This package is a visualization tool for easier Rviz marker plotting.

• Tested on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS & ROS kinetic
• tf2_geometry_msgs

Build this package under your catkin workspace, run demo node and Rviz (frame: ros_viz_tools, topic: demo_marker) for a quick look:

roslaunch ros_viz_tools demo_node.launch

Currently support:

• Cube list
• Sphere list
• Line Strip
• Line List
• Cylinder
• Cube
• Sphere
• Arrow
• Text
• Frame (Axes-type Pose)

Set catkin package dependencies in your CMakeLists.txt and package.xml,

# CMakeLists.txt find_package(catkin REQUIRED COMPONENTS ... ros_viz_tools )

<!-- package.xml --> <?xml version="1.0"?> <package format="2"> ... <depend>ros_viz_tools</depend> ... </package>

Include the header file in your codes,

#include "ros_viz_tools/ros_viz_tools.h"

Initialize a RosVizTools instance named markers,

ros::NodeHandle n; std::string topic = "demo_marker"; ros_viz_tools::RosVizTools markers(n, topic);

Create a new marker and append it to markers. Let's take cube list marker for example.

// set marker frame id, namespace and id std::string frame_id = "ros_viz_tools"; std::string ns = "cube_list"; int id = 0;

You can initialize a new marker by two approaches:

// intialize new marker by calling static member function in RosVizTools directly (recommended) visualization_msgs::Marker marker = ros_viz_tools::RosVizTools::newCubeList(0.5, ns, id, ros_viz_tools::WHITE, frame_id); // or by accessing the function through the instance visualization_msgs::Marker marker = markers.newCubeList(0.5, ns, id, ros_viz_tools::WHITE, frame_id);

If the new marker involves a list (cube list, sphere list, line list or line strip), you also need to set a point list.

// modify marker, cube list, for example, also needs a point list. for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) { geometry_msgs::Point p; p.x = i; p.y = pow(p.x, 2.0); p.z = 1.0; marker.points.push_back(p); std_msgs::ColorRGBA color = ros_viz_tools::newColorRGBA(randRGB(e), randRGB(e), randRGB(e)); marker.colors.push_back(color); }

Append new marker to RosVizTools instance markers:

// append to markers markers.append(marker);

At the end, call publish() function.

markers.publish();

Then you can open Rviz and see the markers published in the frame ros_viz_tools and topic demo_marker. Don't forget clear your markers at the beginning of every loop:

markers.clear();

You can see demo_node.cpp for better understanding of the usage for each marker type.

To support colorful marker plotting, ros_viz_tools also defines functions and class for easier color settings. Now there are two approaches supported for generating colors:

• function newColorRGBA (also with some pre-defined colors in color.h) or
• class ColorMap (See demo_node.cpp for examples)

This repository licensed under the MIT License.