Ignition RViz

RViz is a 3D visualization tool for robots using ROS.

Ignition RViz offers functionality similar to RViz, and is developed using Ignition libraries.

Build Status

• ROS versions: Rolling (Humble)
• Ignition versions: Fortress

Head over to the wiki to get detailed description of the project.

Requirements

• ROS 2 Foxy or Rolling
• Ignition Fortress
  • Ignition Common
  • Ignition GUI
  • Ignition Math
  • Ignition Rendering
• Qt5
• Additional QML modules required for GPS Plugin
  • QtPositioning (qml-module-qtpositioning)
  • QtLocation (qml-module-qtlocation)

Setup the repository

Create a colcon workspace

mkdir -p ~/colcon_ws/src
cd ~/colcon_ws/src

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/ignitionrobotics/ign-rviz.git

Choose an Ignition version

export IGNITION_VERSION=<ignition>

Where <ignition> should be fortress.

You only need to set this variable when compiling, not when running.

Build ign-rviz

Go to the root of your colcon workspace

cd ../

Source ROS2, where <distro> is rolling:

source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.bash  # If using bash
source /opt/ros/<distro>/setup.zsh   # If using zsh

Build ign-rviz

colcon build

Launch ign-rviz

Ignition Rviz can be launched using the following command

# Source the workspace
source install/setup.zsh

# Launch ign-rviz
ros2 launch ign_rviz rviz.launch.py

Instruction to generate documentation

Project documentation can be generated with the help of doxygen using the following commands.

cd ~/colcon_ws/src/ign-rviz/docs/

# Generate documentation
doxygen rviz.doxyfile

# View documentation
firefox ./html/index.html

Instruction to use plugins

• ImageDisplay plugin
  1. Launch a sensor_msgs/msg/Image publisher. For example

     # Source ROS2
     ros2 run image_tools cam2image

  2. Launch ign-rviz as mentioned above
  3. Load an ImageDisplay plugin and select the published topic.