I am having some trouble making a new QT widget fill all the available space.
I want to add a widget (a QGLWidget) to the verticle layout (mVisual) and have the layout resize so that mVisual occupies the maximal amount of area.
My layout looks as follows:
The code I have is
ui.setupUi(this);
mWidget = new glStream();
//mWidget->setMinimumHeight(480);
//mWidget->setMinimumWidth(480);
ui.mVisual->addWidget(mWidget);
The problem is that if I don't manually set the width or height I can't even see my widget when I add it!
The only thing I can think of is to perform some sort or arithmetic like parentSize-lytControlsSize, but this feels dirty and like MFC.
How can I layout my widgets so that one layout (mVisual) is minimal, while the other is maximal?
if you put your widget in a Layout, widget fill all available space in their parent area, and if you want to fill without margins, set Layout margins to 0.
Related
My widget has two layouts. The main layout is outerLayout, and it should always occupy the entire widget. This contains a QLabel and a second layout named innerLayout.
innerLayout should be centered inside outerLayout and it should only be large enough to contain its widgets. I've set size constraints for both layouts, but in the following code, innerLayout expands to fill outerLayout.
outerLayout = new QVBoxLayout();
outerLayout->addWidget(label);
outerLayout->setSizeConstraint(QLayout::SetMaximumSize);
innerLayout = new QGridLayout();
innerLayout->setAlignment(Qt::AlignHCenter);
innerLayout->setSizeConstraint(QLayout::SetFixedSize);
outerLayout ->addLayout(innerLayout);
setLayout(outerLayout);
If I set the size constraint for both layouts to SetFixedSize, both layouts will be reduced to their minimum size. But I want the outer layout to occupy the entire space and the inner layout to use the minimum possible space. Any ideas?
Use spacers as extra widgets of outerlayout. In other words: the spacers will be siblings of innerlayout and will push inner layout to it's minimal needed surface. You will need horizontal and vertical spacers.
When I run my program it will display all content properly, and when I resizing the main window, the layout along with all associated widgets remain fixed, rather than resizing with the main window. I used to increase my all widget and listWidget respect to window computer resolution size but still this not one work properly.
I used this one code finding the system height and width.
QWidget widget;
widget.resize(widget.width(), widget.minimumHeight());
QRect rec = QApplication::desktop()->screenGeometry();
int h = rec.height();
int w = rec.width();
// Increasing the listwidget size
ui->listWidget->setFixedHeight(h);
ui->listWidget->setFixedWidth(w);
//increasing the button size
ui->pushButton->setFixedHeight(h0.2);
ui->pushButton->setFixedWidth(w0.2);
At this link you will find two screenshots that illustrate my problem.
Please resolve to solve my problem. Thanks very much in advance.
When defining the layout of your windows and forms in Qt Designer you have to define each element of your form in advance, in order to have a working layout.
This solution is based on the screenshots provided in the comments to the question. Follow these steps:
Add an empty widget to the central area of your form, if there is nothing there. It will be used as a placeholder for the controls you will add later, and of course you can replace it with whatever widget you want. But you need it there to define a proper layout.
In the property panel, set the horizontal QSizePolicy of this widget to MinimumExpanding.
Add an horizontal spacer to the left side of your progress bar.
Define a minimum/maximum width for the white widget on the left (I guess it's a text area). As an example set the maximum width to 200
pixels.
Make the same for the QTabWidget on the right.
Give a minimum height to the Groupbox on top.
Then give the grid layout to the MainWindow.
You should get something similar in the designer view (I use a dark theme, yours will have different colors of course):
If you complete all steps you should have a nicely resizing window.
For the future: remember to integrally define your layouts, also using placeholder widgets when needed, read carefully the documentation about the widgets size policies (there are several, you need to play with them to fully understand each one) and keep in mind that Qt uses a container based approach which is different, as an example from those used by the .Net framework that relies on the concept of anchors.
EDIT : to answer questions in the comments
You will need to add a layout to any widget that contains other widgets, e.g. adding controls to your groupbox will require to give it a grid, horizontal or vertical layout in order to scale nicely on resize. Again use spacers and size policies to make it look the way you want. If you need to add or remove controls, or change their positions, you may need to brake the layout, rearrange and then set it again.
You can also select groups of widgets and give them a layout e.g. vertical, than another group and set them horizontal and so on... then give a grid layout to the container widget to build a compound layout.
There are endless possibilities, you just need to practice and go through trial and error as for everything else...
You can also do it all programmatically, check the Qt widgets documentation for this. But for complex layouts I would not go that way: it's a lot of code... and you have to compile and run to test every modification.
Using the QtCreator, within the designer you can simply right-click on the parent-widget and add a Grid-Layout.
This one resizes it's children to it's dimensions.
I have a small program which contains a QGroupBox with other widgets like this:
I tried many ways to manage the size of the QGroupBox to make the height as the same as the rest of the parts. Except for the way of using setMaximumHeight, because I want the size to change dynamically with the window size too. what else can I do to manage the layout?
Right now there are three items in a layout. The layout will try to fill the available space. QLineEdit and QSpinBox (or whatever your second widget is) have SizePolicy.vertical == fixed, so all extra space goes to the QGroupBox.
You have these choices:
Add a vertical spacer as fourth item below the groupbox to your layout.
Set maximum height of your groupbox - then the remaining space will be evenly spaced between the items.
Adjust the size of your window / widget / dialog (in Qt Designer or via code).
I'm developing an app with a complex hierarchy of widgets and layouts, but in short it has a central widget with a formulary as upper widget and a QScrollArea as buttom widget (by means of a QVBoxLayout).
That QScrollArea represents a list (grid layout indeed) of QPushButtons which can contain a huge number of buttons (or not).
I want my app fits the following constraints:
Both (form and list) consume all available horizontal space, redistributing its contents to fill all horizontal space (nor SpaceItems neither contents margins).
Both must save as vertical space as possible, in order to make "lines" close to each other.
I've solve partially my problem making use of setSizeConstraint(QLayout::SetFixedSize) on the form, which shrinks it vertically, but also horizontally, causing that both, list and form, have different widths, wich doesn't look like very well.
How can I achieve that? I mean, how can specify something like grow horizontally to fill the widget but shrink vertically has much as possible?
Add a spacer as the last item to the layout:
gridLayout->addItem(new QSpacerItem(10, 10, QSizePolicy::Expanding, QSizePolicy::Expanding), lastrow, 0);
I think this is what you want:
If you know how many columns you will have (and it doesn't change), insertStretch() in the last column (although it might give you the same effect as using a spacer).
int columnCount = gridLayout()->columnCount();
gridLayout->insertStretch( columnCount(), 1 ); // Default stretch for other
Note that this will resize your buttons to the size Qt thinks they should be unless you are explicitly changing their widths.
I am new to QT. I'm trying to understand the layout mechanism by trying to implement this small window seen below. It has the following elements under the QWidget that's the main window:
One big QWidget that stretches on all the client area.
Two QWidget containers on the top of the window. Both should have the same height, but the right one stretches horizontally, as the window grows/shrinks.
one button container widget on the top right, with fixed height and width
Large QWidget container filling the rest of the client area, that should resize as the window resizes.
The parent window itself is resizeable.
I'm looking for hints as to what layout I should use. How do I achieve this programatically? define what stretches automatically, what stays with a fix size? and how the proportions are kept where they need to be kept.
I'd appreciate any pointer you may have.
The easiest, and IMHO best, way to accomplish this is via the QHBoxLayout and QVBoxLayouts. You can do this via the designer in QtCreator, but I find it doesn't work perfectly if you need to adapt things over time. If it's a static set of widgets, I do suggest designing it using the QtCreator designer as it'll greatly simplify your life.
If you're going to do it programatically, the main window should be set to use a QVBoxLayout and then two sub-QVBoxLayout's after that, where the bottom one is configured to take any space it can get. Then in the top QVBoxLayout, add a QHBoxLayout with your two upper components.
to set a widget to fixed size in code you call setFixedSize( int h, int w ) on the widget. To do it in Designer click on the widget and look in the property editor in the QWidget section. open the sizePolicy thingy and set horizontal and/or vertical to fixed. Then open Geometry and set the width and Height.
To make them stretch at different ratios in code you use a separate argument when using a box layout. eg layout->addWidget( button1, 1 ); layout->addWidget (button2, 2); this would cause button2 to expand at twice the rate of button1. To do this in designer, open the sizePolicy property of the widgets and set the HorizontalStrech and/or VerticalSretch. Note that the size policy needs to not be Fixed in this case for the direction you want to set the stretch on. Also it will never let a widget shrink below its minimum size (it would rather mess up the ratio than shrink something too small).