Exporting Linear Actuators to an URDF from SolidWorks

Question

I would like to try running a CNC mill using ROS. More specifically I want to use RVIZ to help us visualize a CNC task prior to running it live on the CNC. My understanding is that one of the first step in this process is exporting my robot URDF using the SolidWorks URDF exporter. The exporter seems geared towards exporting revolute joints but doesn't seem to have any functionality to setup linear actuators / prismatic joints. Is this possible? If so what are the steps for specifying a linear actuator? If someone can point me the way I would love to write a tutorial about this.

Here are a couple of example 3 axis gantries that use linear actuators similar to the one I am working with:

• GrabCAD: http://grabcad.com/library/damki-cnc-router-1
• ShapeOKO: http://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/model.html?id=f6ed9052b5de9a00dbd8f267ad6945df

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Originally posted by kscottz on ROS Answers with karma: 209 on 2014-03-14

Post score: 0

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Original comments

Comment by gvdhoorn on 2014-03-26:
Not really an answer, but AFAIK the exporter should support setting up prismatic joints. Not sure about the quality / correctness of the exported URDF then though.

Answer 1

Sorry for the delay in answering this question. The exporter will support prismatic joints. Whether it can be detected automatically depends on the configuration of your solidworks file. If it doesn't detect things automatically, you can always manually configure it.

See this related question for help on manually configuring. http://answers.ros.org/question/77561/sw2urdf-how-to-generate-linear-axis/

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Originally posted by brawner with karma: 581 on 2014-03-26

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 1