as my default browser on my mobile and I did not want to change that. And of course, it also depends on whether the ARCore is installed on your phone, or if it can be. (See my “disclaimer” in my previous post)

Once you’ve scanned the QR code, a screen should appear with the scan results. If your default browser is Chrome, (see @TheGuz 's OP under “Need help? …,” simply clik on the URL (web address) and that should cause your browser to open. I’m assuming from there you simply need to follow on-screen prompts and instructions.

However, for me, b/c Chrome s not my default browser, I copied the URL that was generated by scanning the QR code, then launched Chrome and pasted the URL into the address bar.

When the model loaded, I clikked on the “View in your space” button and followed the on-screen prompts and directions.

It took me a while to figure it out (I’m not real techy). And, since I just got my first smart phone only a couple years ago, I do not know if these kinds of activities work the same on all phone… so, YMMV. Once there, though, maneuvering the model around is a little tricky - not sure if it’s b/c of the route I took to get there, or if the process is a bit taxing for my phone - it is a Motorola Moto G Power. Or it could be a combination of both…who knows? :laughing:

lol?
Tried the new option with my brand new samsung galaxy s22 ultra, did not work…
(also not listed on the page with supported phones.)
So grabbed my old note 8, et voila, works kinda perfect.
Nice feature!
(do hope the latest phones will be added to the supported phones list soon * fingers crossed *)

Thanks, I will keep that information for if I ever get a phone that has ARCore

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Hi ^^
I have some question about this problem I’m having.
after I upload my model with UV mapping texture,
when I check the preview in 3D warehouse site, some mapping gone wrong.
(showing different texture scale or missing texture etc)

so naturally in AR view too, my model doesn’t presented as I intended.

even though I changed the texture or changed the skp file(save as),
this problem doesn’t solve. (this model I uploaded is very simple and light)

Is there a solution or at least some probable reason for this?

Are you viewing this on an iOS device? We are working to make AR better on iOS. Currently the files are in a GLB (glTF) format something gets lost in translation from .skp to .glb to .usdz. There may be a way to fix it in the meantime. I recently heard of someone who had success after exploding the component and then re-uploading it to 3D Warehouse.

We will likely begin converting each .skp file to a native .usdz as a fix.
Take care,
Guz

Update: When browsing to the 3dwarehouse, using my Galaxy S22 Ultra, and click the VR option, it does work! But scanning the q-code from a computer’s monitor still does not work on this brand new top of the notch phone ^^

Hrm… Can you tell us what you are seeing when you scan the QR code? Also, are you using Chrome as your default web browser?

Somehow my new phone (that (still) isn’t listed (yet)) doesn’t recognize the q-code when pointing the camera to my screen, it doesn’t say do or show anything either. Butt as said before it does work when going to the warehouse using my new phone, and still works fine with my old phone two :slightly_smiling_face: :+1:

Hi there! Nice to have discovered the AR option in 3DWH. Question: is there [/will there be] an option to find my architecture models geolocated via AR? Would be great!

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Hi there!
Question : Why, for some models in 3D Warehouse, the button “View in AR” is not available ?

@judedouch … I think if the file size is too large, you will not find the “View in AR” option.

Edit: The OP by @TheGuz advises models [should be] “less than 200,000 polygons and are smaller than 10MB…”

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Gotta say this AR technology seems badly lacking in consistency and is very flaky…

works on some devices, not others,
some browsers, not others,
some apps, not others…

so many seemingly propriety solutions and few standards that although it is wonderful to see a project full size in a virtual window on my tablet the effort to achieve it is not worth the pain and certainly not something I would suggest to my clients except all but the most enthusiastic tech heads…
not a criticism of SketchUp team, more a reflection on the whole IT industry…

just some issues encountered today using my Samsung S4…

AR viewing my models in the Sketchup Viewer app - small models… slow login with captcha process needed… stuttering performance, scale incorrect on loading, required correction… hardly quick or intuitive… at least with light fittings the viewer allowed me to override the initial floor plan and specify a height (I assume of the model origin) above the floor plane…

AR viewing on 3Dwarehouse… looked at a small file size light fitting… it appears on the floor… no options to lift it to the correct install height… so only visible from above…so to look at the fitting I have to nominate a table surface as a floor and then crawl on the ground to see it from below :slight_smile:

a bit like the VR world full of incompatibilities and proprietary solutions

@SketchrUppr, on this example, the model size is 3 MB and has 35,000 polygons, but the button “View in Ar” is not available.
So surely another reason for that.
An example Here