Include path for adding an external library in Qt Creator?

Question

I am trying to include the pre-compiled (MSVC2012) OpenCV static libraries into Qt Creator but I am unsure what the include path is about as per this image:

Here is an image of the precompiled OpenCV files that I downloaded:

There are 3 directories: bin contains DLLs, lib contains small lib files (2 kb) so that QtCreator can understand the DLLs, and staticlib containts large lib files (1 mb) which are the static libraries that I'm trying to link against.

The library file/path is something like C:\opencv\build\x86\vc11\staticlib\opencv_features2d247d.lib, right? There are roughly 50 lib files. Do I have to each one manually?

Solution

See the documentation for include path, and libs.

Also note that you need to link with the files ending with 'd' in the debug build and the others in release (also if you use x86 and x64 builds, you should use the correct libraries), here is a sample from a test .pro (i only use x86 and vc10):

INCLUDEPATH += D:\\ProgrammingTools\\opencv\\build\\include

CONFIG( debug, debug|release ) {
LIBS += -LD:\\ProgrammingTools\\opencv\\build\\x86\\vc10\\lib\
    -lopencv_core246d\
    -lopencv_highgui246d\
    -lopencv_imgproc246d\
    -lopencv_features2d246d\
}
else {
LIBS += -LD:\\ProgrammingTools\\opencv\\build\\x86\\vc10\\lib\
    -lopencv_core246\
    -lopencv_highgui246\
    -lopencv_imgproc246\
    -lopencv_features2d246\
}

Notice that there is -L__NO_SPACE_PATHTOLIB and -l_NOSPACE__libname, you don't need to add all the lib files, you only add the ones that you use functions from, and also the samples include files like this:

#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>

so the include-path ends in a folder that contains two folders (not the actual header files)

Comments

[Frank Osterfeld]

the include path is where the headers of the library are located. If there's a folder youropencvinstall/include/opencv/opencv.h (that's an example, I don't know OpenCV's layout there), the include path would be youropencvinstall/include/. From your screenshot it looks like you're missing the includes.