urdf-viz
- Software
- Simulators
- Tool
A Rust tool for visualizing URDF robot description files in a 3D viewer, with keyboard and mouse controls for moving joints and an HTTP/JSON interface for setting and reading joint angles.
Made by openrr.
Source on GitHub: github.com/openrr/urdf-viz (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit 28e98a0 (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- Apache-2.0 (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (Apache-2.0) at commit 28e98a0 (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Loads and displays URDF robot models in a 3D graphical window.
- Can convert xacro files to URDF by running xacro, when ROS is available.
- Lets you move robot joints with keyboard, mouse drag, or inverse kinematics for positions.
- Offers a web interface to set and get joint angles and the robot origin via HTTP/JSON on port 7777 by default.
- Supports collision model and visual mode toggling, and reloading the URDF from file.
- Installable with cargo, Homebrew, or prebuilt binaries; assimp support adds extra mesh formats.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit 28e98a0.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Hardware it needs, as the project states it
- Needs cmake, xorg-dev and libglu1-mesa-dev on Linux when built from source; ROS (rosrun and rospack) is needed only for package:// mesh paths and xacro conversion.
- How to start
- The project's README (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
- Newest commit
- 9 Feb 2026 on main
- Latest release
- v0.46.1 (24 Dec 2024)
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots that can run it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.