libQGLViewer installation
Unix systems

» Installation on Mac: libQGLViewer and Qt
» Installation on Linux and Unix: libQGLViewer and Qt
» QGLViewer designer plugin installation
» Troubleshooting

Mac OS X

Download and decompress the sources, then open the libQGLViewer-2.5.0/QGLViewer folder.

Using Qt Creator

Open QGLViewer.pro and "build all".

Using Xcode

Create the Xcode project by running these lines in a terminal:

cd path/to/libQGLViewer-2.5.0/QGLViewer
qmake -spec macx-xcode

Using `make`

cd path/to/libQGLViewer-2.5.0/QGLViewer
qmake -spec macx-g++
make

See the Linux section for details and install paths customization.

Next steps

Once the library is compiled, you can compile the examples.

Install the libQGLViewer designer plugin to easily create user interfaces that integrate a QGLViewer using designer.

You can make install to install the documentation in /Developer/Documentation/QGLViewer.

A Framework is created by default. Uncomment a line in QGLViewer.pro if you want to create a .dylib instead.

With Qt3, threads are activated with the darwin-g++ version and disabled with macx. Add or remove thread in the CONFIG section of .pro files if this does not correspond to your Qt configuration.

If your Qt version is lower than 3.1, you need to link with the glut library. Install glut and uncomment a line in QGLViewer.pro as explained.

Qt installation on Mac

Install Qt from the nokia web site. Then use the provided Qt Creator or download Xcode from the apple web site.

Linux and Unix

Download and decompress the sources, then go to the libQGLViewer-2.5.0/QGLViewer folder.

tar -xzf libQGLViewer-2.5.0.tar.gz
cd libQGLViewer-2.5.0/QGLViewer

Using Qt Creator

Open QGLViewer.pro and "build all". Optionaly make install to install the application system wide.

Using `make`

qmake (see options below)
make
sudo make install [optional]

The following files are installed (you need root privileges to install, since these are system directories):

The library (libQGLViewer-2.5.0.so) in /usr/lib
The header files and designer plugin code in /usr/include/QGLViewer
The documentation and the examples in /usr/share/doc/QGLViewer

Optional qmake parameters let you customize your make install target installation directories:

qmake [PREFIX=...] [INCLUDE_DIR=...] [LIB_DIR=...] [DOC_DIR=...] [QGLVIEWER_STATIC=yes]

A typical usage would be qmake PREFIX=$HOME. Default values are:

- Param -      - Default value -
PREFIX         /usr
LIB_DIR        PREFIX/lib
INCLUDE_DIR    PREFIX/include
DOC_DIR        PREFIX/share/doc

The QGLVIEWER_STATIC=yes option will compile a static version of the library.

If your Qt version is lower than 3.1, you need to link with the glut library: uncomment a line in QGLViewer.pro as explained there. glut can be installed from the freeglut-devel rpm or using

apt-get
install libglut3-dev

Next steps

Once the library is compiled, you can compile the examples.

You may also want to install the libQGLViewer designer plugin to easily create user interfaces that integrate a QGLViewer using designer.

Qt installation on Linux

Qt is probably already installed on your machine, or available on your distribution's repository. You may however have to install the dev development package. You can also directly download it.

Try to compile a simple Qt example and check the Qt FAQ page in case of problems. Consider compiling one of the Qt OpenGL examples to test your configuration.

Installation of the designer plugin

The designer plugin installation is optional. It eases the creation of user interfaces that feature a QGLViewer using Qt's designer. It adds a QGLViewer entry in the designer's

Display
Widgets

tab:

Designer plugin

When added to your interface, the widget displays the standard spiral, which can be manipulated when you test it. All the viewers' signals and slots are available and can be connected to your interface.

Edit the qglviewerPlugin code as indicated to create a similar designer plugin for your derived QGLViewer class.

To compile and install the designer plugin, simply do:

cd designerPlugin
qmake
make
make install

The designerPlugin directory is located in the tarball root directory or in /usr/include/QGLViewer/designerPlugin if you installed QGLViewer from the RPM.

By default, the plugin is installed in $QTDIR/plugins/designer which is usually a system directory. The make install step hence requires root privileges. With Qt4, you can customize the plugin installation path using the qmake PREFIX=... syntax instead. Do not forget to add this path to your QT_PLUGIN_PATH variable so that designer can find the plugin.

Note that libQGLViewer.so needs to be found by designer in order to load the plugin. If you didn't make install the library, add the path to the .so (resp .dylib with Mac) in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH (resp. DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH) as explained in the Qt installation sections above. See the interface example for an illustration of a Qt user interface that includes a QGLViewer.

Troubleshooting

Here are some error messages that you may encounter with their solutions:

QWidget: Must construct a QApplication before a QPaintDevice.: the library and your program were probably compiled in debug and release modes (or vice-versa). Using the same mode for both should fix this problem (may also appear with static vs dynamic libraries).
declaration of qtObsolete conflicts with previous declaration: error message. See the mac example section.
uic: File generated with too recent version of Qt Designer: try to change the version="..." in the first line of the ui file.
Error while loading shared libraries: add the path to libQGLViewer.so in your LD_LIBRARY_PATH (see above).
Random or no display: this may come from a bug in your compiler. Try to edit QGLViewer.pro, replace release by debug in the CONFIG line, and re-compile.
lib3ds: this library is needed to compile the 3dsViewer example. Download the patched lib3ds-1.2.0-1.i686.rpm or the sources (lib3ds-1.2.0-1.src.rpm or lib3ds-1.2.0.tar.gz).
The indicated type is incomplete error message in qvaluevector.h while compiling keyFrameInterpolator.cpp: include frame.h (see top of keyFrameInterpolator.cpp).
overloading cannot distinguish from previous declaration: while compiling translate and rotate in Frame.h. Simply comment the const versions of these methods.
cp: illegal option -- P: this option is very useful but may not be available on your machine. Remove the QMAKE_COPY_FILE modification in QGLViewer.pro
gcc 2.95: ostream operator << with QString: uncomment the patch in config.h
Undefined reference to QString::QString (Qt3): add/remove thread in the CONFIG line of QGLViewer.pro and re-compile.
exception handling disabled: add QMAKE_CXXFLAGS *= -fexceptions in QGLViewer.pro.

Please let me know if you encounter specific installation problems.

Last modified on Thursday, December 19, 2013.

libQGLViewer installation Unix systems

Mac OS X

Using Qt Creator

Using Xcode

Using make

Next steps

Qt installation on Mac

Linux and Unix

Using Qt Creator

Using make

Next steps

Qt installation on Linux

Installation of the designer plugin

Troubleshooting

libQGLViewer installation
Unix systems

Using `make`

Using `make`