Release Announcement – SketchUp Viewer V4 for iOS & Android Now Available!

Hey Mike,

Just curious…my SketchUp viewer v4 no longer seems to sync with my Dropbox account. I’m running iOS 11.4. I’ve got everything checked to allow the SketchUp viewer to gain “access” to my Dropbox account. All was good in the past. I’ve had the SketchUp viewer from the first version that was released. This is the only time I’ve encountered a problem. Any thoughts?

Sounds cool. Apparently, my phone doesn’t support it, but such is the nature of buying older phones.

@vsyquia we’ve just released a 4.0.1 update to the Play Store that should hopefully resolve the issue folks were experiencing when attempting to install the app on non-ARCore enabled devices. Meaning, you should be able to install 4.0.1. Please let us know if you continue to experience issues.

@mics_54 @sjdorst @dhannah Just released 4.0.1 to the Play Store. Should hopefully fix the incompatibility issue you were seeing. Apologies again for the hubbub. Please let us know if you have better luck this time.

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Or do, if you’re curious. The next step would be for you to again confirm your subscription via the App Store – but you won’t get to that step on a non-ARKit enabled device.

Yep, that’s because we don’t want you accidentally redeeming a trial on an incompatible device, better to wait to start the clock until your device will actually let you play with the new buttons.

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Ok, fair enough. I clicked the red button to subscribe, then it told me that my device is not compatible. Starting the clock when/if I do get a compatible device is also fair, thanks.

Downloaded, installed, and running on my Pixel C! Thanks!

Does show that I don’t have “Pro”, despite my upgrading from a paid version. Offered to upgrade me - which I think it should do if it’s running on a non-ARCore compliant device. I didn’t try to actually upgrade.

Unless you also managed to make the AR features work without needing ARCore?

@MikeTadros 4.01 is still incompatible with my Moto G4+. I understand, it’s not on the list, but I was excited to hear that it’s free. Maybe next time I upgrade my phone, it’ll work.

@dhannah That’s interesting. Are you saying that the app as a whole is not available for you to install? Meaning you’re unable to install V4.0.1? Or just that the AR features aren’t available since the phone isn’t ARCore enabled?

@mansondesign sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having with Dropbox. Would like to learn more & attempt to reproduce on our end. If you’d be willing to share some additional info & perhaps even a few screenshots highlighting what you’re seeing, please send them through our support channel ios-mobile@sketchup.com & we’ll dig in.

AR features don’t work w/o ARCore. Pls correct me if I’m wrong, but I think what you’re seeing is similar to what I described in response to Gordon’s question. We don’t activate the trial unless you’re on a device that can actually take advantage of the new stuff.

I don’t mind not activating the trial. It didn’t happen and it shouldn’t happen.

But you should disable the ability to “go pro” if ARCore isn’t present, not blithely pop up a screen asking me to accept a $9.99 fee. If I pay it, will ARCore magically appear on my non ARCore compliant device? If not, what happens with my payment?

@miketadros I had to restart my phone, and then the 4.0.1 update worked.

Thanks for the feedback Steven. The app will not allow you to make a purchase on a device that does not support ARCore. If you were somehow able to subscribe on a non-ARCore device, you would be able to request a refund from the Play Store. If for some reason you were unsuccessful receiving a refund through the Play Store, you could contact us through our support channel android-mobile@sketchup.com with your purchase information and someone from our support team would work with you to issue a refund.

Mike, I didn’t manage to subscribe. I stopped when the app asked for payment. My point is that the app shouldn’t have even asked for payment. Instead, it should have said something like: “We’re sorry, the advanced features aren’t available for your device.” with, perhaps, a link to more details.

And a big round of applause goes to … THE SKETCHUP TEAM! (or rip them off and scarper AKA ‘Trimble Inc’).

Welcome to the club of 'Screw as much money out of people as we can (no free stuff here!) '. ‘Trimble Inc’ are trying out Adobe business model of subscription based software.

Another ‘Subscription’ to add to the others that make you pay hand over fist instead of being able to pay outright for a feature.

Trimble Inc’ ditched the free version (as there wasn’t enough people paying $695 (usd) ) for what passes as a laugh a minute (because if you don’t you will create a new thing to do with an actual window) ‘Web based’ junk.

So here we go again, ‘Trimble Inc’ got rid of ‘free users’ and now trying to screw money out of us with a subscription to a VR in app purchase.

Maybe we should alphabetise an error what Alphabet did in selling this program off, I don’t think i’ll trust Alphabet (Google) products again.

Trimble Inc’ is doing everything it can for their stock price, not the user!

Again, a big hand of applause!

I am having issues with Sketchup Viewer on my iPad Pro working with my files from SketchUp Pro 2018. I have put the SKP files into DropBox and iCloud Drive and I can see them, but I cannot open them to view and show my clients. This does not help me at all with my job as of right now.

What am I doing wrong?

Now that you mention it, I remember that I had the same problem. It used to work fine from the SketchUp app to go to the cloud icon, then Dropbox and open a file. Now I can navigate through the folders and see the files but they’re all greyed out and I can’t click on them or the cloud download icon.

Try opening the file from the “Files” app instead. Find the file, tap on it, then tap on the share icon at top right (blue rectangle with arrow pointing up). Then swipe right through the list of app icons until you find SketchUp’s icon with “Copy to SketchUp” below it. Tap that and it should open in the SketchUp Viewer app.

@drds1111 @McGordon Thanks for asking this question here. We were just working through a very similar issue with a customer who had emailed in and after checking on a bunch of different devices here internally, we were able to replicate the issue and figure out a workaround.

The root of the issue is based on something iOS (& other operating systems) refer to as File Type Association. When any app is installed, the app tells iOS what file types it ‘owns’ and which file types it can ‘open.’ There’s a subtle, but important difference that is causing the issue you’re seeing.

The SketchUp Viewer app registers with iOS and appropriately tells iOS that it ‘owns’ the SKP format. Problem #1 is – so do other apps (not something we have control over, unfortunately). Problem #2 is – iOS offers ‘ownership’ up to whichever app claims it first.

What this means is that if you install an overly ambitious app that inappropriately claims ownership of the SKP format, prior to then subsequently installing the SUV app, we’re unable to properly claim ownership of the format (which is the Files app apparently needs to respond as we’d all expect and allow you to open a SKP file from Dropbox, etc.).

After some trial & error we discovered a workaround, that we’ll admit is a bit lame, but so far is the best we have to offer: take a best guess as to which apps might be claiming ownership of the SKP format, and systematically uninstall them, checking to see if the SUV app is then able to open SKP files via the Files app. For example, we followed this process on a test device & discovered that Evernote is one culprit (if you find others, please let us know). Once the offending app is uninstalled, SUV can claim ownership of the SKP format & retain ownership of the format even after the offending app is reinstalled. Meaning, it should then be safe for you to reinstall whatever apps you had to uninstall, and the format issue should stay fixed. We’ll continue to explore this issue and look for ways to resolve it in a more straight forward way. In the mean time, I hope this info is helpful and that the workaround is effective.

When I open the .skp in the Files app, it tells me which app is associated and that is Sightspace. Below the filename it says: “SightSpace Free-D File”. If Evernote was associated with .skp files that may be inappropriately claiming ownership, but not SightSpace which allowed me to view .skp files on my phone more than a year before I installed SketchUp’s viewer, which I think was soon after SketchUp’s viewer was released.

As you admit, the workaround is a bit lame. In my case, uninstalling the SightSpace app might mean never getting it back again if that version is no longer available on the App store. OK, it is an old version and can’t read SketchUp 2018 files, so I probably won’t use it again, but you shouldn’t be asking users to delete the competition’s apps!