How To Use Fanuc Roboguide

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Thora Buckner

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Jul 21, 2024, 3:12:24 PM7/21/24

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Hello. Recently I started using roboguide for robot simulation. I have a lot of experience using ABBs robotstudio, which has generally been pretty good. I can't help but notice that the performance in roboguide is quite dreadful, however. I've tried everything in the help guide, such as checking all the performance boxes, making the cad import less detailed, using my dedicated graphics card instead of my integrated card, etc. Nothing works, and the program always becomes very laggy and slow after importing just a few cad fixtures. I know there probably isn't a way around this, but I thought I would ask here to see if you guys had any ideas on how to speed this program up. It's a shame that graphic wise, it looks very sub par compared to robot studio, and it runs at a quarter of the framerate. My specs are as follows:

how to use fanuc roboguide

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Try to go to NVidia Control Panel, then 3D-settings and the Program settings tab and set Roboguide (Weldpro or whatever) to use the NVidia GPU. I had to do this on my Quadro, because Roboguide was using the standard, integrated Intel GPU, which caused it to be laggy as hell...

About six years late! Haha. I still have performance issues with this software. Unfortunately I'm not talking about what that slider does. All that does is change how often the sim updates the robot's position during simulation playback. What I'm talking about is raw performance while programming a simulation. When I add large CAD files to Roboguide, performance can get very choppy. I recently upgraded to a new computer with a 3080Ti that I had hoped would help fix the issue, but unfortunately, Roboguide is so old and terribly optimized that I don't think it's able to take advantage of newer hardware. Gotta love that we pay thousands of dollars for this crap.

I have a workcell in roboguide (v9), because i was to lazy i created it without a couple of add-ins my robot has (collision guard, etc). After loading in the program i created in the workcell onto my robot i just added a few commands to still make use of the options.

While using the program on my robot i tweaked a couple positions (to compensate for real world inconsistencies). Now i need to add some stuff to my program (which i want to do in roboguide), but when i try to load in the (updated) tp program in roboguide it gives me the following error: 'Error loading program ... prog uses un-installed option.'. I understand that is because i added the options on the robot.

If memory serves me there is a way to look up all the options you have available on a robot but i can't remember how, so does anyone know how to see the available options on a robot?(i figure best do it properly by adding everything in one go instead of just adding the things i am currently using)

I am using Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS bionic and ros-melodic.Basically, I have ROS/Moveit respositories for fanuc. I downloaded, installed and built these repositories from this link under my catkin_ws.

Next, On the above link, under section 4.2 Importing, it says.In the Cell Browser, import the KAREL and TPE sources into the workcell. Browse to your local fanuc_driver package. Since, Roboguide is on a windows PC, and fanuc_driver is installed under catkin_ws in ubuntu system. It cannot be local. Do, I have to copy such files manually?

Next, On the above link, under section 4.2 Importing, it says. In the Cell Browser, import the KAREL and TPE sources into the workcell. Browse to your local fanuc_driver package. Since, Roboguide is on a windows PC, and fanuc_driver is installed under catkin_ws in ubuntu system. It cannot be local.

It's not too complex all actually: just make sure you have access to the files on the PC you need them. So copy the karel and tpe directories from fanuc_driver to your Windows PC. Keep the rest on your Linux machine.

Hi, I have serious problem with roboguide v9 rev Q. I want to say i reinstalled whole roboguide (controllers too), tryed all ways of opening workcell (from roboguide, from file, from backup). My problem is, when i try to open workcell, my virtual controller wont write anything and after small clock with robot (indicator that something is happening) disappear, nothing happens, only blank controller as is shown in the picture. I am afraid there is something wrong in the registry so i have to reinstall whole PC, but i cant do that now, so if you have any ideas, try to help me. Thank you

If anyone is interrested in this issue, Roboguide support central said that they are unable to reproduce my error, so it must be something on my PC and if I want to use roboguide, I have to reinstall Windows...

From a search on this site it seems like ftp into the virtual controller (I assume this is the "robot" I have open in roboguide), modify the .ls file and import that back. I have filezilla setup to ftp into "real" robots, and tried it using 127.0.0.1 port 20,21,22 and 9000 which works in a browser to bring up the web server.

Hey guys when I am exporting iges files form solidworks and importing them as a tool, part, or machine into roboguide I often have issue with files that are larger. The fanuc Iges converter freezes up, even if I let it run all night. Small files work fine, it seems to either come in right away or it doesn't work. I am running on a high performance PC. File Sizes from 400mb to 750mb. Do you guys have any suggestions for how to help avoid this issue or maybe a different way I should be exporting my files?

I think they choose poorly when making iges the import file type. It does not have the performance level you would expect from a very expensive piece of software from the largest robotics company in the world.

Especially when exporting models from tools like SolidWorks or Pro/Engineer you can end up with really ridiculously large IGS files. These tools tend to go overboard when exporting models with lots of curves, and lowering detail a little can help a lot, and will most likely not influence the 'correctness' of your RoboGuide simulation.

This is constantly a struggle, even after stripping our machines right down to just frames we are still in the neighborhood of 350mb, which is most cases wont import. I have to break it into a bunch of pieces and put it back together it literally takes me hours. Especially when we make a simulation to show a customer and it has to " look nice "

Export each part in your assembly as IGES/STL then load everything in Roboguide using the "Multiples CAD files" option to recreate the correct assembly. The loading process will take less time.
To use the assembly as a tool part, you can either convert it to .csb from Roboguide and then import it as tool CAD or use an empty tool and use the assembly as a part for that tool.

I am not sure where this multiple cad files button is? I seem to have much better success with STL files, however they dont retain cad, being able to drop them all in with a multiple cad type setup where I can show and hide them would be excellent.

Back onto another project, back to the same issues. Freezing up importing an iges file and when I am importing a stl file it is either crashing or it finishes, but when it is asking me for the position their is no geometry at all. Do you guys have suggestions. I cant get any cad in.

As with everyone else, my best experiences has been with .STL. The only downside is lower quality (so no edges, corners, etc. to pick up on) and no colors. Colors isn't a BIG deal, but if you have complex tooling it's nice to have those colors in there to differentiate between clamps, bodies, brackets, etc.

Huh, I talked to a guy from one of my company's sister companies and he mentioned this tool, but he had no idea where it came from...Now I have a lead to where I may be able to find it! Thanks Lootr, I'll be lookin' for it. I would like to use a more detailed CAD format if possible (again).

I used a full backup of my real-world robot to create a "digital twin" in RG. That made it a lot easier to work on, and I exported programs to sneakernet over to my controller. That worked fine, but afterword, I also made changes on the real robot -- SRs, some DCS dimensions, etc. I've figured out how to import TP and PC files from backup, but I'm not clear on how to update my digital twin to the real robot's current condition in all respects. The brute-force solution would be to delete my current RG cell, and build a new one from the up-to-date robot backups, but that seems awfully crude. Is there a better way to go about this?

And while we're on the subject, is there a way to get a "difference list" between a RG cell and a real-world robot? I mean, to get RG to compare a real-robot backup to an existing virtual one, and list out the differences?

I hit Serialize, then used the "create from backup" option, and pointed it at my most recent backup from the real-world robot. I got a message that "the robot has been changed and must be restarted," and about 60sec later got this:

After restarting, I used Serialize again, but this time chose the "create as modification of existing robot" option. This one worked, but never gave me an option to choose a backup to draw from -- just a list of Fanuc options to de/select.

First, Roboguide needs to be installed as administrator and run as administrator. Second, restart your computer. Third, sometimes I've had success with copying the backdate.dt file from a previous roboguide save point over the one from the real robot then using that to reserialize. Why that should make any difference, I have no idea. Roboguide is infuriatingly glitchy particularly when trying to reserialize from a backup.