Visual Studio Code Extension for ROS
The Visual Studio Code Extension for ROS provides support for Robot Operating System (ROS) development. Providing an easier and more stream-lined developer experience.
Getting Started
The extension will automatically start when you open a catkin or colcon workspace.
The build system (e.g. catkin_make or catkin build) will automatically be confirmed from the hidden files associated with
each system.
The ROS distro will automatically be confirmed from the parent environment, or you will be prompted to select a ROS
distro if this can't be done automatically.
You must build the catkin workspace at least once before the extension will recognise it.
To start ROS core, you can use the ROS: Start Core command from the Visual Studio Code command pallet.
The ROS Core indicator in the bottom left will show if the core is currently running, and you can click on this taskbar item to view the status of ROS.
The first time you open a ROS workspace the extension will automatically create build and test tasks and update the
C++ and Python paths. You can re-run this process later using the appropriate commands.
Talk Video
Features
- Automatic ROS environment configuration.
- Allows starting, stopping and viewing the ROS core status.
- Automatically discover
catkin_make or catkin build build tasks.
- Create catkin packages using
catkin_create_pkg script or catkin create pkg.
- Run
rosrun or roslaunch
- Resolve dependencies with
rosdep shortcut
- Syntax highlighting for
.msg, .urdf and other ROS files.
- Automatically add the ROS C++ include and Python import paths.
- Format C++ using the ROS
clang-format style.
- Preview URDF and Xacro files.
- Debug a single ROS node (C++ or Python) by attaching to the process.
- Debug ROS nodes (C++ or Python) launched from a
.launch file.
Commands
You can access the following commands from the Visual Studio Code command pallet.
| Name |
Description |
| ROS: Create Catkin Package |
Create a catkin package. You can right click on a folder in the explorer to create it in a specific location. |
| ROS: Create Terminal |
Create a terminal with the ROS environment. |
| ROS: Show Core Status |
Open a detail view showing ROS core runtime status. |
| ROS: Start Core |
Start ROS core. |
| ROS: Stop Core |
Terminate ROS core. |
| ROS: Update C++ Properties |
Update the C++ include path to include ROS. |
| ROS: Update Python Path |
Update the Python path to include ROS. |
| ROS: Preview URDF |
Preview URDF and Xacro files. Updates after changes are saved. |
| ROS: Install ROS Dependencies for this workspace using rosdep |
Shortcut for rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -r -y. |
Reporting Security Issues
Security issues and bugs should be reported privately, via email, to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) at secure@microsoft.com. You should receive a response within 24 hours. If for some reason you do not, please follow up via email to ensure we received your original message.
Further information, including the MSRC PGP key, can be found in the Security TechCenter.
Data and Telemetry
This extension collects usage data and sends it to Microsoft to help improve our products and services. Read our privacy statement to learn more.
This extension respects the telemetry.enableTelemetry setting, learn more about this option.
Contribution
Contributions are always welcome! Please see our contributing guide for more details!
A big Thank you! to everyone that have helped make this extension better!
This extension leverages ROS Web Tools for URDF Previewing.
Russell Toris, Julius Kammerl, David Lu, Jihoon Lee, Odest Chadwicke Jenkins, Sarah Osentoski, Mitchell Wills, and Sonia Chernova. Robot Web Tools: Efficient Messaging for Cloud Robotics. In Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), 2015
