SolidWorks to URDF Exporter

A plugin that exports a SolidWorks assembly directly into a URDF robot model.

This is a SolidWorks plugin maintained by the ROS community. Mechanical engineers typically design a robot in SolidWorks (a 3D CAD modeling program), while simulators and ROS need a model description in URDF format. The plugin lets users specify links, joint types, rotation axes, and coordinate frames directly in the assembly, then exports a ROS package containing the URDF file, an STL mesh for each link, and a launch file, with mass and inertia computed automatically from the CAD model's mass properties. The exported result usually still needs a manual check of joint directions, limits, and inertia before it's used in a simulator such as Isaac Sim or MuJoCo.

ExampleDesign a six-axis arm in SolidWorks, set a reference axis for each joint, export it with the plugin, and check the joint rotation directions in RViz.

Also called

sw2urdf, sw_urdf_exporter

Related

Unified Robot Description Format · CAD Software (SolidWorks / Onshape / Fusion 360) · onshape-to-robot · Mesh File (STL / OBJ / DAE / glTF) · Inertial Parameters

Sources

sw_urdf_exporter - ROS Wiki