libQGLViewer installation
linux Unix systems mac

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

linuxLinux and Unix

Compilation and installation

Directly install the Debian package, the FreeBSD port or the pre-compiled RPM (built on Fedora Core 2 with gcc 3.3.3):
rpm -Uvh libQGLViewer-2.2.4-1.i586.rpm libQGLViewer-devel-2.2.4-1.i586.rpm
Re-compile the RPM for optimal results or if you have a different configuration:
rpmbuild --rebuild libQGLViewer-2.2.4-1.src.rpm
cd /usr/src/RPM/RPMS/i586/ (or /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i586, see the rpmbuild last log lines)
rpm -Uvh libQGLViewer-*2.2.4-1.i?86.rpm
or directly use the source tarball:
tar -xzf libQGLViewer-2.2.4-1.tar.gz
cd libQGLViewer-2.2.4-1/QGLViewer
qmake (see options below)
make
make install

You need root privileges to install the library, since default install paths are system directories.

Custom installation

With the rpm or when using make install, the following files are installed:

  » RPM customization
If you want to change the RPM installation prefix, say to /usr/local (default is /usr), use rpm -Uvh --prefix /usr/local ... in the rpm command line instead.

  » qmake customization
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
When set, the QGLVIEWER_STATIC qmake 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 (especially Qt4 users) to easily create user interfaces using designer.

linux   Qt   Qt installation on Linux

You need to have the Qt library installed in order to run libQGLViewer. Qt is probably already installed on your machine, or available on your distribution CDs. You may however have to install the "dev" development package. The complete Qt/X11 non commercial version can also freely be downloaded from Trolltech.

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

With Qt version 3, you need to set some shell variables. If your shell is bash or zsh (use echo $SHELL to know), add these lines to your .profile:
export QTDIR=/usr/lib/qt3 (or /usr/lib/qt-3.3 or /usr/share/qt...)
export PATH=${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib
If you use tcsh or csh instead, add these lines to your .login:
setenv QTDIR /usr/lib/qt3 (or /usr/lib/qt-3.3 or /usr/share/qt...)
setenv PATH ${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin
setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH ${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib
Source this file or open a new shell to take these values into account. If you installed libQGLViewer in a custom directory, add the path to this directory in LD_LIBRARY_PATH as is done above for ${QTDIR}/lib.


mac Mac OS X

The installation procedure is essentially identical to the one described in the Linux section:
tar -xzf libQGLViewer-2.2.4-1.tar.gz
cd libQGLViewer-2.2.4-1/QGLViewer
qmake INCLUDE_DIR=/usr/local/include (for instance, see below) 
make
make install

There is an include mismatch when the library is installed in /usr/lib (default) which results in a template with C linkage error message. That's why you need to customize the INCLUDE_DIR. I unfortunately do not have a mac at hand to investigate. Let me know if you try. Do not forget to use the same qmake line when you compile the examples.

See the Linux section for details and install paths customization. Once the library is installed, compile the examples and test them:
cd ../examples
qmake
make
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.

mac   Qt   Qt installation on Mac

Qt is available under two versions for the mac architecture : See this page for details on Qt Xcode integration.

With Qt version 3, you have to define some variables as is detailed in the Qt linux section. Check their current values first.

If your shell is bash or zsh (use echo $SHELL to know), add these lines to your .profile:
export QTDIR=/sw (if you use fink, or to set to where ever Qt was installed)
export PATH=${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib
export QMAKESPEC=darwin-g++ (or macx-g++ or macx-xcode or macx-pbuilder)
If you use tcsh or csh instead, add these lines to your .login:
setenv QTDIR /sw (if you use fink, or to set to where ever Qt was installed)
setenv PATH ${PATH}:${QTDIR}/bin
setenv DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH ${DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH}:${QTDIR}/lib
setenv QMAKESPEC darwin-g++ (or macx-g++ or macx-xcode or macx-pbuilder)
Your QMAKESPEC should correspond to your Qt installation : macx-g++ (Qt/Mac), macx-xcode (XCode), macx-mwerks (CodeWarrior), macx-pbuilder (Project Builder) or darwin-g++ for X11. Compile a simple Qt example to check your configuration.

If you installed libQGLViewer in a custom directory, add the path to this directory in DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH as is done above for ${QTDIR}/lib.




Qt 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 icon 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. Start from this code to create your own designer plugin for your derived QGLViewer classes.

To compile and install the QGLViewer 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.

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

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 and the solution to the problem:

Please let me know if you encounter specific installation problems.

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