How install Balsam

ItzMeJP

I am trying to use the Balsam to convert some CAD models, however I don't have it intalled. What should I do to install it in Ubuntu?

GuillaumeLandry

Hi !
Did you find your answer ? I'm trying to do the same and cannot find the balsam tool anywhere...

SGaist

Hi and welcome to devnet,

AFAIK it's part of QtQuick3D, did you install that module ?

GuillaumeLandry

Hi @SGaist, thank you for your answer !

In fact, I don't really know what you mean by "installing that module"... I'm already using it, and installed components through Qt Online Installer.

I can explain a little bit more my situation: I'm on Windows. I'm using PySide6 ('pip install pyside6') for the backend of my application as I'm working with Python code. I already have an application built, with a View3D displaying models, playing with it from python code signals and slots to QML files. As of now, I can drag and drop some assets in the QtDesigner and see it in the application, but I would like to do it programmatically. Can I write a few python lines to do it, or should I always go through Windows / Linux terminal ?

How can I acces the balsam tool as the command is always 'not found' ?

Thanks a lot for your support !

SGaist

What exactly did you install on Windows ?
Only PySide6 or also at least on Qt release ?
If both, did you check into the installation tree whether you have balsam is there ?

GuillaumeLandry

Hi !

I did the whole process again, and I got it working. So here is what I did:

I installed only Qt Design Studio from the Qt Online Installer for Open Source Development. The balsam.exe file is then located (in my case) there: 'C:\Qt\Tools\QtDesignStudio\qt5_design_studio_reduced_version\bin\balsam.exe'.

Now I can run balsam in the terminal:

C:\Qt\Tools\QtDesignStudio\qt5_design_studio_reduced_version\bin\balsam.exe sample_mesh.obj

Or add the bin directory to the Windows Environment Variables' Path and execute directly:

balsam sample_mesh.obj

It creates (in the current directory) a .qml and .mesh file that can then be imported into any QML View3D in my application.

Now, is there a way to get the tool without installing Qt Designer Studio (1.45 Gb) ? Otherwise, I got it working, so thank you, and I hope that my quick description of the problem resolution will help someone else !

SGaist

Do you have a standard Qt installed as well ?

GuillaumeLandry

I have PySide6 installed via "pip", and now Qt Designer installed, and that's all I need for developing right now, right?

SGaist

From the looks of it yes.

The standard Qt was just to check whether balsam was also available with it. From the looks of it, yes.