Sketchup Free (online version) does not support 3D Spacemouse

Don’t worry about it. Saying what you believe eloquently without profanity earns a “Like” from me whether I agree or not. I do some and I don’t some.

I personally do not like the “subscription model” for desktop software, but it makes a bit more sense for web-based SaaS. (And the poll is sort of a “tease”.)

But if you reread your original post at the top, you might realize why some readers may see “attitude” there with the “What gives?” and the accusal of withholding proprietary details, as if it was not their prerogative to do so.
It may be a simple as they do not have the time right now, or may not have solved the issue yet, or they might feel that their just not ready to release any public (or limited access) interface at this time.

I also have no issue with free users using free software, or looking elsewhere for a replacement for Make functionality. (Look at FreeCAD, QCAD or LibreCAD. They won’t be as easy or “sketchlike” as SketchUp, but there are likely to always be free as there are Open Source written by people who contribute their free time.)


Back on the feature support topic …
What if you could choose what you wanted on your “burger” for a much smaller price, say 24 dollars a year ?

Say, that they implement only proprietary (Trimble-made) extensions for the Free edition, and allow users to buy only what they actually need provided that the non-commercial use term still applies.
Would 2 dollars a month ($24/year) still be too much ?

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I got lost with some of the sofisticated technical discussions.

Bottom line for me and what has completely killed my use of sketchup, is that my 3d mouse plain and simply does not work in sketchup at all.

In sketchup Make 17, I open program, 3d mouse works.
In web app, open web app, 3d mouse doesn’t work.
Its as simple as that. The web in general may support the device via any number of workarounds, but I don’t care about the web in general, I care about the sketchup make app, which obviously does not and thats a killer for me.

And lately 17 has just plain stopped working alltogether as well. Crashes after a few minuts. So look like I am heading to blender as my main 3d modelling program.

I just can’t afford the huge cost for the downloadable version of sketchup. Shame.

Since SketchUp 2017 Make hasn’t changed since, well, 2017, if it has started crashing, you should look at what has changed on your computer. That’s where the problem will be.

Since you are only a hobbyist using SketchUp, you could look into rolling back your graphics drivers to a version before it started crashing. That might help.

It’s not that the space mouse does not work in the web app because something is broken, it simply is a different software which does not have this feature.

Space mouse support for SketchUp is provided by the space mouse’s manufacturer who has not yet done any move to add support for the web app. (Partly due to lack of extensibility, however technically SketchUp could themselves add support for the space mouse, but it’s not necessarily their responsibility.)

If your local SketchUp installation is broken, you’d benefit most by fixing/resetting/restoring it. But that’s something for a different topic, not this one.

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You need another option in your poll:
“I use free software but I am also willing to pay for software that offers me value for my money”
For myself in this case, as a hobby user, I wouldn’t pay 9.99 for the privilege of using my SpaceNavigator on Sketchup. I just won’t use or recommend the software.

As a paying SketchUp user who, as it is, must also pay the costs incurred by the users of the free versions, I sometimes wonder if we had a better Pro version if all the development resources wasted in the free versions were concentrated on the revenue-bringing products.

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Disagree. The poll is specifically about SU4Web Shop edition and it’s subscription price.
Your suggestion is too general. It wouldn’t tell us anything that we need to know.

As only 3 persons actually answered and the poll is 2 years old, it sort of shows that there is little interest.

Not a problem as I also don’t use it, and do not find myself recommending it.
(I am a desktop application kind of guy.)

Which gets to the heart of the matter. Most users who have 3D pointing devices likely prefer full featured desktop applications.

As asked also in a separate post above, how much per month or year would you as a hobby user, pay for 3D pointer support (if it was available) ?

Kind of an old topic, but I thought I would toss in my 2¢. I don’t mind paying for software I use. Of course the amount I’m will to pay is dependent on the amount of use and the usefulness. I’ve been a hobby user since I think before the Google days, I’m still using Make and it’s working just fine. I don’t use it often, but I do find it very useful for my woodworking. I wouldn’t mind paying the Shop version, the Pro version is too $ much for my needs. I know that the free Web app doesn’t work with my 3D mouse, but hoped it would in the Shop version. Apparently it doesn’t, so due to the my extensive use of the 3D mouse I am going to continue to use the old Make until either it dies or the 3D mouse is supported in Shop. Unfortunate, but that is the outcome of the decisions made by me and Trimble.

You may have started with the first ‘Free’ release that Google did, which was a variation of SketchUp 5. The version before Google would have cost you $495 for the first one you bought, and $95 for each Upgrade that you paid for. I bought SketchUp 5 that way, and also did upgrades to SketchUp Pro 7 and 8. Google gave us SketchUp Pro 5 users a free upgrade to SketchUp Pro 6.

SketchUp, the desktop version, doesn’t do anything to support Space Mouse, that’s all done with the extension that 3DX give you. I feel sure they could do something similar with a browser extension.

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This is the important point it seems many are ignoring. It’s not SketchUp supporting 3DX mice/controllers. It’s 3DX supporting SketchUp and other applications including browsers.

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I’ve tried it myself. I feel sure that without a bit of help (exposing the necessary camera API) from Trimble it is not possible for 3DConnexion to make their hardware work with SketchUp Web.

While that is basically true, it is a misleading statement. SketchUp desktop has a well documented API. SketchUp web does not. There is not even an undocumented api known to exist.

FWIW I added 3D space mouse support to another web app that I use. It had the camera API exposed.
If SketchUp web would only expose the camera API I would implement Space Mouse support just for fun (I don’t use the web version)

SpaceMouse2

It’s not as trivial to expose a camera API as it may seem. Once an API is out and people start relying on it, it is very hard change. Public API is basically written in stone. Before we can expose any API we need to make a number of design decisions that aren’t only affected by the current web version of SU, but also desktop and potential future platforms.

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As a SpacePilot Pro user and hobbyist, I am still stuck in the 2017 free verison as long as it works and my old laptop works. I would gladly pay a fee for a current desktop verison or a web version that allowed 3D mic to work, or even pay for a newer mouse, but I can’t justify $300/year for something I use 3 times a year.

This seems self-contradictory. You would gladly pay, but can’t justify paying? Please clarify what you would be willing to pay, for what, and under what circumstances.

It seems unlikely that Trimble will implement another licensing variation beyond what they currently offer, particularly for the Pro desktop version, so payment may not be the issue. @ene_su described the reasons why she believes there would need to be a large base of support for this request before Trimble would consider exposing an API that would let it happen in the free web version.

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It seems like supporting 3D Space Mouse in SketchUp web would be a lot simpler than adding an entire extensions API. SketchUp could use the game pad api to bring Space Mouse support without any need for an extension. See my post above.

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How is that self-contradictory? I would pay, but $300/yr is too much to assist with my occasional bookshelf or coffee table ideas.
Would you pay $50 for a nice hamburger if you only felt it was worth $20? Maybe if you had no other options, I suppose. I’ll probably switch to hot dogs personally.

You could use a $20 3-button mouse for your occasional SketchUp modeling.

Why so expensive? The cheapest 3-button wheel mouse I found costs 3,80 €. Euros and dollars are about equal today. That one looks like a rebadged Logitech model. Cheapest wireless is 8€. :grinning:

I was being generous. :wink:

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Hey folks, I built a chrome extension to scratch my own itch.

It’s not perfect because SketchUp for Web exposes no API for camera or scene manipulation. I can only get 5 DOF scene manipulation by simulating mouse and keyboard events.

  • Move (3D)
  • Yaw
  • Pitch

The back/forward move is implemented by Zoom so it’s bit janky once you get close to a surface. But I guess that is an issue with mouse users too.

Anyway, please give it a try and I’m happy hear your feedback!

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