libQGLViewer installation
Windows

» Installation using Qt version 3
» Installation using Qt version 2.3 and Visual Studio 6
» Installation using cygwin linux emulator
» Details on Qt installation
» Installation of the QGLViewer designer plugin

Using Qt version 3

Make sure Qt is installed on your machine, and recognized as an add-in in .NET (see Tools Add-In manager * menu)
Download and unzip the sources : libQGLViewer-1.3.9.zip
Start .NET and use the Open Qt project * icon to open QGLViewer/QGLViewer.pro.
Visual Studio 6.0 only : Use File-Open workspace to open the .dsp generated file, and select Release as the Build/Active Configuration.
Compile the library.
Copy QGLViewer139.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.
Compile the examples and 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 point 6 above).

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

.NET	Visual Studio 6
Tools-Add-Ins manager-QtNet	Tools-Customize-Add-ins and Macro Files/QMsDev Add in
Open Qt Project	Generate Qt Project
QGLViewer139.dll	QGLViewer.dll
Project-Properties-C/C++-General-Additional Include Directories	Tools-Options-Directories-Include files
Project-Properties-Linker-General-Additional Library Directories	Tools-Options-Directories-Library files

Using Qt 2.3 with Visual Studio 6.0

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. Since libQGLViewer is fully functional with Qt 2.3, you can however download and install the free Qt 2.3 version. It requires Visual Studio 6 and is not compatible with .NET. You need to download and install the GLUT library as explained above.

Windows XP users may have to perform all this installation with Administrator priviledges.

Follow the installation procedure described above for Qt 3, but replace QGLViewer.pro by QGLViewer.Qt2.3.pro and open this file instead.
Before the compilation of the library, you have to:

Replace EPSInterface.ui by EPSInterface.Qt2.3.ui.
Add /GX /GR in Project-Settings-C-C++, Project Options for exceptions and dynamic casts.
Edit qglviewer.h and change saveSnapshot() as explained on line ~460.
Add glut32.lib to Projects-Settings-Object/library modules.

You may be prompted with illegal call error messages during the compilation of className() in moc files. Simply remove the first qglviewer:: just after strcmp( and recompile.

Using the latest Qt version with cygwin

An other option is to install the cigwin linux emulator, with the Qt-KDE port. You should then be able to use the latest Qt version, with full libQGLViewer features. This was successfully tested, although Qt had to be recomplied. 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 installation

If you have a Qt 3 commercial licence, simply follow installation instructions. Otherwise, download the free Qt 2.3 non commercial version, or the Qt/Desktop 30 day evaluation version.
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.

Please let me know if you encountered specific installation problems that could be reported on this page.

Installation of the designer plugin

This installation is optional. You can compile and install a QGLViewer designer plugin. Open the designerPlugin.pro file to create your workspace. Compile and install the resulting library in $QTDIR\plugins\designer, which may require administrator priviledges.

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).

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.

Last modified on Monday, November 22, 2004.