01. How to Use

Requirements

• Ubuntu 20.04 (Not tested in Windows / Mac)
• optional: ROS 2 Galactic if you need runtime ROS graph analysis

Install and Run

sudo apt install graphviz graphviz-dev
pip3 install -r requirements.txt
python3 main.py architecture.yaml
python3 main.py architecture.yaml --setting_file setting.json

How to Operate

• Move graph area
  • Middle mouse button drag
• Zoom in/out
  • Mouse scroll
  • zoom function is temporal
• Highlight node connection
  • Click title bar (node name) on a node
  • Re-click the same node to disable highlight
• Change font size
  • Menu -> Font
• Change display name
  • Menu -> Node Name, Edge name
• Analyze and read running ROS graph (experimental)
  • Menu -> Graph -> Running ROS

Options

usage: main.py [-h] [--target_path TARGET_PATH] [--setting_file SETTING_FILE]
               [graph_file]

positional arguments:
  graph_file            Graph file path. e.g. architecture.yaml(CARET) or
                        rosgraph.dot(rqt_graph). default=architecture.yaml

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --setting_file SETTING_FILE
                        default=setting.json

Visualize architecture file (generated by CARET)

python3 main.py path-to-architcture.yaml

e.g.
python3 main.py architecture.yaml

Visualize dot file (generated by rqt_graph)

python3 main.py path-to-rosgraph.dot

e.g.
python3 main.py rosgraph.dot

Visualize runtime ROS graph (experimental)

• Before starting Dear RosNodeViewr, set ROS environment
  • e.g. source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash
• Click Graph -> Running ROS

python3 main.py

Setting File

How to Apply Setting File

python3 main.py --setting_file path-to-setting-file

Setting File Format

{
    "app_setting": {                           ### Settings for application
        "window_size": [1920, 1080],           # Default window size
        "font": "/usr/share/fonts/truetype/ubuntu/Ubuntu-C.ttf",   # Path to font
        "ignore_unconnected_nodes": true       # Flag to ignore unconnected nodes 
    },
    "group_setting": {                         ### Settings for node visualization
        "__others__": {                        # Module name = The first part of topic name
            "direction": "horizontal",         # How to connect nodes (horizontal/vertical)
            "offset": [-0.5, -0.5, 1.0, 1.0],  # Position to place the module (x, y, w, h)
            "color": [16, 64, 96]              # Color for the module (r, g, b)
        }
    }
}

About Node Layout

• Nodes are basically automatically located
• However, you may want to align rough layout by yourself, when a diagram becomes complicated
• To achieve this, you can set offset for each module to assign a specific position for a module while nodes in a module are automatically located
• If you don't need it, just remove all entries except for "others"