This is a simple ROS node to read a point cloud from a .ply file and to publish it as a sensor_msgs/PointCloud2 message. It is meant to be used to visualize reference point clouds in rviz.
Make sure to set the Decay Time in the PointCloud2 tab in rviz to a high number to get the point cloud visible for a long time.
The ply Publisher has been tested under ROS Indigo and Ubuntu 14.04. This is research code, expect that it changes often and any fitness for a particular purpose is disclaimed.
Author: Peter Fankhauser, pfankhauser@ethz.ch
Affiliation: Autonomous Systems Lab, ETH Zurich
This software is built on the Robotic Operating System (ROS), which needs to be installed first. Additionaly, the it depends on following software:
In order to install the ply Publisher, clone the latest version from this repository into your catkin workspace and compile the package using ROS.
cd catkin_workspace/src
git clone https://github.com/ethz-asl/ply_publisher.git
cd ../
catkin_make
Load and publish a .ply file with
rosrun ply_publisher ply_publisher _file_path:=/home/user/your_point_cloud.ply _topic:=/point_cloud _frame:=/sensor_frame
Optionally, you can also add _rate:=1.0 to have the node publish your point cloud at the specified rate. To create your own launch-file, you can use the example from ply_publisher/launch/example.launch.
Please report bugs and request features using the Issue Tracker.