RViz Python Basic Examples

Repository to provide out-of-the-box examples to work with RViz and Python.

Installation

Clone this repository to your catkin workspace:

$ git clone git@github.com:hpoleselo/rviz-python-basics.git

Make it:

$ catkin_make

Make sure the recent-downloaded package is available in your local:

$ rospack find rviz_with_python

Make sure the Python script is executable:

$ roscd rviz_with_python/src

$ chmod +x publish_spheres.py

Procedure to Run Simple Sphere Publisher

A launch file will be written to avoid following all those steps to reproduce the functionality, anyways following these steps are useful to understand what's going on under the hood:

Run ROS:

$ roscore

Create a transform /tf tree by publishing a static transformation between two frames that will start to exist from the moment we publish them:

$ rosrun tf static_transform_publisher 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 map sphere 10

Basically we're saying the map frame is on the same XYZ and orientation as the sphere frame.

Run RViz:

$ rosrun rviz rviz

On RViz, make sure to click on Add -> Marker -> Ok:

Run the sphere publisher script (file has to be executable):

$ rosrun rviz_with_python publish_spheres.py

Could be done without being in the package and by running Python directly:

$ python3 sphere_publisher.py

We should get the following result:

Easier Way of Running the Sphere Publisher (TODO)

Although the launch file is already created, I must get somethings right:

$ roslaunch rviz_with_python sphere_publisher.launch