Do I always need meshes in *.dae format to simulate in Gazebo?

Question

I am trying to simulate with p3dx model in Gazebo. I got p3dx description files from a package that is available online. I see that there are several parts of p3dx that are in .stl mesh format. I have added Gazebo laser plug in and using a mesh in .dae format for the same to model it. I can see p3dx with laser in RViz with correct colors of different links. For Gazebo simulation I followed Gazebo's material coloring method but I can see correct color only for laser and entire p3dx is appearing in pale white color. My questions are as following,

1. Why p3dx (meshes in *.stl) is not appearing with correct colors of different links whereas laser (meshes in *.dae) appears with correct color in Gazebo?

2. Is there any way to get meshes of p3dx in *.dae format?

Any help is appreciated.

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Originally posted by anirban on ROS Answers with karma: 64 on 2017-04-02

Post score: 1

Answer 1

Hi,

1. With stl as far as I know, only the coloring feature works, so no textures and the full gazebo material. With dae it works, and in the latest version of Gazebo (not in ROS repo yet) it is said to support obj files as well. How the texturing etc. works there, I do not know, I have not tried it yet.

2. You could convert stl to dae using blender. Do not use the Ubuntu shipped version it is compiled without dae support.

Regards,

Christian

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Originally posted by cyborg-x1 with karma: 1376 on 2017-04-04

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 0

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Original comments

Comment by anirban on 2017-04-15:
Thank you for your reply. I got belnder 2.78c which can convert .stl file into .dae format. Unfortunately those converted .dae files when used with robot model gave multiple instances of them at unwanted positions. In my view that was because of different frame conventions used in Blender and RViz.

Comment by cyborg-x1 on 2017-05-31:
Yeah in blender you need to check where your origins of the parts are. And if they are at a wrong position for you move them. If you need the origin at a center of a circle for example you have to select all the points from the circle, move the 3d cursor there, go to object mode and change the ...

Comment by cyborg-x1 on 2017-05-31:
origin of the object to the center of the 3d cursor. Moving 3d cursor and origin is done by short keys and the menu called by [SPACE]. Check the blender tutorials for moving object origin and 3d cursor. Blender is effective - but not very beginner friendly. Also there can be scaling problems.