UWSim: Paths to resources and support for ROS fuerte

Error message

  • Notice: tempnam(): file created in the system's temporary directory in drupal_tempnam() (line 2552 of /users/apache/www.irs.uji.es/htdocs/uwsim/includes/file.inc).
  • Warning: file_put_contents(): Filename cannot be empty in file_unmanaged_save_data() (line 1986 of /users/apache/www.irs.uji.es/htdocs/uwsim/includes/file.inc).
  • The file could not be created.
  • Notice: tempnam(): file created in the system's temporary directory in drupal_tempnam() (line 2552 of /users/apache/www.irs.uji.es/htdocs/uwsim/includes/file.inc).
  • Warning: file_put_contents(): Filename cannot be empty in file_unmanaged_save_data() (line 1986 of /users/apache/www.irs.uji.es/htdocs/uwsim/includes/file.inc).
  • The file could not be created.

A new update to UWSim includes support for resource folders outside the UWSim package. Therefore, it is now possible to store your 3D models, textures, XML and URDF files in arbitrary folders, and let UWSim find them by adding those folders to the UWSim resources folder list. This can be done with the --dataPath argument, and accepts both absolute and relative folders, e.g:

rosrun UWSim UWSim --dataPath /absolute/folder --dataPath relative/folder

In addition to the paths specified in the command line, UWSim adds --dataPath . --dataPath `rospack find UWSim`/data, i.e. searches in the current folder and in UWSim/data.

Finally, UWSim can now be compiled on ROS fuerte, and Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise), without (hopefully!) loosing compatibilty with previous versions of both. So, the range of supported platforms goes from Ubuntu 9.10 to 12.04, and from ROS cturtle to fuerte.