0.7.1

The 20230114 release, which corresponds to Python SDK 0.7.1, brings a few breaking changes introduced to support the newest FW of the sensor, FW 3.0. The changes and how to mitigate them are summarized here.

Signal Multiplier

FW 3.0 allows setting the signal multiplier to non-int values 0.25 and 0.5. As such, we have changed the type of the sensor_config struct member signal_multiplier to double.

Old saved config jsons will continue to load properly.

XYZLut and `sensor_info`

The sensor_info struct now contains the beam_to_lidar_transform specifying the relationship between the beam coordinate frame and lidar coordinate frame. The double lidar_origin_to_beam_origin_mm which corresponds to the (0, 3) element of the beam_to_lidar_transform has not been removed.

The make_xyz_lut function now takes a mat4d transformation specifying the relation between the beam and lidar coordinate frames, as opposed to the previous double which assumed an Identity rotation.

Users using pre-FW3.0 sensors with the latest SDK make_xyz_lut overload which accepts a sensor_info need not change anything, as the sensor_info struct automatically derives and self-populates with the appropriate beam_to_lidar_transform.

Default Parameters in init_client

The shortform C++ init_client and Python client.Sensor() no longer have default parameters. Since they do not configure the sensor, it didn’t make sense to default to any value for any parameters. Users must provide the ports and hostname explicitly now.

Timeout Improvements

The Python Scans interface timeout parameter has been changed from None to 1 second by default to avoid confusing hanging behavior when timing out is appropriate. The default timeout has also been changed to 2 seconds across the board.

Notes for the future

For customers who know they will continue to upgrade their version of the SDK, we also wish to highlight the upcoming breaking changes:

First, the next release will default writing the non-legacy metadata format as opposed to the current format, also known as the legacy metadata format. The SDK will continue to read the legacy format, i.e., it will continue to read old recorded data), and it will also be able to produce the legacy format if the parameter legacy=true is specified to the get_metadata function.