Hi everybody,
A quick question. Does everyone’s cursor change to an I-beam when it hovers over a tray such as Scenes, Outliner or Materials?
I’ve recently started using the desktop version of SketchUp Pro on my iPad when I’m away from the office. It works surprisingly well, but the I-beam cursor makes it quite difficult to select items in the trays because everything is so much smaller on the iPad.
I’m also curious why SketchUp changes the cursor to an I-beam in the first place?
The I-beam cursor, as you call it, is to indicate that you can start typing text.
There are
SketchUp for Desktop does not run on iPad, Or are you using a remote connection, what kind, what to what are you connecting to?
Thanks Joshua
When I first open a file I get the pointed cursor over the trays - but after a minute or so the cursor turns into an I-Beam whenever it hovers over a tray. You can see from this image that its an I-Beam in a place where you cannot type text. Its the same in the Outliner which makes it tricky to hide and unhide groups.
Hi dezmo
I am using Jump remote desktop. Its brilliant but this issue makes it a bit tricky to use the outliner.
I’m not familiar with that Remote Desktop, but it probably has an option to configure mouse/touchpad/touch input for the iPad Jump remote desktop software (or your PC part of the Jump remote desktop software), so you might find those settings when the remote cursor is fine.
it’s the classic cursor for when you can type or select text. the fact that it happens when you’re mousing over text-rich panels like overlay or scene is not random. it’s a clue 
I’m not surprised, I’ve had weird cursors appear when using teamviewer or anydesk to do remote tech support or training.
(usually, no matter the tool I select, the remote cursor remains the same. quite annoying in a training environment).
edit :
yeah. looks like jump remote desktop adapts the cursor to what’s below it, and in this case, since it’s technically text that you can edit, you’re screwed.
Yes you are right - it has quite a few options and I have experimented with all of them. I ended up using the standard settings which work great other than this cursor issue. Its still useable its just difficult to select a specific group without a pointed cursor.
Yes - that seems to be the case. Having said that the software is really great and the ability to work with Pro on the road is still amazing. I recon its the best £15 I ever spent 
Kevin, I never imagined that you could “run”/view desktop Sketchup on an iPad.
I had to look twice to believe it. It is incredible! Have you tried using Sketchup for iPad? The functionality is very different, and as much as I’ve tried to get used to it, I simply use a laptop when I’m on the road, even though the iPad that I have can use Sketchup for iPad.
Hi Joshua
Yes – I actually bought a top-of-the-range iPad a few years ago specifically to use SketchUp for iPad, but I just couldn’t get on with it. In the end I exchanged the iPad for a basic version.
This is a completely different experience though. You’re using the power of your desktop PC, with the iPad simply acting as a window into it. I can even work with point clouds while I’m on the road and, of course, I have full access to Layout as well. I use the same MX Master mouse that I use in my office, so everything feels completely familiar.
On top of that, I have access to everything else on my PC exactly as if I were sitting at my desk.
My only regret is selling the original iPad, as the larger screen would have made the experience even better.
I’m using Desktop 2025, and if I hover over my tray tabs for a bit, my cursor changes to the text cursor.
Is that on a remote connection?
No, it’s directly on my computer.
Thanks Kevin. I think I’m gonna give this a try in the future. This is really interesting when I’m on the road.When I’m on a plane. I try to make sure that I’ve logged in to SketchUp for iPad before we go as it always requires you to be logged in. Depending on which plane and which country, one doesn’t always have access to wi-fi while flying.
At the same time the experience of SketchUp for iPad, even though the pen makes it feel more natural, has never really given me the feeling that I thought it would give me, considering how intuitive it is to sketch with the pencil on a drawing app like Procreate.
Having said all of that I’ve had a few students intern at our firm in the last two to three years who started their journey with SketchUp on an iPad and then transitioned to the desktop software. It was both interesting to hear their positives and their negatives of both software, having started the other way around. Although now that they’ve worked with me for over half a year, they do see the value and the speed of desktop software versus iPad software.
It is an interesting user interface difference. Have you ever experimented with Sketch VR, where, using one of the Meta headsets, you can draw in the VR environment and stand in front of your sketchup models?
No I haven’t but that does sound interesting. It’s incredible just how many different things are possible now that we have no knowledge of. I only learned about Jump remote desktop a few weeks ago and for me it’s a game changer. I dread to think what else is out there that I am missing.
I´ve used some of this remote apps some years ago, but i had to leave the pc on for several days and the lag was unbearable, I´m sure it has improved since then. can you tell us your experience? Is it compatible with MacOS? if so, that would be awesome, lately I´ve been using twinmotion a lot for clients living far away from my city, I´ve been traveling a lot and making virtual tours is a lot faster than using V-Ray and enscape is ok for beginners but it lacks of features that help the render look more realistic, I´m an official Twinmotion instructor so I know it as much as sketchup, but for some unknown reason, Lumen gives a lot better results on Windows than on mac, and there´s no path tracer available for mac, it would be a lot better to be able to do it remotely instead of sending the file to the intern, praying for him to not make any mistake and understand the instructions, export the videos and images to be able to show the client.
In my experience there’s almost no lag, although intuitively I find myself pausing for a fraction of a second between each operation.
As for leaving the PC on, mine is always on 24/7 so that isn’t an issue. Somebody told me years ago that computers tend to break mainly when you turn them on or off, so I seldom turn mine off.
I was experimenting with the full desktop version of SketchUp Pro on my iPhone earlier using nothing but finger gestures. It’s amazing what you can do. You can even orbit with one finger after three quick taps, but I would say the iPhone is just a bit of fun for playing with SketchUp, although it’s a great tool for admin tasks.
The iPad is different because with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard it’s definitely possible to use the PC version of SketchUp Pro productively, and you’re not limited to SketchUp as your iPad is simply a window to your computer, so you can run anything.
I’m connecting to a PC, but according to Jump it works with almost any computer and operating system. It only costs £14.99 in the App Store, so maybe it’s worth experimenting with for your Twinmotion workflow.
Good luck
I was thinking that Wacom made tablets that are full blown Windows machines, but I guess looking at their site now, they don’t make them any more. I always thought that might be an interesting way to run SketchUp desktop on a (somewhat) mobile device. Now they seem to offer a tablet running Android OS, which isn’t any help in that regard.
