How to visualize xform coordinate frames?

[multiversal-mark]

I'm doing the tutorial and trying to visualize the wheel_left frame. The orientation does not change with the wheel rotation and it seems to want to stay in locked to the world coordinate axes.

I guess this little coordinate frame graphic doesn't actually show the coordinate frame. Is there a way to see the actual frame with the proper orientation?

[vick-yu]

Hi @multiversal-mark,

The small RGB axes you see when selecting a prim is the transform manipulator gizmo — it defaults to World space orientation, which is why it doesn't rotate with the wheel. It's designed as a manipulation handle (for translate/rotate/scale), not a visualization of the prim's local coordinate frame.

Quick fix: switch to Local space

In the viewport toolbar at the top, look for the coordinate space toggle (it says World by default). Click it and switch to Local. The gizmo axes will now align with the prim's local orientation and rotate with the wheel.

Other options

• Show > Axes — In the viewport, click the eye icon (Show/Hide menu) and enable Axes to display persistent coordinate frame indicators on prims in the scene.

• Debug Draw (Python) — If you need to visualize frames programmatically during simulation:

  from isaacsim.util.debug_draw import _debug_draw                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
  draw = _debug_draw.acquire_debug_draw_interface()                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
  draw.draw_axes(position=(x, y, z), orientation=(qw, qx, qy, qz), length=0.1) 

[multiversal-mark]

Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I'm still having trouble. I should have mentioned I'm on version 6.0.0.

1. I don't see the coordinate space toggle. Could you provide a screenshot?
2. My eye icon menu shows "Axis" not "Axes" and that is already checked, but the orientation is locked to world.
3. AttributeError: 'isaacsim.util.debug_draw._debug_draw.DebugDraw' object has no attribute 'draw_axes'. Did you mean: 'draw_lines'?

[vick-yu]

Hi @multiversal-mark,

Thanks for the follow-up — the 6.0 UI changed a bit from what I described earlier. Here's updated guidance:

1. World/Local toggle

In 6.0, the coordinate space toggle is in the left-side vertical toolbar. Look for a small icon near the Move/Rotate/Scale tools — it toggles between World and Local space for the transform gizmo. You can also try the keyboard shortcut
(typically it cycles through modes when you press the transform tool key repeatedly).

2. "Axis" display

The "Axis" option in the viewport eye menu is a fixed scene orientation reference (the small XYZ indicator in the corner) — it intentionally stays world-aligned. It's not meant to show per-prim local frames. For that, you need the transform
gizmo set to Local mode (point 1 above).

3. draw_axes workaround

You're right — draw_axes doesn't exist in 6.0. The DebugDraw interface has draw_lines, draw_points, and draw_lines_spline. You can build local-frame axes from draw_lines:

  from isaacsim.util.debug_draw import _debug_draw                                                                                                                                                                                                 
  from pxr import UsdGeom, Gf                                                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  draw = _debug_draw.acquire_debug_draw_i nterface()                                                                                                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  # Get the prim's world transform                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
  xformable = UsdGeom.Xformable(stage.GetPrimAtPath("/path/to/wheel_left"))                                                                                                                                                                        
  world_xform = xformable.ComputeLocalToWorldTransform(0)                                                                                                                                                                                          
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  origin = world_xform.ExtractTranslation()                                                                                                                                                                                                        
  axis_len = 0.1  # meters                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  # Extract local axes from the rotation matrix                                                                                                                                                                                                    
  x_axis = world_xform.TransformDir(Gf.Vec3d(axis_len, 0, 0))                                                                                                                                                                                      
  y_axis = world_xform.TransformDir(Gf.Vec3d(0, axis_len, 0))                                                                                                                                                                                      
  z_axis = world_xform.TransformDir(Gf.Vec3d(0, 0, axis_len))                                                                                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
  o = (origin[0], origin[1], origin[2])                                                                                                                                                                                                            
  draw.draw_lines(                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
      [o, o, o],                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
      [(o[0]+x_axis[0], o[1]+x_axis[1], o[2]+x_axis[2]),                                                                                                                                                                                           
       (o[0]+y_axis[0], o[1]+y_axis[1], o[2]+y_axis[2]),                                                                                                                                                                                           
       (o[0]+z_axis[0], o[1]+z_axis[1], o[2]+z_axis[2])],                                                                                                                                                                                          
      [(1,0,0,1), (0,1,0,1), (0,0,1,1)],  # RGB = XYZ                                                                                                                                                                                              
      [3, 3, 3],  # line thickness                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
  )                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Call this each frame (e.g., in a physics callback or on_update) to keep the axes updated as the wheel rotates.

[vick-yu]

Hi @multiversal-mark, since we shared some updated guidance on visualizing xform coordinate frames in the 6.0 UI and haven't heard back in a couple of weeks, we'll go ahead and close this out for now. We hope the suggestions helped! If you still need help, feel free to open an new discussion and link back to this one — we're happy to assist further. Thanks for reaching out!

[Nudl-Brudl]

Hi,

I am using IsaacSim Version 5.1.0 and would also like to visualise the local frames of all of the robot's links in IsaacSim's UI.
I have the same issues as @multiversal-mark:

1. I don't see the coordinate space toggle
2. The "Axis" option in the eye icon is already selected, but this only enables or disables the visibility of the axis in the bottom left corner of the picture and does not affect the visibility of the body axes

Would you please share step-by-step screenshots of how to enable the visibility of the body frames of the robot?

Thank you in advance.

[muhammedahmedd]

Hi,

I’m using version 5.0, so the UI may be slightly different from 5.1.0. I noticed that after selecting a robot link, if I press W or click the move tool, the transform frame changes from world to local.

[Nudl-Brudl]

Hi, thank you for the suggestion! That already helps a lot.
Unfortunately, this only shows the manipulator gizmo to move the links around. I would like to know if there is a way to visualise the body frames of each link, like in the picture below (see the original reference)

[muhammedahmedd]

https://docs.isaacsim.omniverse.nvidia.com/5.1.0/ros2_tutorials/tutorial_ros2_tf.html#viewing-the-transform-tree-in-isaac-sim. I think this might help.