Hello folks. I often utilise QR codes within my renders to link to rendered panoramas for clients, but I’d also like for the construction teams to be able to scan a QR code on my Layout plans to view the sketchup model in AR floating in space above the printed out scaled plans - is this possible?
You should be able to insert the QR code as an image on the page in LayOut so it can be scanned from the PDF or an image export.
It’s the steps before that I’m clueless about Dave. I want to export the model with only certain tags active and then create a QR code for that model, then once I’ve got the QR code I assume I’ll then need to do something regarding the scaling of how it appears to others, I’d like it to be roughly the same as the 2D plans.
This is so cool!
How do I get this goodness in my workflow!?!
Maybe it could be better to create a new file showing only the tags you want, then create a QR code of that model, and put it on the layout file like Dave said. The file linked to the layout file will be the original so there won’t be any changes.
OK I think I’m learning a bit here, I’m only several years out of touch! 
. I’ve seen demo videos where people simply view the layout and the image is recognised which triggers the AR model to appear within the footprint of the scaled plan and the Trimble Warehouse/QR code is not required, but I can’t find any tutorials on how to achieve this. It is possible with rendered models too.
You can do that with Vuforia targets. I don’t know if they have a standalone app for it though.
Exactly that. How do you do it? I don’t see a QR code there so it clearly uses the image as an anchor.
I used the QR code method as others have mentioned. Upload the model to 3D warehouse → go to my content → click the View in AR button → screen clip the QR code → paste it in your layout
I am not familiar with the image anchor method.
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Progrss update: I tried uploading a project that is a dwelling and surrounding gardens, but it was taking ages so I purged all the vegetation reducing the model size enormously. However, even at 31MB I still get the error message “This model is too large to be viewed in AR” - it doesn’t mention what the limit is, but this was just a modest sized project so I’m not very hopeful that it’s going to provide me with what I want.
stick to models with less than 200,000 polygons and are smaller than 10MB by using the Properties filters
10mb is of little use to me unfortunately.
The other way to view models in AR is through the SketchUp app. I couldn’t find any documentation on size limitations for that method, but I’ve used it on 20mb files. Could be worth exploring.
The only downside is that it isn’t a QR code scanning process (unless I’ve missed something). You’d have to publish the model to Trimble Connect, and then open it with the SketchUp app. Then click the view in AR button.
If you don’t need AR, but are just going for interactive 3D viewer of your layout drawing - you can publish the model to Trimble Connect → Open the model in app.sketchup.com → click the share button to get a hyperlink to SketchUp viewer
Then turn the hyperlink into a QR code
paste the QR code in your layout and anyone who scans can access the web-based viewer for rotate, zoom, pan, and viewing all scenes.
Apologies if you already knew all that, but thought it could be helpful to document on this thread as it is QR code related.
I have tried this using Kubity but would much rather it be a Sketchup ability, dear Sketchup Team, would you be able to increase the model size from 10Mb so we could use this effectively in out projects, it would be such a boon to be able to use this in a professional workflow (and entertaining for our clients)
here’s hoping and many thaks
Dan
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NMason, I definitely want to go down the AR route, the alternatives you mentioned are easier to present using rendering software as either a panorama a web standalone, also they’re great for the client on my landscaping projects but I want to give the construction team something extra to help them get things right first time.
Another option to look at could be SketchFab
That has some options that work with android and ios native AR formats and give that via a simple interface.
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Unfortunately Elmtec-Adam that would require every independent contractor I work with to pay for the app in order for it to do what I require. I must have been naive, I assumed I could use a free service because of things like panopdm that offer free panorama hosting like this https://panopdm.com/viewer.php?application=panorama&id=b3fb67d38f27a717cbba187263924c43d6b97fb5
… so I assumed AR would be simpler if anything.
Sketchfab is free to use - you just need a paid account to enable the app free AR options on your files. App-free AR – Sketchfab Help Center
Example QR code from their service
AR gets mode complicated as it is more demanding and there is no guarantee that the device/operating system supports a particularly format or if it is powerful enough to show said item.
Apple uses USDZ as their AR object format - if you can host that file somewhere you can link to it via a QR code or email/message it.
Android uses gLTF as theirs - support on android will be even spottier as there are something like 30000 different devices out there.
For both of those it is possible to export from the SketchUp Desktop App via free/paid plugins or Blender (USDZ can be exported via SketchUp for i.Pad or Blender)
Here is a manually created USDZ , manually uploaded to onedrive and I’ve manually created a QR code
If you have an Apple device you will get a sense of how that may/may not work
My $900 i.Pad Pro glitches/chokes on this file, but my $1500 iPhone Pro 15 Max is fine.
Here is an andriod native version exported using the GLTF extension from extension warehouse
This took quite a long time as the model has not been designed for this purpose and contains 3D plants - the enemy of 3D modelling.
If you open this on an IOS device it loads in the browser (albeit low res and laggy)
in Summary from my little experiment:
- You can achieve this for free
- You will need to build your models for this purpose and you will need to create versions for both IOS and Android manually.
- There are paid alternatives that streamline this
- There is no guarantee that it will work on the end user’s device.
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