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Isaac LabHow-to Guides

Creating visualization markers

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This guide shows how to draw visualization markers: debug geometry (frames, arrows, spheres, custom meshes) rendered over the scene through markers.VisualizationMarkers. Markers are display-only: they carry no physics and do not affect the simulation.

For plain points, lines, and splines, Isaac Sim’s own isaacsim.util.debug_draw extension is lighter-weight. Use VisualizationMarkers when you need more complex shapes.

Markers are supported on Kit, Newton GL, Rerun, and Viser, but not yet on Newton RTX. See https://isaac-sim.github.io/IsaacLab/release/3.0.0/source/concepts/visualization.html for how to enable them on a given visualizer.

Quick Start

Run the packaged markers example:

uv run --extra isaacsim isaaclab example markers

Pass --visualizer newton_gl (or another supported backend) to switch visualizers; defaults to kit.

Every marker prototype from the example script, arranged in a grid. Each column rotates in place and periodically rolls forward to the next prototype.

To stop, close the window or press Ctrl+C.

# Source file not found: ../../../examples/markers.py

Configuring markers

~markers.VisualizationMarkersCfg takes:

  • markers.VisualizationMarkersCfg.prim_path: prim path where the marker UsdGeom.PointInstancer is created.
  • markers.VisualizationMarkersCfg.markers: a dict of marker prototypes. The key names the prototype; the value is its spawn config (any ~isaaclab.sim.spawners.SpawnerCfg, including USD file references).

Physics properties on a marker prototype’s spawn config are stripped on creation, since markers are not simulated.

# Source file not found: ../../../examples/markers.py

Drawing markers

~markers.VisualizationMarkers.visualize sets marker poses and, optionally, which prototype each marker instance uses via marker_indices.

# Source file not found: ../../../examples/markers.py

Arguments left as None keep their previous value. Passing a different number of rows than the last call resizes the marker instance count. See ~markers.VisualizationMarkers.visualize’s docstring for the full argument list (translations, orientations, scales, marker_indices, environment_ids).

Markers in practice

Markers are commonly used to debug per-environment state during training, such as commanded vs. current velocity, or contact events:

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Embedded illustration

See also