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Is there an easier/more intuitive way to model a robot for ROS then manually programming its geometry in an XML file?

asked 2020-04-05 17:08:09 -0500

rydb gravatar image

Currently I'm trying to learn how to model robots for use in ROS but the tutorials I find for creating URDF files like in both the official ROS wiki(http://wiki.ros.org/urdf/Tutoria... and YouTube show modeling robots by manually editing their geometry in an XML file. Is there software for modeling the URDF robot like in CAD or at least a list of shortcuts to cut-down time for manually re-compiling XML files over and over again to move stuff into the right positions/rotations?

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answered 2020-04-06 03:40:51 -0500

gvdhoorn gravatar image

Is there software for modeling the URDF robot like in CAD or at least a list of shortcuts to cut-down time for manually re-compiling XML files over and over again to move stuff into the right positions/rotations?

To each his own, but after you get a bit more comfortable with it, being able to simply load a text file (xml is essentially just text) into an editor and quickly tweak a constant (ie: length of a link, rotation of an axis) here and there is actually really convenient.

Note: I'm not saying there aren't legitimate use-cases for wanting to use a CAD program, but it's a rather large overhead to have to start it all up, change something, save, export, copy over, etc. @Teo Cardoso already mentioned some of the plugins for some CAD tools you could use.

Having written all of that: you could take a look at the ROS plugin for VSCode. It has support for almost live preview of URDF/XACRO while you're editing it (screenshot from here):

VSCode ROS plugin URDF preview

You'd still be editing text, but it would cut down on the iteration that seems to be your biggest annoyance.

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Live compiling with VS code would defiantly make editing require alot less key-presses then what I do atm, I'll try this out!

rydb gravatar image rydb  ( 2020-04-06 11:08:19 -0500 )edit

This works really well! XML editing changes are near instant!

rydb gravatar image rydb  ( 2020-04-06 20:00:07 -0500 )edit
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answered 2020-04-05 19:56:12 -0500

Yes, there is. Solidworks and Onshape are able to convert to URDF using plugins.

SW URDF EXPORTER

OnShape To SDF/URDF

I never used them before. So I can't express my opinion. I hope this helps.

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I'll try this out the on-shape converter if live compiling if live compiling doesn't work too well.

rydb gravatar image rydb  ( 2020-04-06 11:12:25 -0500 )edit

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Asked: 2020-04-05 17:06:58 -0500

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Last updated: Apr 06 '20