Pure shapes approximation

By default, meshes are also used for collision. This is versatile but is computationally expensive, and can be numerically instable.

You can approximate those parts with pure shapes (namely boxes, spheres and cylinders). For this, we propose a solution based on openscad:

apt-get install openscad

Approximating a mesh

To do approximation, you need to create a .scad file next to .stl one. For instance motor.scad that will approximate motor.stl file.

You can use onshape-to-robot-edit-shape [stl-file] that will automatically prepare and run the .scad using a template visualizing the .stl with transparency, allowing you to edit the pure shapes related:

_images/pure-shape.png

You will then have to write manually some scad code that approximate your shape.

Note

Only the union of the written shape will be used. When using onshape-to-robot-edit-shape, some examples will appear commented. You can use cube, sphere and cylinder, along with translate and rotate to mainly do t he job. Have a look at examples for more insight.

Then, the pure shapes from your scad will be used when generating the sdf or urdf file (next time you will run onshape-to-robot, it will read your .scad files, assuming useScads is not false).

Part with no collision

If the .scad file is empty, your part will have no collision.

Re-using the mesh

To use the mesh for collision, simply remove the .scad that has the same name that the .stl file.

Drawing collisions

If you pass drawCollisions to true, the collisions will also be used for the render, which can be useful to debug:

_images/shape-approx.png