I'm back with a GPU.. Qt Creator still not working

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 13:56

@Tink I was told that QT Design Studio was a commercial product and that it did not have all the same features of Qt Creator and not to use it for QtQuick development. I was told Qt Design Studio is more based on forms than applications. And indeed when I tried it, there were strange things happening. It insisted on creating qml files and ui.qml files but it wouldn't edit the qml files. I tried to find anything about comparing them on the Qt site but didn't find anything.

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 14:11

@Mlibu
Yes, Design Studio is quite different/separate from Designer and/or Creator. And they should work.

It seems to me this thread has been going on a long time without resolution. As I understand it, you cannot get it to work under Manjaro but others can.

I don't know your situation, but are you able/prepared to try a different distro, e.g. if you install them in a VM it doesn't take too long (compared to how long this topic has been running!).

It may not be your desired target, and it may only be used as a "test", but what about seeing if you can get it working under, say, Ubuntu like lots of other people?

If it works there, at least you know you are doign a setup correctly and it seems to be a Manjaro issue or to do with how you install under Manjaro.
If it does not work there, either that tells you it's something about how you are installing packages or it tells you there is some problem with your machine which differs from other people.

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 14:21

@JonB @JonB

I have already tried Manjaro/KDE and Ubuntu/Gnome. Both with the package managers and with the unified installer.

I'm going to try Manjaro XFCE soon.

When I install with a package manager Qt Creator runs on the design screen but it doesn't work properly. I can't even move a rectangle on the screen after I drop it. When I install with the unified installer, the design screen crashes just after I start using it. This is in Ubuntu, Manjaro, and even windows.

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 14:29

@Mlibu "Houston, we have a problem"... This does not sound right! Don't suppose you have a different computer to try...?

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 14:32

@JonB I have tried four computers so far. An Asus Vivo flipbook, a Thinkpad T440, This Dell Optiplex and a Lenovo mini PC (Thinkcenter M73). None of them work.

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 14:33

@Mlibu
Oh dear, oh dear! the problem might be you then... ;-)

Try Ubuntu 22.04 and the Qt 5.15 that comes with. Yep, it's not Qt6. I use it, loads of others have, and nobody can't run Creator. If that fails it must be you ;-)

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 15:24

@JonB OK that's totally fine. I understand that it may be me. But telling me that doesn't help me understand why this is happening. I have done around 10 fresh OS installs so far because people tell me I'm doing something wrong and then I install the packages they tell me to and it still doesn't work. I have googled on every error I get pretty much and there is just nothing.

As far as I can tell I'm meeting all the requirements for Qt Creator. I even bought a system with a GPU even though I don't need a gaming machine because I thought that was the problem but apparently Qt Creator doesn't need a GPU.

If I'm doing something wrong then it should be easy to explain what it is.

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 16:08

@Mlibu
If t were that simple then someone would indeed have told you by now! We know it works for us, not why it doesn't for you. That's why I picked something like Ubuntu 20.04 + Qt 5.15 just to see whether that went through OK for you. And no, Creator does not need any GPU.

Mlibu · J JonB 21 Mar 2024, 15:24

@JonB Ok well that was going to be my next plan. And no I'm not going to believe it's me because there is literally nothing I could be doing differently. I have tried every combination.

The only other thing I can try is ask my kids to try installing it on their windows PCs. They are a lot newer. Now my only fear is that I'm going to need a brand new computer to do this in which case I'm going to have Windows anyway and linux is moot. I can't just blindly buy a system hoping it will work.

And if it was simple I would have figured it out myself.

Tink · 21 Mar 2024, 17:00

@Mlibu said in I'm back with a GPU.. Qt Creator still not working:

@Tink I was told that QT Design Studio was a commercial product and that it did not have all the same features of Qt Creator and not to use it for QtQuick development. I was told Qt Design Studio is more based on forms than applications. And indeed when I tried it, there were strange things happening. It insisted on creating qml files and ui.qml files but it wouldn't edit the qml files. I tried to find anything about comparing them on the Qt site but didn't find anything.

From the link i gave you:

"Qt Design Studio is also available as a free community version."

And it depends on what your goal is.

"Qt Designer is the Qt tool for designing and building graphical user interfaces (GUIs) with Qt Widgets. For user interface design with Qt Quick, see Qt Design Studio."
https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtdesigner-manual.html

Note: You have the option of using Qt Quick and Qt Design Studio for user interface design rather than widgets. It is a much easier way to write many kinds of applications. It enables a completely customizable appearance, touch-reactive elements, and smooth animated transitions, taking advantage of hardware acceleration.

If you want to focus on Qt Quick, design studio might be perfect. At any rate it might let you actually do something instead of troubleshooting a problem that might resolve itself in a new version of qt / creator.

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 19:02

@Tink Even that statement you pasted is confusing though. Qt Designer is the standalone app that does widgets, I get that. And we have been over Qt Design Studio. But what is the thing that I am trying to get to called? What is in the tab in Qt Creator? I know I have to install a plugin to use it, but is there a name for that part? It almost seems to start another application when I click on the tab. The window disappears and comes back.

Also I was told Qt Design Studio was for forms. You are saying I can make a full application ui with it as well? I have seen youtube courses for Qt Creator but never for Design Studio. What is a ui.qml file?

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 19:13

@Mlibu said in I'm back with a GPU.. Qt Creator still not working:

But what is the thing that I am trying to get to called? What is in the tab in Qt Creator? I know I have to install a plugin to use it, but is there a name for that part? It almost seems to start another application when I click on the tab. The window disappears and comes back.

Now I'm not sure what you are describing. The tab inside Creator where you design widgets is Designer. You don't have to install a plugin for it to work (or installing Creator does whatever for you if Designer is a plugin, I don't know). I don't see any "external application" or "disappearing/reappearing window", though I don't use Creator 12. If we're not sure what we are talking about show a screenshot of whatever "tab" you are clicking?

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 19:19

@JonB

So there is Qt Creator with Designer, Qt Designer, and Qt Design Studio. Ugh.

This page:

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 19:20

@Mlibu
Yeah, that's Designer, though it looks a bit different from mine :)

There's really only two things: Creator & Design Studio. Creator just comes with Designer, don't worry about it as separate.

So your screeenshot seems to be fine now, what is your problem? :)

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 19:28

@JonB So this is the plugin that you (now) have to install in qt creator 12:

The Designer page won't activate without it.

Mlibu · J JonB 21 Mar 2024, 19:19

@JonB The rectangle doesn't show its background. It should start as white and I changed it to red. There is no window drawn at all. If I try to move the rectangle by dragging it the blue border just disappears and nothing happens.

JonB · 21 Mar 2024, 21:29

@Mlibu
I have now zoomed in to look at your screenshot more closely. Now I see this is a QML designer, because the toolbox items are "Flickable" and stuff from QML/QtQuick. This is not the designer for widgets --- no wonder it looks different for me! On mine the Design tab is like yours but takes me into widget designer, not QML. Have a look at pictures in the Help like https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-using-qt-designer.html, that shows the Qt widget designer in Creator we have all been talking about,

I have never installed QtQuick or wanted to use it.

I'm going to pass out on this now. Clearly you need someone who knows about Qt Creator 12 or whatever you are installing how.

UPDATE
I see now you are Using Qt Quick Designer. And you have been doing

However, you can enable the Qt Quick Designer plugin in Qt Creator for editing UI files. The functionality is restricted and not all Qt Design Studio features are supported.

You're not supposed to be doing this at all. You have gone down a garden path, that's why it doesn't matter where you try it you have problems. As I suggested earlier, it is to do with what you are installing each time.

Umm.. to get this far you had to start by creating some kind of Project, didn't you? What project type did you select? I'm talking about something like "Qt Widgets Application", did you pick something with "QML" or "QtQuick"?

OK, I finally see from your title bar that you working on a QML project. Why don't we start with: *Are you wanting to create a QML/Quick application or a Widgets application"??

Tink · 21 Mar 2024, 21:33

@Mlibu said in I'm back with a GPU.. Qt Creator still not working:

@Tink Even that statement you pasted is confusing though. Qt Designer is the standalone app that does widgets, I get that. And we have been over Qt Design Studio. But what is the thing that I am trying to get to called? What is in the tab in Qt Creator? I know I have to install a plugin to use it, but is there a name for that part? It almost seems to start another application when I click on the tab. The window disappears and comes back.

Also I was told Qt Design Studio was for forms. You are saying I can make a full application ui with it as well? I have seen youtube courses for Qt Creator but never for Design Studio. What is a ui.qml file?

Qt Designer is available as a standalone app and also integrated into creator. E.g. you can use the standalone version to produce a ui file to use in your python project. For a c++ project you just use the integrated designer.

The .ui.qml files should be used with qt design studio. Although there is a qt quick designer plugin in qtcreator as you know.
https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-qtquickdesigner-plugin.html
https://doc.qt.io/qtcreator/creator-quick-ui-forms.html

All this stuff can be found in the documentation even if you claim that it's not explained anywhere. It is.

Mlibu · J JonB 21 Mar 2024, 19:28

@JonB I want to create a QML/Quick application. If I wanted widgets I would have been using designer.

When I create the project I select Application (Qt) / Qt Quick application.

Here's the problem with the plugin. If I uninstall it then there is no way to get to the design page at all:

I'm on a QML file but I can't go to the design page.

Mlibu · 21 Mar 2024, 22:58

@Tink Yes I read these pages but they don't explain what a UI file is, just that they are used in Qt Quick Designer... Which is confusing because I thought they were used in Qt Design Studio? I know they have something to do with separation of business logic but I haven't seen a diagram or example that demonstrates how they work together.

Also it says that signals are not supported in them and I definitely want signals. It doesn't really say why the UI files are used over regular QML files despite the fact that they don't support as many features.