sw2robot: Browser-based SolidWorks-to-URDF exporter with live mimic joint editing

iory's open-source sw2robot (Apache-2.0) offers a modern alternative to the official SolidWorks URDF exporter. The workflow starts by running a standalone Windows .exe that opens a throwaway copy of your .sldasm in a hidden SolidWorks instance via COM — safely pulling the kinematic graph and per-link meshes without altering the original CAD file. A local web server (localhost:8090) then launches a single-page browser editor. The demo video shows a ~2.5 minute round-trip on a tendon-driven robot hand: from loading the extracted model to inspecting joints with XYZ axes and yellow directional arrows in the 3D view, confirming correct movement without switching to a text editor.

The editor packs advanced features: toggle between fixed and movable joints, bulk-set ranges with Shift+drag, flip a joint's axis with one keystroke, and create URDF <mimic> couplings by linking follower parts like pulleys to finger joints with multipliers and reversed directions — all animated live. You can also re-root the kinematic tree, add coordinate frames on faces, preview self-collision, and run automatic joint-limit sweeps. Finally, export a fully-packaged ROS1/2 ZIP containing meshes and description files. The extract step requires SolidWorks on Windows, but the editor works with pre-extracted packages on any platform via pip.