:-1: error: You need to set an executable in the custom run configuration.

[Bob K.]

Qt Creator 8.0.1
Qt 6.3.1 (MSVC 2019, x86_64)
revision 9c963ce8ae
Built on Aug 11 2022 01:13:43
Windows 11
C++
Desktop application
Small Business License

In Qt Creator:
Create Project -> Other Project -> Qt Custom Designer Widget

I'm following a video step by step, and when running I'm getting the following error:

:-1: error: You need to set an executable in the custom run configuration.

An internet search hasn't really turned up an answer.

[cristian-adam]

The end result of such a Qt Custom Designer Widget is a library / plugin that would need an executable to load it.

The documentation would be here https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/designer-using-custom-widgets.html

I assume you'll have to start designer.exe with your plugin copied in the right place.

For example: c:\Qt\6.3.1\msvc2019_64\bin\designer.exe loads plugins from c:\Qt\6.3.1\msvc2019_64\plugins\designer.

Ideally you would use a link for this, but on Windows things are not as simple 😀

[Bob K.]

The dll is located in: C:\Qt\6.3.2\mingw_64\plugins\designer

I assume that's the correct location. Is there a way I can check?

[cristian-adam]

You can start c:\Qt\6.3.2\mingw_64\bin\designer.exe and then go to Help -> About Plugins in the application menu.

You can then copy the dll your project created there and try again and see if the plugin shows up in the dialog.

[Bob K.]

c:\Qt\6.3.2\mingw_64\bin\designer.exe Help->About Plugins shows the dll, and it's listed in the Widgets Box. But in Qt Creator it's not listed.

[cristian-adam]

@Bob-K said in :-1: error: You need to set an executable in the custom run configuration.:

c:\Qt\6.3.2\mingw_64\bin\designer.exe Help->About Plugins shows the dll, and it's listed in the Widgets Box. But in Qt Creator it's not listed.

Qt Creator has it's own designer plugins directory. I have it under c:\Qt\QtCreator-8.0.1\bin\plugins\designer.

[cristian-adam]

By the way, your Qt and designer were built with MinGW, while Qt Creator with MSVC.
If you want to have the plugin running in Qt Creator, you will have to build it with MSVC.

For being able to build and debug open-source projects with MSVC it's enough to install the "Build Tools" package, like:

$ choco install visualstudio2019buildtools
$ choco install windows-sdk-11-version-21H2-all

See Updates to Visual Studio Build Tools license for C and C++ Open-Source projects.

But, if you cannot use MSVC at all, you can get a MinGW Qt Creator build from GitHub Releases, where we use GitHub Actions to build Qt Creator, and there we have a MinGW job.

[Bob K.]

Do I need to remove Qt Creator before installing the MinGW Qt Creator?