running draw_polygon example in CGAl package in qt widget application - c++

Question

I try to following CGAL example in Qt widget application :
example
main.ccp:
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include <QApplication>
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QApplication a(argc, argv);
MainWindow w;
w.show();
return a.exec();
}
mainwindow.ccp :
#include <CGAL/Exact_predicates_inexact_constructions_kernel.h>
#include <CGAL/Polyhedron_3.h>
#include <CGAL/IO/Polyhedron_iostream.h>
#include <CGAL/draw_polyhedron.h>
#include <fstream>
typedef CGAL::Exact_predicates_inexact_constructions_kernel Kernel;
typedef CGAL::Polyhedron_3<Kernel> Polyhedron;
void MainWindow::on_pushButton_clicked()
{
QString fileName = QFileDialog::getOpenFileName(this,tr("Open .off model"), "/home", tr("*.off"));
draw_poly(fileName);
}
void MainWindow::draw_poly(QString fileName)
{
QByteArray inBytes;
const char *c;
inBytes = fileName.toUtf8();
c = inBytes.constData();
std::ifstream input(c);
if (!input || !(input >> mesh) || mesh.is_empty()) {
std::cerr << "Not a valid off file." << std::endl;
// return 1;
}
input >> mesh;
CGAL::draw(mesh);
}
when I ran it , it open dialog file to select .off file ,then it shows the following error:
QCoreApplication::exec: The event loop is already running
any help ,please ?

Answer 1

I'm using Qt5 in daily business, and once considered CGAL as possible application base (without going further into this direction – not yet). Hence, this question made me curious.
I digged through the source code of CGAL on github and found out why the error message
QCoreApplication::exec: The event loop is already running
occurs.
For this, I copied the relevant lines from CGAL on github: Polyhedron/include/CGAL/draw_polyhedron.h:
template<class Polyhedron, class ColorFunctor>
void draw(const Polyhedron& apoly,
const char* title,
bool nofill,
const ColorFunctor& fcolor)
{
#if defined(CGAL_TEST_SUITE)
bool cgal_test_suite=true;
#else
bool cgal_test_suite=false;
#endif
if (!cgal_test_suite)
{
int argc=1;
const char* argv[2]={"polyhedron_viewer","\0"};
QApplication app(argc,const_cast<char**>(argv));
SimplePolyhedronViewerQt<Polyhedron, ColorFunctor>
mainwindow(app.activeWindow(), apoly, title, nofill, fcolor);
mainwindow.show();
app.exec();
}
}
Looking at this source code, it becomes obvious that CGAL::draw() is a small ful-featured Qt application in itself which establishs its own QApplication instance. The OP in turn tried to embed the CGAL::draw() in her/his own Qt application. It is not allowed to instance any derivates of QCoreApplication more than once (according to Qt doc. of QApplication):
For any GUI application using Qt, there is precisely one QApplication object, no matter whether the application has 0, 1, 2 or more windows at any given time.
(Emphasizing not mine.)
The CGAL doc. provides an (even shorter) example in Polyhedron/draw_polyhedron.cpp to do this right:
#include <CGAL/Exact_predicates_inexact_constructions_kernel.h>
#include <CGAL/Polyhedron_3.h>
#include <CGAL/IO/Polyhedron_iostream.h>
#include <CGAL/draw_polyhedron.h>
#include <fstream>
typedef CGAL::Exact_predicates_inexact_constructions_kernel Kernel;
typedef CGAL::Polyhedron_3<Kernel> Polyhedron;
int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
Polyhedron P;
std::ifstream in1((argc>1)?argv[1]:"data/cross.off");
in1 >> P;
CGAL::draw(P);
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
but there is no place to insert the QFileDialog at the right point.
Hence, CGAL::draw() is the wrong tool for what OP (probably) intends to do – embed CGAL polyhedron rendering into a Qt application. For this, it is necessary to use the things directly which are called somewhere inside of CGAL::draw().
So, this is what seems appropriate to me:
making SimplePolyhedronViewerQt<Polyhedron, ColorFunctor> a (main or child) widget in OPs Qt application.
I then walked a bit through the github repo to find out from which Qt widget CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt<Polyhedron, ColorFunctor> is actually derived from and found the following inheritance:
CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt<Polyhedron, ColorFunctor>
|
V
CGAL::Basic_viewer_qt
|
V
CGAL::QGLViewer
|
+--------------+--------------+
| |
V V
QOpenGLWidget QOpenGLFunctions
So, CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt<Polyhedron, ColorFunctor> can be used like any QWidget (which involves making it the main window). It can become as well the center widget of a QMainWindow which gets a menu bar/tool bar with the QAction to open the QFileDialog, request a file path, open a file stream with this file path, and load a mesh from this file stream.
There is another minor detail where I stumbled over: The CGAL::Polyhedron has to be given to the CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt in the constructor and by const reference. To consider this, it's IMHO necessary (after successful loading of mesh) to construct the CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt instance by new and set/add it to parent widget afterwards. If this is not acceptable it's probably necessary to go even deeper and replace the CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt by an own implementation, using the source code of the former as “cheat-sheet”.
This is how such an application could look like:
#include <fstream>
#include <QtWidgets>
#include <CGAL/Exact_predicates_inexact_constructions_kernel.h>
#include <CGAL/Polyhedron_3.h>
#include <CGAL/IO/Polyhedron_iostream.h>
#include <CGAL/draw_polyhedron.h>
typedef CGAL::Exact_predicates_inexact_constructions_kernel Kernel;
typedef CGAL::Polyhedron_3<Kernel> Polyhedron;
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
qDebug() << "Qt Version:" << QT_VERSION_STR;
QApplication app(argc, argv);
CGAL::DefaultColorFunctorPolyhedron fColor;
Polyhedron mesh;
// setup UI
QMainWindow qWin;
QToolBar qToolbar;
QAction qCmdLoad(QString::fromUtf8("Load File..."));
qToolbar.addAction(&qCmdLoad);
qWin.addToolBar(&qToolbar);
qWin.show();
// install signal handlers
QObject::connect(&qCmdLoad, &QAction::triggered,
[&qWin, &mesh, &fColor]() {
const QString filePath = QFileDialog::getOpenFileName(
&qWin,
QString::fromUtf8("Open .off model"),
QString::fromUtf8("/home"),
QString::fromUtf8("*.off"));
if (filePath.isEmpty()) return;
std::ifstream fIn(filePath.toUtf8().data());
if (!(fIn >> mesh) || mesh.is_empty()) {
qDebug() << "Loading of" << filePath << "failed!";
return;
}
qWin.setCentralWidget(
new CGAL::SimplePolyhedronViewerQt<Polyhedron, CGAL::DefaultColorFunctorPolyhedron>(
&qWin, mesh, "Basic Polyhedron Viewer", false, fColor));
qWin.centralWidget()->show();
});
// runtime loop
return app.exec();
}
Please, take this with a “grain of salt” – I've no CGAL at hand and couldn't compile/test the above code.

Answer 2

CGAL::draw() already handles the Qt stuff. You are trying to open a mainwindow in another one. Just call CGAL::draw(mesh) in your main() function without anything else and it will work.
EDIT: Which is exactly what Sheff explained in a much more detailed way.