Blender Gazebo

An add-on for Blender to export worlds for Gazebo ROS. It will export all of the models, and create launch and urdf files.

Installation Script

There is an installation script that will install the add-on into Blender. Because you can have multiple versions of Blender, you need to tell the script where to install. Set the environment variable BLENDER_SCRIPT_DIR to the version number folder inside your Blender installation directory

blender-2.80-linux-glibc217-x86_64
├── 2.80           << This Folder
│   ├── datafiles
│   ├── python
│   └── scripts
├── icons
│   ├── scalable
│   └── symbolic
└── lib

Once that is set, rosrun the script:

rosrun blender_gazebo install

After the script installs the add-on, you will need to enable it inside blender. Edit > Preferences > Add-ons, find the add-on and check it off to enable it.

Manual installation

If the script install doesn’t work for you for some reason, you can manually install from inside Blender.

Under Edit > Preferences > Add-ons, click Install and find the blender_gazebo.py file inside the blender_gazebo directory. Remember to enabled it after it is installed

Usage

To use this add-on:

• Make a new package. Make sure to add blender_gazebo as a dependency.
• Add a launch directory to your package
• In Blender, create your world. Remember to work in meters
• In Blender, go to File > Export > Gazebo Launch (.launch)
• Navigate to the launch folder in your package
• Give your launch file a name. It should use your Blender file name as the default name
• Click Export Gazebo
• Once it is exported, build your package and run your launch file

Known Issues

Blender 2.80 exports standard materials in a way that RVIZ won’t work with. Make sure to use Nodes in Blender for your materials to avoid this.

Versions

Currently only tested and supported in 2.80