---
id: yourdfpy
version: "0.0.60"
license: MIT
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: active
---

# yourdfpy — A simpler and easier-to-use library for loading, manipulating, saving, and visualizing URDF files.

License: permissive · Maintenance: active · Downloads: 1.9M/mo

## What it is and what it does

Yourdfpy is a URDF (Unified Robot Description Format) parser designed to handle real-world robot model files more robustly than existing alternatives. It decouples parsing from validation and mesh loading, allowing you to load and inspect URDF files independently of whether you validate them or load their associated mesh geometry. The library depends on lxml for XML parsing, numpy for numerical operations, trimesh for mesh handling, and six for Python 2/3 compatibility.

The package is intended for roboticists, simulation engineers, and developers working with robot models. It provides both programmatic access to URDF structure and a command-line visualization tool with interactive keyboard controls for inspecting models, toggling axis markers, wireframe rendering, and back-face culling. The fact sheet shows it successfully loads URDF files that other parsers fail on, making it useful when working with diverse or non-standard robot descriptions.

Use it for:

- Load and inspect URDF files from diverse robot platforms without parser failures
- Visualize robot models interactively from the command line with axis and wireframe toggles
- Extract and manipulate robot structure (joints, links, frames) for kinematic analysis
- Batch-process multiple URDF files with optional mesh loading for performance control
- Validate URDF syntax and structure independently of mesh availability

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Loads, manipulates, validates, and visualizes URDF robot description files with decoupled parsing, mesh loading, and validation.

Yes, if you work with URDF files and need robust parsing. The library's decoupled design and superior robustness on real-world models (12/12 success vs. competitors' 4–6/12) make it a practical choice over alternatives. Install friction is low and maintenance is active. MIT licensing removes legal friction. No known vulnerabilities.

## Install

pip install yourdfpy
uv add yourdfpy
poetry add yourdfpy

## Installing yourdfpy

Before you install: Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained with recent commits and a stable release cadence; marked as Beta but in active development.

License in practice: MIT license permits unrestricted use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.

Quickstart:

pip install yourdfpy

import yourdfpy
robot = yourdfpy.URDF.load('robot.urdf')
scene = robot.scene  # Access visualization scene

Requires Python 3.7 or later; mesh visualization requires a display or headless rendering setup.

Verify before relying:

- Whether forward kinematics calculations are fully implemented or partial
- Extent of scene-graph building capabilities and performance characteristics
- Support for URDF extensions beyond the standard specification

## Package facts

- License: MIT (permissive)
- Python support: supports_current
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: active
- Downloads: 1.9M/month (top 5,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

urdf parser python, robot description file loader, urdf visualization, robot model manipulation, urdf validation parsing, robot kinematics urdf, mesh loading urdf, robotics, urdf-parsing, 3d-visualization

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