How to save Octomap?

Question

I try to save Octomap, it just save it as a quicksave.pcd and when I try to use pcd_viewer to view it says " quicksave.pcd [pcl::PCDReader::readHeader] HEIGHT given (1) but no WIDTH!"

Also, the size is comparatively is very small (700 kb) while the other cloud map created is around 120 Mb.

Can anyone tell me how can I decrease the size of the cloud map which is created. When I try to view it on my machine, it render very slowly. I know the accuracy will decrease but how can i control the size of the cloud map ?

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Originally posted by sha on ROS Answers with karma: 21 on 2014-03-24

Post score: 0

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Original comments

Comment by davinci on 2014-03-25:
I think the PCL octree implementation is used. Not the Octomap server? Describe your software setup please.

Answer 1

To expand on davinci's answer: You cannot save an OctoMap as .pcd file. In fact, there are no more point clouds to store after you integrated them into OctoMap, since the individual points are not retained by used for a probabilistic occupancy estimation in voxels. How exactly did you store the .pcd file, and from where?

You can only store octomaps into the native .ot or .bt file format, which you can then open and process using the octomap API or visualize with octovis.

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Originally posted by AHornung with karma: 5904 on 2014-03-25

This answer was ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 3

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Original comments

Comment by sha on 2014-03-25:
Thanks for the reply. I have tried to save it from GUI (Octomap - >SAve Octomap....I have try to save a new one...this time I didnt gave any .pcd and it has saved....But how can you view it using octovis. I can use pcd_viewer to view pcd files but their is no octovis.

Comment by AHornung on 2014-03-25:
Which GUI of which package or program are you using to save? octovis is the official visualization of OctoMap. You need to download and compile it, or install the precompiled package for your ROS distribution.

Comment by sha on 2014-03-25:
I am using the GUI from the installation from this page http://wiki.ros.org/rgbdslam. I have just installed octovis also from this page http://wiki.ros.org/octovis. Now I can view the octomap. Please can you tell me how we can control the size PCD files. PCD file created are of size 180 MB which are difficult to visualize.

Comment by Felix Endres on 2014-03-27:
Hi Sha, when posting a question, please think about what the readers will need to know to answer it. You are using rgbdslam to create a 3d map. Do you want to save it as an octomap (ot) or a point cloud (pcd) file? Are you even using the right menu item from the GUI?

Comment by sha on 2014-03-27:
Sorry for the confusion. I will be careful in future.

Answer 2

You are not saving it as an OctoMap but as a pointcloud (.pcd -> point cloud data).

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Originally posted by davinci with karma: 2573 on 2014-03-25

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 1

Answer 3

I agree, I get a similar result. Save -> Save Octomap saves it as a .pcd and not a .bt etc. Also looks like it can be saved a .bt but the header it writes has a problem, instead of 'Octomap OcTree binary file' it writes 'Octomap OcTree file'

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Originally posted by shamitb with karma: 11 on 2016-01-31

This answer was NOT ACCEPTED on the original site

Post score: 1

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Original comments

Comment by Felix Endres on 2016-02-04:
I checked the code and it is true that the suggested filename is "quicksave.pcd". What rgbdslam saves is actually an .ot (OcTree) file, regardless of the name you choose. Hence the difference in the header line. You can rename the file to fix this. I'll update the code soon.