Load and Play Bag File
Load ROS or ROS 2 Bag File
Load the ROS or ROS 2 bag file by opening it from the File tab in ROS Bag Viewer app toolstrip. The toolstrip also contains the list of supported visualizers under the Visualize tab, and allows you to choose the layout between Default and Grid.
You can open multiple instances of the app to play multiple ROS or ROS 2 bag files simultaneously.
View Bag File Details
The details of bag file content are found on the left side under the app toolstrip.
The Topic List shows the available topics in the ROS or ROS 2 bag file.
The Source Details list the Name, Start time, End time, Duration and Message count of the bag file.
Create Visualizers and Play Bag File
Types of Viewer
Viewer | Viewer Icon | Interface | Description |
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Image Viewer | ![]() |
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Point Cloud Viewer | ![]() |
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Laser Scan Viewer | ![]() |
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Odometry Viewer | ![]() |
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XY Plot Viewer | ![]() |
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Time Plot Viewer | ![]() |
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Message Viewer | ![]() |
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The ROS Bag Viewer app enables you to visualize messages in ROS and ROS 2
bag files. You can create multiple viewers within the app and visualize different ROS
and ROS 2 messages simultaneously. For each viewer, you can filter the supported
messages in the bag file and press the Play button from the Playback panel for
visualization.
You can choose to display the Elapsed Time or the Timestamp values associated with the bag file along the slider tick labels. You can visualize the messages by putting a specific numeric value or drag the slider to a particular value of the elapsed time or the time stamp. You can also take a snapshot and export the information for further use.
Add and Manage Bookmarks
During the bag file playback, you can add bookmarks at desired time points. To add a bookmark, follow these steps:
Click Add in the Bookmark section of the app toolstrip. This opens the Add bookmark details dialog.
Add the duration of the bookmark in seconds and specify a label. You can also tune the start time of the bookmark.
Click OK. The app now adds a bookmark to the bag file starting from the start time for the specified duration.
You can always view all the bookmarks that you have added as a table by clicking Manage in the Bookmark section of the app toolstrip. Alternatively, you can also access the bookmark table by clicking the Bookmarks tab at the top-right edge of the app canvas. From the bookmark table, you can switch between different bookmarks, modify the bookmark parameters by double-clicking the entries, or delete bookmarks.
Save and Restore Session
If you close the app with a bag file loaded or load a different bag file, this automatically saves the current session. The app saves these visualization session elements and restores them when you open the same bag file next time:
All visualizers
Visualizer layout
Bookmarks