libQGLViewer installation
windows Windows

» Installation using Qt version 3 or 4
» Installation using Qt version 2.3
» Installation using MinGW and the free Qt4 version
» Installation using cygwin linux emulator
» Details on Qt installation
» Installation of the QGLViewer designer plugin

Compilation and installation using Qt version 3 or 4

  1. Make sure Qt is correctly installed on your machine, and recognized as an add-in in .NET (see the Tools Add-In manager * menu)
  2. Download and unzip the sources : libQGLViewer-2.2.3-1.zip
  3. Use the Open Qt project * icon in .NET to open QGLViewer/QGLViewer.pro
  4. Visual Studio 6.0 only : Use File-Open workspace to open the .dsp generated file, and select Release as the Build/Active Configuration
  5. Compile the library
  6. Copy QGLViewer223.dll* in a library directory, such as C:\WINDOWS\system32 (or C:\WINNT\system32 with Windows 2000). Alternately, you can copy it to every application directory
  7. Compile the examples to discover the library

If your Qt version is lower than 3.1, you have to install the GLUT library in order to have text display. Add the paths to GLUT in your Include and Library Project-Properties*, and copy glut32.dll in a library directory (as in item 6 above).

Add staticlib in the CONFIG line of QGLViewer.pro to compile a static library instead of a dll.

* Names are given in .NET standards, and differ from those of Visual 6. Here is a correspondence table:

.NETVisual Studio 6
Tools - Add-Ins manager - QtNetTools - Customize - Add-ins and Macro Files/QMsDev Add in
Open Qt ProjectGenerate Qt Project
QGLViewer223.dllQGLViewer2.dll or QGLViewer.dll
Project-Properties-C/C++-General-Additional Include DirectoriesTools-Options-Directories-Include files
Project-Properties-Linker-General-Additional Library DirectoriesTools-Options-Directories-Library files

Using the free Qt 2.3 version

The free Qt 2.3 version is no longer supported by Trolltech, and it does not give a correct picture of the actual Qt functionalities. libQGLViewer is however fully functional with this Qt version. Note that Qt should not be installed in a directory whose name contains spaces (such as Program Files). You also need to download and install the GLUT library as explained above.

See the Qt installation section for details on the Qt installation and other Qt versions (especially the free Qt 4 GPL version).

To compile with Qt 2.3, follow the installation procedure described above but open QGLViewer.Qt2.3.pro instead in step 3.

With Visual Studio 6:

Compilation and installation using MinGW

MinGW is the windows port of the GNU g++ compiler which is optionally installed with the free Qt 4 version. The installation procedure is very similar to the one detailed in the linux section. Use the "Qt 4.x command prompt" installed in the Start menu and type:
cd libQGLViewer-2.2.3-1\QGLViewer
qmake
make
Copy the resulting dll (created in the Release directory) to a system shared directory such as C:\WINDOWS\system32 (or C:\WINNT\system32 with Windows 2000). Alternately, you can copy it to every application directory. Use qmake "CONFIG+=staticlib" to create a static library instead.

Use the same procedure to compile the examples (the .exe is created in the Release directory as well):

cd ..\examples\anyExampleDirectory
qmake
make
See also the details on Qt installation.

Compilation and installation using cygwin

An other option is to install the cygwin linux emulator, with the Qt-KDE port. This was successfully tested, although Qt had to be recompiled. You may also have to remove thread from the CONFIG line in QGLViewer.pro.

Then compile QGLViewer as explained in the Unix installation page. You should rename the generated cygQGLViewer-1.dll file to libQGLViewer.dll and copy it in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 directory. Note that cygqt-3.dll and cygqui-1.dll (located in $(QTDIR)/bin or $(QTDIR)/lib) should also be copied in that directory. Thanks Jean-Gui for these details.

Qt   Qt installation

Qt can be downloaded from the Trolltech web site.

The latest Qt 4 version is available for free for open source development. It comes with the MinGW compiler that can be used with the Dev-C++ IDE. Use these unofficial patches to integrate it into Visual Studio.

The Qt 2.3 version can also be used (see patches for .NET integration).

Visual Studio 6 users must check the Tools/Customize/Add-ins and Macro Files/QMsDev Add in box.

Qt Installation of the designer plugin

The compilation and installation of the QGLViewer designer plugin is optional. Such a plugin eases the creation of user interfaces that feature a QGLViewer using designer. It makes a GLViewer icon appear in the designer's Display widget tab, as a standard Qt widget:

        Designer plugin

When added to your user interface, the widget displays the standard spiral, which can be manipulated when you test your interface (using Ctrl+T or Ctrl+R with Qt 4). All the viewers' signals and slots are available and can be connected to the rest of your interface.

To compile the plugin, open the designerPlugin.pro file to create your workspace. Compile and install the resulting library in $QTDIR\plugins\designer and/or C:\Program Files\Trolltech\Qt VS Integration\plugins to use it with Visual Studio integrated designer (may require administrator privileges).

Start from this code to create your own designer plugin for your derived QGLViewer classes. See the code of the plugin for details.

With Qt version 3, an alternative to this plugin is to add a "Custom Widget" using the Tools/Custom designer menu. Select Load Descriptions... and provide the qglviewer.cw custom widget description file, located in the QGLViewer header files directory. You can customize this description with your own signals and slots and change the header file path.

See the interface example for an illustration of a user interface that includes a QGLViewer.

Please let me know if you encounter installation problems.

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