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As designers, makers, builders, artists, teachers, students, and all around 3D troubadours, we're passionate about our ideas, and even more so about seeing them take shape. If you're reading this, chances are that either you or someone you know is as obsessed about SketchUp as we are. And you know how that obsession can penetrate every corner of your life. Sometimes, the only compulsion greater than push-pulling your ideas to life, is the desire to show off your brilliantly creative work, on any and every device you can get your hands on.

Up until now, one aspect of (most of) our lives has been sadly neglected by SketchUp's addictive lure. That deliciously curvy piece of brightly lit glass you call your iPad (maybe you call it something else, but lest we digress...).

Today, we're incredibly excited to announce all that changes. As 3D Basecamp kicks off in Vail, we’re also welcoming the SketchUp Mobile Viewer for iPad to our product family.

We’ll be telling you all about our new tablet viewer in this blog post, but we’re guessing that some of you might already just want to go buy the thing. You folks can find the SketchUp Mobile Viewer here on the iTunes App Store.

Say hello to the new SketchUp Mobile Viewer for iPad

The SketchUp Mobile Viewer app lets you explore, and present SketchUp models on your iPad. The app’s touch interface provides navigation controls for Orbit, Pan, and Zoom, allowing you to swipe and pinch your way to 3D nirvana. And you’ll notice that models are rendered with certain Style settings based on your Last Saved View, including the Sky, Ground, and Background color, as well as Face settings.

Model Viewer screen with the Cameras list open

Additional navigation controls include a Zoom Extents tool, and a Cameras list that gives you access to SketchUp’s standard camera views (Top, Front, Left, etc) along with any camera positions that were saved as Scenes in your model.

After starting up the app and logging in to your 3D Warehouse account, you’ll find your public and private 3D Warehouse models displayed on the home screen. From there, you have the option to view your models and/or download them for offline use.

The SketchUp Mobile Viewer also lets you search and browse the entire public 3D Warehouse, meaning you can explore the millions of glorious creations available in what we consider to be biggest and best repository of 3D models out there. After clicking a search result, the app’s detailed view provides a high resolution thumbnail along with key model details like title & description, author name, and file size.

Detailed search results: get a better look before opening a model in 3D or downloading it

We’re incredibly excited to make this app available to SketchUp and 3D Warehouse users, and even more excited about what’s in store for future versions. (Hold tight, Android folks!) We hope to bring even more of the SketchUp model viewing capabilities you’ve come to know and love to the SketchUp Mobile Viewer, and to expand the ways that folks present, share, and collaborate on the tablet platform. That’s where you come in: let us know what you think of the SketchUp Mobile Viewer. We’re always listening for ways to improve our products, to make them the tools you’ll want to use. So thanks for your feedback, and happy orbiting!

Posted by Mike Tadros, Product Manager