Overview

When using 3d models, the number of assets can increase quickly. In order to keep things organized, I discuss an example project structure for using 3d models in Qt.

The code is available here

Setup the project

The first thing to do is setup the project. Within Qt Creator create a new Qt Quick Application:

As far as project configuration goes, we’ll use the default options of a qmake project with a 6.2 minimum version of Qt and a build kit of Qt 6.4.0 GCC 64-bit.

The next thing to do is add a couple new resource files. A .qrc file is a file that lists the resources that are embedded in a Qt application or library and is used to manage these resources during runtime.

Call these qml.qrc and assets.qrc. Doing it through Qt Creator will cause it to be automatically added to the .pro file.

qml.qrc will contain our qml project code
assets.qrc will contain our 3D models which will be rendered. This code is mostly machine-generated.

Next, we’ll need to modify the .pro file. The .pro file contains information about the application such as its name, version number, and which files are needed to build the application. It also tells the computer which tools to use to build the application and how to link all the files together.

Specify that we are using the quick and quick3D modules:

QT += quick quick3d

Indicate what our runtime resources are:

RESOURCES += assets.qrc \
	qml.qrc

In the end, the .pro file should look like this:

QT += quick quick3d

SOURCES += \
        main.cpp

RESOURCES += assets.qrc \
    qml.qrc

# Additional import path used to resolve QML modules in Qt Creator's code model
QML_IMPORT_PATH =

# Additional import path used to resolve QML modules just for Qt Quick Designer
QML_DESIGNER_IMPORT_PATH =

# Default rules for deployment.
qnx: target.path = /tmp/$${TARGET}/bin
else: unix:!android: target.path = /opt/$${TARGET}/bin
!isEmpty(target.path): INSTALLS += target

Add main.qml to qml.qrc. qml.qrc should look like this:

<RCC>
    <qresource prefix="/">
        <file>main.qml</file>
    </qresource>
</RCC>

Now modify line 10 of main.cpp:

const QUrl url(u"qrc:/rigged_animated_3d_model_tutorial/main.qml"_qs);

So that it now references the qrc file:

const QUrl url("qrc:/main.qml");

Finally, place a directory called ‘3dModels’ in the root directory of the project. At this point the project file structure should look like this:

.
├── 3dModels
├── assets.qrc
├── main.cpp
├── main.qml
├── qml.qrc
├── rigged_animated_3d_model_tutorial.pro
└── rigged_animated_3d_model_tutorial.pro.user

1 directory, 6 files

When compiled and run, the program should just display a blank white screen with a banner. It should look like this: