Getting started with QWT

I have been looking for a graphing API for QT and eventually found one that suits my needs called QWT ( Qt Widgets for Technical Applications). I ran into some issues while setting it up but finally got it running so here is the resulting tutorial on how to set-up QWT in QT creator (for Linux 12.0.4).

Now we can begin, first step is to download the source files from here. The version used for this tutorial is QWT 6.1. In the terminal, navigate to the location of the downloaded .tar.bz2 file, then type the following commands:

$ tar -xjvf qwt-6.1-rc3.tar.bz2
$ cd qwt-6.1-rc3
$ qmake qwt.pro
$ make
$ make install

Launch QT creator and then Go to File > New File or Project. Select a QT Gui Application give the project a name e.g. “FirstQwtProject”.You could leave the other settings in the wizard as they are or change them to suit your own projects. I have kept the 'FirstQwtProject.pro' ( this will vary depending on the Project Name you have chosen) and 'main.cpp' but deleted the remaining files (MainWindow class) as they would not be need for this simple introduction. To run QWT programs in QT creator we need to let the IDE know where to find the QWT libraries.

So open the .pro file associated with the project and append the following lines at the end of the file. This should be included in every QWT Project you create but remember to change the include Path "/usr/local/qwt-6.1.0-rc3/.." to the location of the QWT install directory on your PC.

CONFIG += qwt
INCLUDEPATH +="/usr/local/qwt-6.1.0-rc3/include"
LIBS += -L/usr/local/qwt-6.1.0-rc3/lib -lqwt

Now go to the 'main.cpp' file and type in the following lines of code and press Ctrl+R to run it.

#include <QApplication>
#include <qwt_plot.h>
#include <qwt_plot_curve.h>
#include <qwt_plot_grid.h>
#include <qwt_symbol.h>
#include <qwt_legend.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QApplication a(argc, argv);

    QwtPlot plot;
    plot.setTitle( "Plot Demo" );
    plot.setCanvasBackground( Qt::white );
    plot.setAxisScale( QwtPlot::yLeft, 0.0, 10.0);
    plot.insertLegend( new QwtLegend() );

    QwtPlotGrid *grid = new QwtPlotGrid();
    grid->attach( &plot );

    QwtPlotCurve *curve = new QwtPlotCurve();
    curve->setTitle( "Pixel Count" );
    curve->setPen( Qt::blue, 4 ),
    curve->setRenderHint( QwtPlotItem::RenderAntialiased, true );

    QwtSymbol *symbol = new QwtSymbol( QwtSymbol::Ellipse,
        QBrush( Qt::yellow ), QPen( Qt::red, 2 ), QSize( 8, 8 ) );
    curve->setSymbol( symbol );

    QPolygonF points;
    points << QPointF( 0.0, 4.4 ) << QPointF( 1.0, 3.0 )
        << QPointF( 2.0, 4.5 ) << QPointF( 3.0, 6.8 )
        << QPointF( 4.0, 7.9 ) << QPointF( 5.0, 7.1 );
    curve->setSamples( points );

    curve->attach( &plot );

    plot.resize( 600, 400 );
    plot.show();

    return a.exec();
}

This is what you should see.

Conclusion

QWT Libraries are one of many options for plotting graphs in QT. In the next tutorial, I will show you how to plot histograms calculated via OpenCV with QWT.