Design Views

Qt Design Studio contains views for designing UIs. To open them, select View > Views. The following images present the views that you are likely to use most often while designing UIs.

"Design views"

"The States and Timeline views"

You can move the views anywhere on the screen and save them as workspaces, as instructed in Managing Workspaces.

Summary of Design Views

In addition to the summary of design views, the table below includes an MCU column that indicates the views which are fully supported on MCU projects. For more information, see Qt Design Studio Features on MCU Projects.

ViewPurposeMCURead More
2DProvides a working area for designing 2D UIs. When you are editing 3D scenes, the 2D view is used as a canvas for the 3D scene projected by the camera.

2D
3DProvides an editor for files you created using 3D graphics applications and stored in one of the supported formats.3D
Material Editor and BrowserIn the Material Editor and Material Browser views, you create and manage materials and textures.Material Editor and Browser
ComponentsContains preset components and your own components, that you can use to design you application.

Using Components
AssetsContains assets such as images and fonts that you can use in your application.

Assets
NavigatorDisplays the composition of the current component file as a tree structure. A component file can contain references to other components and assets.

Navigator
PropertiesEnables you to modify the properties of the selected component.

Specifying Component Properties
ConnectionsEnables you to add functionality to the UI by creating connections between components, signals, and component properties.

Working with Connections
StatesDisplays the different states that can be applied to a component. Typically, states describe UI configurations, such as the visibility and behavior of components and the available user actions.

Working with States
TransitionsEnables you to make movement between states smooth by animating the changes between states.

Animating Transitions Between States
TranslationsProvides functionality to add multi-language support to your project.Translations
TimelineProvides a timeline and keyframe based editor for animating the properties of components.

Creating Timeline Animations
CurvesEnables you to view and modify the whole animation curve by inserting keyframes to the curve and dragging them and the point handlers to modify the curve.Editing Animation Curves
CodeProvides a code editor for viewing and modifying the code generated by the visual editors.

Writing Code
ProjectsShows a list of open projects and the files they contain.

Projects
File SystemShows all files in the currently selected directory.

File System
Open DocumentsShows currently open files.

Open Documents
Content LibraryThe Content Library view contains material, texture, and environment bundles with assets that you can use in your project.Content Library
Texture EditorIn the Texture Editor view, you create and manage textures.Texture Editor
Effect ComposerUse Effect Composer to compose custom effects.Effect Composer

Summary of Main Toolbar Actions

The top level toolbar in the Design mode contains shortcuts to widely used actions.

Button/FieldActionKeyboard ShortcutRead More
Home: opens the welcome page.
Play: runs the application.
Live PreviewShows a preview of the current file or the entire UI. The changes you make to the UI are instantly visible to you in the preview.Alt+P (Opt+P on macOS)Validating with Target Hardware
Currently open fileDisplays the location and filename of the currently open file. You can select another file in the list of open files to view it in the 2D and Navigator views.Open Documents
Go Back: moves a step backwards in your location history. That is, returns the focus to the last location in the last file it was on.Alt+< (Opt+Cmd+< on macOS)
Go Forward: moves a step forward in your location history.Alt+> (Opt+Cmd+> on macOS)
Close Document: closes the current file.Ctrl+W (Cmd+W on macOS)
Creates a custom component from the selected item.Creating Custom Components
Edits the selected custom component.Creating Custom Components
WorkspaceDisplays the currently selected workspace. To switch to another workspace, select it in the list.Managing Workspaces
/ Toggles the views to locked or movable in Qt Design Studio.Managing Workspaces
ShareShares the application online using Qt Design Viewer.Sharing Applications Online

Available under certain Qt licenses.
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