Guidance to create an AI plugin with Qt UI

[poortip87]

Hi All,

I am developing a plugin for AI CC 2015 that requires UI to be done in Qt. I have Qt 5.5.

Although, I have come across several discussions in the forum where the discussions always start with how they have a C++ plugin with Qt UI and the problems they face is after the creation of this combination.

What I am looking for is how to create a plugin like that. And, I have found nothing so far.

Is there any help available for this, since people have been doing this for years now. There should be.

Can anyone guide me here please?

[btempleton1982]

I have not used QT for UI, but I did briefly use Cocoa during the ADM days.

The general process is to catch the event you're looking for, eg a menu item selection.

In response to that, instead of calling into the Illustrator suite functions, load your own dialog.

Send whatever data you need back to the plugin.

I can't help with the specifics of setting up and loading a QT dialog.

[poortip87]

So far I have tried this,

AIPanelPlatformWindow panelPlatfromWindow = NULL;
sAIPanel->GetPlatformWindow(fPanel, panelPlatfromWindow);
int argc = 0;
// Get the instance of QApplication
QApplication* _Application = static_cast<QApplication *>(QApplication::instance());
_Application = new QApplication(argc, 0, true);
viewerWidget = new QWidget();
viewerWidget->move(10, 50);
viewer = new Ui::Viewer;
viewer->setupUi(viewerWidget);
SetWindowLong((HWND)viewerWidget->winId(), GWL_STYLE, WS_CHILD | WS_CLIPCHILDREN | WS_CLIPSIBLINGS);
SetParent((HWND)viewerWidget->winId(), panelPlatfromWindow);
viewerWidget->show();
::SetPropA((HWND)(panelPlatfromWindow), "TPNL", this);
fDefaultWindProc = reinterpret_cast<WNDPROC>(SetWindowLongPtr((HWND)(panelPlatfromWindow), GWLP_WNDPROC, reinterpret_cast<LONG_PTR>(MyPlugin::NewWindowProc)));

However, I was having issues in getting callbacks from Qt UI to C++ plugin. I found that QWinWidget was recommended for this. So I tried the following,

QWinWidget win(panelPlatfromWindow);
HWND winId = (HWND)win.winId();
// Qt UI
int argc = 0;
// Get the instance of QApplication
QApplication* _Application = static_cast<QApplication *>(QApplication::instance());
_Application = new QApplication(argc, 0, true);
viewerWidget = new QWidget();
viewerWidget->move(10, 50);
viewer = new Ui::Viewer;
viewer->setupUi(viewerWidget);
SetParent((HWND)viewerWidget->winId(), winId);
viewerWidget->show();
// Set the panel property
::SetPropA(winId, "TPNL", this);
fDefaultWindProc = reinterpret_cast<WNDPROC>(SetWindowLongPtr(winId, GWLP_WNDPROC, reinterpret_cast<LONG_PTR>(MyPlugin::NewWindowProc)));

But in this case, the executions just breaks down at QWinWidget win(panelPlatfromWindow);

No exceptions, nothing...

Please guide.. Anyone?

[hyld24200943rc1h]

Hi, I am a beginner and encountered the same problem, can't callback from QT ui to AI. How can I solve it?

Thanks!