gazebosim
Copying Visuals in a Scene
I would like to create a (shallow) copy of a Visual in a Scene, along the lines of:
ScenePtr scene = CreateSomeScene();
VisualPtr source_visual = scene->CreateVisual("source");
// Make source_visual nice and shiny ...
// Create a visual named target
// target_visual should receive the geometries of source_visual,
// but not copy the child nodes, which would open up problems about naming etc.
VisualPtr target_visual = scene->CopyVisualByName("source", "target");
I have looked for alternatives in the newest reference, but have found none. I'm willing to contribute if someone points me to where to begin.
How about adding a Clone function to the Visual class? The function can take an optional recursive arg. If true, it does a deep copy instead of a shallow copy, e.g.
// a couple of overloaded Clone functions
VisualPtr Visual::Clone(bool _recursive = false);
VisualPtr Visual::Clone(const std::string &_name, bool _recursive = false);
VisualPtr clone = visual->Clone(); // shallow copy
VisualPtr clone2 = visual->Clone("new_name", true); // deep copy with user-specified name
That would definitely work for my use case, yes. My thoughts originally were that the scene seems like the factory for visuals, so I would have left the construction there.
What pattern would you suggest to construct unique names to the cloned visuals if none is specified?
new_name = old_name + "_copy_" + index?
This would the also require a similar Clone function for the Geometry class tree, correct?
in the Clone function, you should be able to create a visual by calling Scene::CreateVisual() which will generate a unique name for you.
This would the also require a similar Clone function for the Geometry class tree, correct?
yeah this may be a little more involved with all the different classes that derive from Geometry. You can probably start with Mesh as that's the most used geometry.
Alright, thanks for your input. I will try to implement a first version and then get back to you. This will take me a while.