QGraphicsScene mouseMoveEvent does not work until QGraphicsView wheelEvent - c++

Question

I have a strange issue that I have been unable to determine the cause. Basically, I created a 2D view with pan and zoom functionality and a scene with items that can moved with grid snapping. To move an item in the scene I extended Scene::mousePressEvent to get a pointer to the item and Scene::mouseMoveEvent to keep the item tracked on the cursor. To drop the item, I used Scene::mousePressEvent again. To pan, I extended View::mousePressEvent, View::mouseReleaseEvent, and View::mouseMoveEvent and to zoom I extended View::wheelEvent.
Now for the symptoms:
I start the application with an item in the Scene. If I click and hold, then move the mouse, the item moves as intended. As soon as I release the mouse button, the item stops moving. I can click to drop and the item is placed according to the drop code in Scene::mousePressEvent. Try again and still the item only moves when the mouse button is pressed.
Then comes the strange part: If I use the mouse wheel to zoom the View, everything performs as expected after that event. The mouse is clicked to select an item, it moves as I move the mouse and drops when I click again.
So the obvious solution:
wheelEvent(new QWheelEvent(QPointF(0,0),0,Qt::NoButton,Qt::NoModifier));
called at the creation of the View and everything works fine. It calls the extended View::wheelEvent with no change to the view and before the scene is even created, but afterwards the programs behaves as expected.
So I'm here to see if any of the excellent Qt experts out there can explain this strange behavior. Any comments or direction are appreciated.
In case it helps, here is the View::wheelEvent override code. tform is a QTransform with which I maintain zoom. Also, I've tried with and without the call to the base method but there is no change in behavior.
void SchematicView::wheelEvent(QWheelEvent* event)
{
// Scale the view / do the zoom
double scaleFactor = 1.1;
if(event->delta() > 0 && tform.m11() < max_zoom) {
tform.scale(scaleFactor,scaleFactor);
} else if (event->delta() < 0 && tform.m11() > min_zoom){
tform.scale(1.0/scaleFactor,1.0/scaleFactor);
}
setTransformationAnchor(QGraphicsView::AnchorUnderMouse);
setTransform(tform);
QGraphicsView::wheelEvent(event);
}

Answer 1

Without a SSCCE to look at and test with, it's hard to say for sure, but what you're describing sounds a lot like your mouseMoveEvent() callback is only getting called when the mouse button is being held down during the move. That, in turn, sounds a lot like the expected behavior for mouseMoveEvent(), as documented in QWidget::mouseMoveEvent():
If mouse tracking is switched off, mouse move events only occur if a
mouse button is pressed while the mouse is being moved. If mouse
tracking is switched on, mouse move events occur even if no mouse
button is pressed.
If that is indeed the problem, then a call to setMouseTracking(true) may get you the behavior you are looking for.
On a broader level, note that there are easier ways of obtaining the behavior you are trying to implement -- for example, to allow the user to drag and drop items in a QGraphicsScene, all you really have to do is call setFlags(QGraphicsItem::ItemIsMovable) on any QGraphicsItems that you want the user to be able to drag around. No hand-coding of event handlers is necessary unless you are trying to obtain some non-standard behaviors.