e-con DepthVista Helix iToF — Isaac Sim

Adds the e-con DepthVista Helix iToF camera to Isaac Sim's supported camera and depth sensors, with an optional ROS 2 publisher and a browser depth viewer.

Requirements

• NVIDIA Isaac Sim ≥ 5.1.0 — refer to the installation guide. Tested on 5.1.0, 6.0.0 and 6.0.1, on both Windows and Linux.

Installation

Linux

git clone https://github.com/Thagasheriff64/econ-isaac-sim.git
cd econ-isaac-sim
./build.sh

Windows

git clone https://github.com/Thagasheriff64/econ-isaac-sim.git
cd econ-isaac-sim
build.bat

• Auto-detects Isaac Sim (prompts for the folder if not found).
• Copies the extension and assets into extsUser inside the Isaac Sim folder — it is self-contained, so the cloned repository can be deleted afterwards — and auto-loads on every launch.
• Remove it with the uninstaller, not by deleting files manually.

If you have multiple Isaac Sim versions installed, or already know the path, set ISAACSIM_PATH to skip auto-detection and target a specific install:

ISAACSIM_PATH=/home/econsy/ROBOTICS/downloads/isaacsim ./build.sh        # Linux

set ISAACSIM_PATH=C:\path\to\isaacsim & build.bat                       :: Windows

Usage

1. Relaunch Isaac Sim if it is already running.
2. Open Create → Sensors → Camera and Depth Sensors → e-con.
3. Select DepthVista Helix iToF — added under /World.

Camera variants

File	Connector
DEPTHVISTA_HELIX_GMSL.usd	GMSL
DEPTHVISTA_HELIX_USB.usd	USB

• The menu exposes a single entry — DepthVista Helix iToF (the GMSL variant).
• For the USB variant, reference DEPTHVISTA_HELIX_USB.usd into your stage directly.

ROS 2 streaming (optional)

ros2/isaac_usd_ros_itof.py publishes every DepthVista Helix camera in the stage.

• Detection — all cameras found automatically; no arguments.
• Naming — cam; cam0, cam1, … when more than one; _gmsl / _usb suffix for explicit variants.
• Scales — generates the topics and OmniGraph sets for each camera automatically.

Uses the ROS 2 Humble libraries bundled with Isaac Sim (isaacsim.ros2.bridge) — no system ROS 2 is needed to publish. ROS 2 Humble is required only on the consumer side (RViz, ros2 topic echo).

Namespace <ns> = /tof/cam (a {i} index is added only when more than one camera is present, plus a _{type} suffix for the GMSL/USB variants):

Topic	Stream	Resolution	Range
<ns>/highres/{depth, camera_info, points}	High-resolution depth and point cloud	1280×960	0.2–2.0 m
<ns>/longrange/{depth, camera_info, points}	Long-range depth and point cloud	640×480	0.5–6.0 m
<ns>/imu	6-axis IMU	—	416 Hz
/clock, /tf	Shared clock and transform tree	—	Published once

highres and longrange are two configurations of the same module, so they share one IMU and one TF frame per camera (a child of world).

Running from the Script Editor

1. Add a camera (see Usage) and press Play.

2. Open Window → Script Editor.

   

3. Choose File → Open.

   

4. Select econ-isaac-sim/ros2/isaac_usd_ros_itof.py.

   

5. Run (or press Ctrl+Enter).

The OmniGraph action graphs are created under a single Graphs scope. With more than one camera, each camera's graphs are grouped in a /Graphs/<camera> subfolder (e.g. /Graphs/cam0). Below, <UNIT> is the upper-cased camera name (e.g. CAM, CAM0_GMSL):

• ROS2SharedGraph — shared /clock and /tf.

  

• ROS2Camera_<UNIT>_HIGHRES — 1280×960 depth, camera_info, points.

  

• ROS2Camera_<UNIT>_LONGRANGE — 640×480, same publishers.

  

• ROS2ImuGraph_<UNIT> — reads and publishes the IMU, with an optional on-screen readout of linear acceleration / angular velocity. Three settings control it:

  • IMU_PRINT_CAMERAS — which cameras show the readout.
  • IMU_LINEAR_TO_SCREEN — overlay linear acceleration.
  • IMU_ANGULAR_TO_SCREEN — overlay angular velocity.
  • Keep it to a single camera (default: cam / cam0) — more than one is unreadable on screen.

  

Set ROS2_DOMAIN_ID (top of the script) to match your shell's ROS_DOMAIN_ID.

Viewing in RViz

• Set the Fixed Frame to world (all camera frames are children of it).
• Rename it via TF_WORLD_FRAME; parent all frames under a prim via TF_PARENT_PRIM.

All cameras share the world frame, so their point clouds line up in a single view:

Browser depth viewer (optional, no RViz)

The browser viewer is enabled by default (WEB_VIEWER = True in ros2/isaac_usd_ros_itof.py) and served at http://localhost:8211/, alongside ROS 2. Set it to False to disable.

Refer to the script to set the other options as well.

• Depth tiles — live depth, colour-mapped by distance; a probe (cursor → last click → centre) reads the metric distance.
• Point clouds — per-camera checkboxes; interactive 3D (rotate / zoom / pan) with Download .ply.
• Settings — WEB_VIEWER, WEB_VIEWER_PORT, WEB_VIEWER_HZ, and WEB_VIEWER_MAX_W (None = the camera's full resolution; set e.g. 640 to cap the preview width).

The 3D view loads three.js from a CDN (needs internet); the 2D tiles work offline.

• Stop — Ctrl+Alt+R (viewport focused) or teardown().
• Restart — run the file again; graphs, hotkey, and viewer reset automatically.

Examples

• UR10 Palletizing — add two DepthVista Helix cameras (wrist and over-pallet) and a camera stand to Isaac Sim's UR10 Palletizing example, then stream to ROS 2 and the browser viewer.
• Nova Carter navigation — mount four DepthVista Helix cameras (front/back/left/right) on a Nova Carter, stream to ROS 2 under the robot's TF tree, and navigate two warehouse scenes (compact and full-size) with the Nav2 carter_navigation package.

Uninstallation

./uninstall.sh          # Linux
uninstall.bat           # Windows

Restores the .kit files and removes the extension. To target a specific install (multiple Isaac Sim versions, or a known path), set ISAACSIM_PATH as with the installer:

ISAACSIM_PATH=/home/econsy/ROBOTICS/downloads/isaacsim ./uninstall.sh    # Linux

set ISAACSIM_PATH=C:\path\to\isaacsim & uninstall.bat                   :: Windows

Notes

• Re-run the installer after reinstalling or updating Isaac Sim.