Isaac Sim¶

Isaac Sim 5.0.0 Binary Install.

Depends on:

Vulkan Configuration
Username

Note that CUDA Toolkit is not required for Isaac Sim.

Compatibility test:

cd ~/isaac-sim-comp-check
./omni.isaac.sim.compatibility_check.sh

Quick test:

cd ~/isaacsim
./python.sh standalone_examples/api/isaacsim.core.api/time_stepping.py
# or
./python.sh standalone_examples/api/isaacsim.core.api/simulation_callbacks.py

Launch GUI:

cd ~/isaacsim
./isaac-sim.sh

On Host:

Quick test using official Docker image:
scripts/docker_run_official_isaac_sim.sh

Always make sure to check the console output for any errors.

Importing URDF¶

File > Import and select the URDF file.

If your URDF file is in the Xacro format, you may need to convert it to the URDF format first:

XACRO_FILE=<XACRO_FILE>.xacro
URDF_FILE=<URDF_FILE>.urdf
xacro $XACRO_FILE > $URDF_FILE

You can also check the URDF hierarchy:

check_urdf $URDF_FILE

Note: URDF files are often not self-contained and may reference additional resources within their ROS package. For successful import, consider downloading/moving the entire package (such as the <ROBOT_NAME>_description directory) along with the URDF file. Otherwise, the import will fail.

Debugging Physics Simulation¶

Physics Inspector to test the joints and limits.
Visualize Colliders, Joints, and Mass Properties.
Simulation Data Visualizer to track physics-related data during simulation.
Measure Tool that can be installed under Window > Extensions.
Utilities > Statistics and select RTX Scene for scene optimization metrics.

Generating OmniGraph for ROS2¶

Instead of manually creating the OmniGraph via Isaac Sim GUI or Python code, the easier way is to use the Graph Shortcut tool. A concrete example can be found in PR#83.

Known Issues¶

See official known issues for Isaac Sim.

2025-07-10 21:42:18 [11,579ms] [Error] [omni.ext._impl._internal] Failed to import python module isaacsim.core.simulation_manager from /isaac-sim/exts/isaacsim.core.simulation_manager. Error: numpy.dtype size changed, may indicate binary incompatibility. Expected 96 from C header, got 88 from PyObject. Traceback:
Traceback (most recent call last):

A NumPy version >=1.19.5 and <1.27.0 is required for this version of SciPy (detected version 2.2.6)

See Issue #86 for more details.