libQGLViewer installation
windows Windows

» Installation using Qt version 3
» Installation using Qt version 2.3
» Installation using cygwin linux emulator
» Details on Qt installation
» Installation of the QGLViewer designer plugin

Using Qt version 3

  1. Make sure Qt is 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-2.0.0-3.zip
  3. Start .NET and use the Open Qt project * icon 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 QGLViewer200.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
QGLViewer200.dllQGLViewer.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 2.3 version of Qt 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 Qt 2.3 and you can download and install the free Qt 2.3 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.

To compile with Qt 2.3, follow the installation procedure described above for Qt 3, but:

If you use Visual 6: If you use .NET (Thanks to Lionel for these tricks): This page details how to patch Qt 2.3 to make it work with .NET. This has not yet been tested (feedback welcome), but may avoid the previous patchs/hacks.

Using the latest Qt version with 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 link a file named libQGLViewer.dll to the resulting cygQGLViewer-1.dll (or rename it) and copy libQGLViewer.dll 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

If you have a Qt commercial license, simply follow installation instructions. Otherwise, download the Qt 2.3 non commercial version, or the Qt/Desktop 30 day evaluation version.

This page details how to patch Qt 2.3 to make it work with .NET.

Visual Studio users must check the Tools/Customize/Add-ins and Macro Files/QMsDev Add in box in order to use Qt with Visual Studio.

Qt Installation of the designer plugin

The compilation and installation of the QGLViewer designer plugin is optional. Open the designerPlugin.pro file to create your workspace. Compile it and install the resulting library in $QTDIR\plugins\designer (which may require administrator privileges).

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. When added to your user interface, the widget displays the standard spiral, which can be rotated when you test your interface (using Ctrl+T).

    Designer plugin
All the viewers' signals and slots are available and can be connected to the rest of your interface.

Note that an alternative to this plugin is to add a "Custom Widget" using the Tools/Custom designer menu. 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 encountered installation problems that could be reported on this page.

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