add Qt to existing Visual Studio c++ project

Question

I've got an existing Visual Studio C++ project. It creates a main window using GLUT and also uses glut for a right-click context menu.

All I want to do now, is to open a second window used as a property inspector to display and change some values.

Everyone recommends using Qt for GUI development, but all the tutorials I find discuss either working in Qt creator or how to create a Qt project from scratch.

I have used Qt some years ago to do something similar and it was not so difficult to add it to my project.

Can anyone explain, or point me to a tutorial explaining how to do this?

thanks!

If you're in Visual Studio, you should probably just use WPF. — Rafe Kettler, Oct 26 '10 at 22:55
Oh, you just say Visual Studio, so I assume it's a .NET project. — Rafe Kettler, Oct 26 '10 at 23:53
I just want a headache-free way to add a very simple graphical userinput to a working c++ application — Mat, Oct 27 '10 at 00:00
The problem is that you don't know how to build your widget without QtCreator ? — Andrew, Oct 27 '10 at 07:27

score 12 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 04 '20 at 16:50

Thank to Arno Duvenhage and Tom for their answers. Here are steps who worked for me in Qt 5.2.1 and Visual Studio 2012 and 2015:

Install QT Add In (for visual studio 2015 is in still in beta, but works fully for me).
Right click the project, select "Unload project".
Add add the <keyword>Qt4VSv1.0</keyword> entry into the <PropertyGroup Label="Globals"> tag.
Select load project.
Select "Convert project to Qt Add-in project" in "Qt 5" menu.
Almost done. Go to Qt project settings and Qt option in the Qt menu to set details.
In your project properties Linker\Additional Library Directories\ might need to add $(QTDIR)\lib
In your project properties C++\Additional Include Directories\ might need to add $(QTDIR)\include
In each of your classes derived from Q_OBJECT, delete the Q_OBJECT macro, save the file, return the Q_OBJECT macro (Ctrl+Z), and save again. It adds the 'moc' files to your generated files folder.
Set your project as startup project.

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 27 '10 at 11:05

edit your project using an xml editor
i usually unload the project, right click on it and select edit

add the qt version you wish to use (for me it's):

Keyword="Qt4VSv1.0"

and the following globals

        <Global
        Name="lupdateOnBuild"
        Value="0"
    />
    <Global
        Name="MocDir"
        Value=".\GeneratedFiles\$(ConfigurationName)"
    />
    <Global
        Name="MocOptions"
        Value=""
    />
    <Global
        Name="QtVersion Win32"
        Value="QT 4.5.3"
    />
    <Global
        Name="RccDir"
        Value=".\GeneratedFiles"
    />
    <Global
        Name="UicDir"
        Value=".\GeneratedFiles"
    />

reload the project and fiddle with "convert project to QMake generated project" and it should work

the globals didn't work for me. But adding the keyword and setting these configs on property pages did. — Leonardo Alves Machado, Apr 18 '16 at 14:54
This worked for me with Qt 5.9.9 and Visual studio 2019. "convert project to QMake generated project" is located in the file menu under Extensions->QT VS Tools or by Right-clicking on the project -> Qt — aquirdturtle, Apr 05 '20 at 20:46

Arno Duvenhage · Answer 3 · 2014-09-14T14:49:13.237

4

This works for me:

manually change the project version to a qt project in the project file -- use <Keyword>Qt4VSv1.0</Keyword>'
reload the project
right click on the project and select 'update to a qt-addin project'
remove and add the qt source files to the project

Hope it helps.

edited Sep 14 '14 at 14:49

answered Sep 14 '14 at 14:32

Arno Duvenhage

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To be more precise add the Qt4VSv1.0 entry into the tag. Then select – Tomas Tintera Nov 18 '16 at 08:28

score -4 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 27 '10 at 07:29

-4

There is an ability of qmake to generate .vcproj from a .pro file. So you should read qmake documentation to create a right .pro file.

answered Oct 27 '10 at 07:29

Andrew

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add Qt to existing Visual Studio c++ project

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