File conversion from *.urdf to *.xacro.

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There is no official or programmatic way of doing this, as the process is strongly dependent on the platform that you are using.

When converting from a URDF to a xacro file, I did the following:

• Create properties for commonly-used constants
  • Mathematics constants: M_PI, M_2PI
  • Conversion constants: Radians to Degrees, inches to centimeters
  • Physics constants: Speed of Light, gravity (if needed)
• Create properties for variable components of your robot (Parts that will be constant over a run, but may change between runs)
  • Wheel Radius
  • Ground Clearance
  • Camera Height/Angle
• Create macros for arrays of parts on your robot (a good example would be the super-structure of the turtlebot).
• Create macros for any components that are "mirrored"
  • arms
  • wheels

This would be a good starting point for creating a xacro file, in general.

Edit:

See this tutorial for further details and syntax.