Docs/ ROS2/Comparison

ROS2 Tool Comparison

Spectra is not trying to replace every ROS GUI — it targets integrated debug: signals + spatial context + bags on one timeline, with native GPU performance. This page is intentionally honest about what we do better and what we do not claim yet.

10-Second Quick Start ROS2 Adapter Guide

At a Glance

Capability rqt PlotJuggler RViz2 Foxglove Spectra ROS
Live time-series plots Basic (Qt) Best-in-class No Good (web) GPU + introspection
Plot any numeric field without plugins Per-type plugins Plugins / parsers N/A Schema-dependent Runtime introspection
Bag scrub + plots synced Limited Excellent Separate tools Good Unified session (roadmap)
3D / TF / robot model Separate RViz No Industry standard Good Core displays, not full RViz plugins
Spatiotemporal (bag + 3D + plots) No No No serious plots Web latency Native unified session
Shareable layout artifact rqt perspective .xml layouts .rviz config Foxglove layouts .spectra-ros-session
Offline / air-gapped Yes Yes Yes Cloud features optional Native binary
Expression / derived series No Yes No Limited Built-in editor

When Spectra Wins

Live tuning afternoon

You need Topic Monitor, multi-field plots, echo, and stats in one dock — not three apps. Spectra's default cockpit and tuning.spectra-ros-session preset are built for this.

Bag post-mortem with context

PlotJuggler owns raw timeline UX; Spectra adds echo, logs, session persistence, and (Phase C) 3D sync on the same playhead — one native window instead of side-by-side tools.

Nav / mobility debug

cmd_vel + odom plots linked with laser, path, and TF in one session. RViz still wins for exotic display plugins; Spectra wins for the integrated nav post-mortem workflow.

Teams that version debug layouts

Commit .spectra-ros-session next to launch files — plots, expressions, panel visibility, and ImGui dock layout round-trip together.

When to Keep Using Something Else

  • RViz plugin ecosystem — custom costmap layers, Nav2 panels, vendor-specific displays. Spectra does not claim full RViz parity (Phase C targets a nav reference stack, not every plugin).
  • PlotJuggler-only bag analytics — if you only need curves and already have PJ layouts you love, Spectra must earn the switch on bag+echo+session integration, not plots alone.
  • Remote collaboration — Foxglove's web sharing and cloud recording are mature; Spectra is native-first and air-gap friendly.
  • Lightweight echo / CLI — ros2 topic echo and rqt_topic remain fine for quick one-off checks.
Claims we ship evidence for. Phase A–C gates in the product plan define falsifiable benchmarks (time-to-first-plot, bag scrub sync, spatiotemporal nav demo). See the named workflows section for copy-paste commands.