Thanks jlittle and RobertoColombo for you comments.

I am ok with useing the QT Designer or setting layouts through code.
I see now that it depends on how you are setting out you Dialog/Window to get the best way to layout your controls.
The above was just my way of finding out how to get a responce from the widgets i.e slider so I could get something to happen it is/was just a very simple exersise.
I have now moved on from this and started putting together my "real" functions that I will upload as and when I have finished them, keeping in mind we have got to wait for the next update to the Iclone Python API to move forward is many areas.

Many Thanks
Chris.

Hi,

the "trick" is to use QT Creator is to organize your GUI with layouts, as also suggested by Jeff.

The best way I got so far is to string widgets together as much as possible with nested layouts.
For example, imagine you have a label and a text input control and you want to have them always staying close on the same line.
Then, you can select both the widgets and then apply an horizontal layout.
Here is a picture, which should clarify what i mean and how i managed to keep everything under control.
It is a snapshot of Qt creator.
All the red boxes are layouts.
For example, the label X, Y, Z are linked with an horizontal layout to their input fields.
Then there is another horizontal layout that put all the widgets on the same row together. etc. etc.

Here is Qt Creator GUI.



Here is the result in iClone.



No constraints have been used so far.
You have basically 4 layout types to choose from, and they are selectable either by a right-click pop-up menu or by the icon tools on the top bar.
If you need to change anything, you will have to break the layouts... so better to plan ahead (if ever possible...) how your GUI is going to look (I am not able at all... if fact I had to break and rebuild the layouts so many times... :( )

I started using the constraints like min and max, but I dropped them soon because it was a mess to keep everything under curb when the GUI was "growing" in complexity.
So, I used this method to string together group of widgets as far as they shall always stay together,
The advantage of doing like this is that the all widgets always perfectly fit in the space.
Obviously sometimes they fit too much, like the wide input fields of the "Area" and "extension" groups: when the GUI is really the final one, I will apply the min/max coinstraints to reduce them.

It is also important to have a top level layout to the full Dialog widget otherwise you get an empty window in iClone.

Then, of course, if you use QtCreator, you need to get the handlers to the various controls in order to be able to use them.
Your "friend" for this is the findChild() function of your GUI object.
My suggestion is to spend some time to assign meaningful names to the various widget objects, so that referring them in the code would be more meaningful than findChild(..., "widget_16" ) ;););)

Cheers

   Roberto



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It depend upon what you are trying to do. Have you read up on layouts? See HERE for some info on layouts.

Typically widgets will resize as the window resizes but to control how the widget resizes you have to at least set the the widgets "size policy" and min and max size to achieve your desired results. There are also other settings that can affect sizing but those are the main ones for simple layouts.

If all you want to do is restrict a label to it's minimum size, based on it's contents, then set the Horizontal size policy to "Fixed".
If you want a button to be a specific width then set the Horizontal size policy to "Fixed" and set the minimumSize to the desired button width.

If minimumSize is zero (0) it will be just big enough to contain the button label.


The Qt layout system is very flexible and I find it easier to use the Qt designer to layout screens then to build them programmatically.
I got the Qt designer from here and it works great:



Jeff



Get my Plugin Manager and TaskNotes plugins for iClone.
Check out EZColors and Other products for CTA/CA. EZColors: the easy way to change Render Styled (RS) colors!
See my CTA Tutorials on the YouTube channel CTAStepByStep

I forgot to say does anyone know how to set the size of a label or widget. I have tried many ways but still not able to find the answer.

Thanks
Chris.

Hi

Sorry for the delay I had a couple of issues to sort out anyway If you wish to download and have a look I have included a link here, please keep in mind I am very much still learning python and PySide2 with Iclone.

Hope it helps someone.
Chris.

Thanks for the help that did it.

Regards
Chris.

Your statement in line 38:
QColorDialog.NoButtons
is not affecting anything since it is a constant.

Do it like this:
colour.setOptions(QColorDialog.NoButtons)
and that will work.

EDIT: Also, you will not get the "Selected" signal since that is generated by pressing the OK button. The "Changed" signal will also be repeated many times as one drags the color cursor thru the rainbow or as a screen color is picked since as the cursor moves it is sampling the colors under it.

Jeff



Get my Plugin Manager and TaskNotes plugins for iClone.
Check out EZColors and Other products for CTA/CA. EZColors: the easy way to change Render Styled (RS) colors!
See my CTA Tutorials on the YouTube channel CTAStepByStep

Hi Mik

I only started with python a when iclone 7.4 came out so still very new to me, while we wait for the update I thought I would get my head around the UI stuff so far its been faily straight forward but head scratching at times.

I have ideas with lights as well as yourself hence the ColorDialog the above. The Demo returns most of the control/Widgets values including the ColorDialog Box just a little more to work out one being how to populate the combo box with items from the scene. and of course how to get rid of the OK Cancel Buttons.

Will upload tomorrow night if I can work all out by then.

Regards
Chris.

Edited for typo :doze:

I'm always interested in UI code (not my strongpoint) and I could see using something like this for the many color apps I have in mind (some of which I already have written).

So, yes, seeing the code would be nice (I haven't even tried to do any Pyside stuff yet, although I will eventually).

---

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Mike "ex-genius" Kelley

This is part of a lager Demo UI I am working on while we wait for the next update.
This is the  full Demo UI that I have nearly got all worked out will share full code when finished if anyone would like it.



Regards
Chris