Written by Cyrille Fauvel – Autodesk Developer Network (April 2013)
Updated by Chengxi Li - Autodesk Developer Network (August 2018)

Building SIP, and PyQt for Maya 2018 PyQt [https://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk] is a python binding to the Qt library. Because Maya uses Qt internally, you can use the PyQt modules in Maya python scripts to create custom UI. PyQt does not have the same licensing as Maya, Qt, or Python. Please consult the PyQt website for information about licensing for PyQt.

Download PyQt: https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/pyqt/download

Download SIP: https://www.riverbankcomputing.com/software/sip/download

The following are instructions for building a copy of the PyQt modules that have been known to work with Maya.

Maya 2018 uses Qt5.6.1 which is binary compatible with the latest version of PyQt – 5.9 / SIP - 4.19.2

Note that it’s important to use the Maya modified version of the Qt source code. A copy of the customized Qt 5.6.1 source is available from Autodesk's Open Source web-site (https://www.autodesk.com/lgplsource) and includes text files describing how to configure, build and install Qt for each platform supported by Maya.

However, be aware that with Maya 2018, there is no more need to build PySide as it is coming by default in Maya, nor you have to rebuild Qt itself as the main Qt tools to build PyQt are now included in the Maya distributions (I.e. qmake, moc, …)
libxml, openSSL, OpenAL, python2.7, qt-5.6.1, and tbb are also coming by default in the Maya include and lib folders, so unless you have a very specific need, you would not need to rebuild any of those libraries like before. Note as well that there is a 'MAYA_LOCATION/support/opensource' folder now which contains some of the community source.

Important: Maya 2018 now ships without the devkit, include and mkspecs folders. You can get the Maya 2018 devkit from the Autodesk App Store here for Windows, OSX, and Linux. Download the devkit and unzip the files into your Maya root folder. Make sure to read the instructions to install the devkit, include and mkspecs folders properly on your system.

The scripts used in this document are now also posted on Github.

Download SIP and PyQt source from 'https://www.riverbankcomputing.co.uk' - here I downloaded 'sip- 4.19.3' and 'PyQt5_gpl-5.9'. Unzip them in one folder.

Mac

/Users/cyrille/Documents/_Maya2018Scripts/sip-4.19.3
/Users/cyrille/Documents/_Maya2018Scripts/PyQt5_gpl-5.9
/Users/cyrille/Documents/_Maya2018Scripts/ being my local folder.

Here are the instructions and scripts for building SIP and PyQt.

Follow the instructions from the API docs to setup your environment (Developer Resources > API Guide > Setting up your build environment > Mac OS X environment, in the Maya Documentation)

If you would like to use Xcode 7.3.1 to compile it and you are having multiple installation of Xcode. Please backup /Applications/Xcode.app and use Xcode 7.3.1 to replace it.

Use xcode-select to change active xcode like below:

sudo xcode-select -switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

The qt.conf file uses MAYA_LOCATION and DEVKIT_LOCATION to locate the expected header/library files. Therefore, users must set both environment variables before building the PyQt5.

DEVKIT_LOCATION should point to the directory where the devkit include, mkspecs, cmake directories are located.

Modify devkit/bin/qt.conf as below:

[Paths]
Prefix=
Libraries=$(MAYA_LOCATION)/MacOS
Binaries=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/devkit/bin
Headers=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/include/Qt
ArchData=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)
Data=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)
HostData=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)
HostBinaries=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/devkit/bin
HostLibraries=$(MAYA_LOCATION)/MacOS

Untar the include/qt-5.6.1-include.tar.gz into /include/Qt

Untar the qt-5.6.1-mkspecs.tar.gz into /Applications/Autodesk/maya2017/mkspecs. Make sure the qconfig.pri looks like this:

qconfig.pri

#configuration
 CONFIG += release def_files_disabled exceptions no_mocdepend stl x86_64 qt #qt_framework 
QT_ARCH = macosx 
QT_EDITION = OpenSource 
QT_CONFIG += minimal-config small-config medium-config large-config full-config no-pkg-config dwarf2 phonon phonon-backend accessibility opengl reduce_exports ipv6 getaddrinfo ipv6ifname getifaddrs png no-freetype system-zlib nis cups iconv openssl corewlan concurrent xmlpatterns multimedia audio-backend svg script scripttools declarative release x86_64 qt #qt_framework
#versioning 
QT_VERSION = 5.6.1 
QT_MAJOR_VERSION = 5 
QT_MINOR_VERSION = 6 
QT_PATCH_VERSION = 1

#namespaces 
QT_LIBINFIX =
QT_NAMESPACE = 
QT_NAMESPACE_MAC_CRC =

Build & Install SIP

Please use the script below, you can also find it in GitHub.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
MAYAQTBUILD="`dirname \"$0\"`" # Relative
export MAYAQTBUILD="`( cd \"$MAYAQTBUILD\" && pwd )`" # Absolutized and normalized
pushd $MAYAQTBUILD
 
export SIPDIR=$MAYAQTBUILD/sip-4.19.3
export MAYA_LOCATION=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2018
 
pushd $SIPDIR
$MAYA_LOCATION/Maya.app/Contents/bin/mayapy ./configure.py --arch=x86_64
make
sudo make install
popd

popd

Build & Install PyQt

Please use the script below, you can also find it in GitHub.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
MAYAQTBUILD="`dirname \"$0\"`" # Relative
export MAYAQTBUILD="`( cd \"$MAYAQTBUILD\" && pwd )`" # Absolutized and normalized
pushd $MAYAQTBUILD
 
export MAYA_LOCATION=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2018/Maya.app/Contents
export DEVKIT_LOCATION=/Applications/Autodesk/maya2018
export QTDIR=$DEVKIT_LOCATION/devkit
export QMAKESPEC=$DEVKIT_LOCATION/mkspecs/macx-clang
export INCDIR_QT=$DEVKIT_LOCATION/include/Qt
export LIBDIR_QT=$MAYA_LOCATION/MacOS

error=0
if [ ! -f $QMAKESPEC/qmake.conf ];
then
  echo "You need to install qt-5.6.1-mkspecs.tar.gz in $QTDIR/mkspecs !"
  error=1
fi
if [ ! -f $INCDIR_QT/QtCore/qdir.h ];
then
  echo "You need to uncompress $MAYA_LOCATION/devkit/include/qt-5.6.1-include.tar.gz in $INCDIR_QT !"
  error=1
fi
# qt.conf - /Applications/Autodesk/maya2018/Maya.app/Contents/Resources
if [ ! -f $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf ];
then
  echo "You need to copy $QTDIR/Resources/qt.conf in $QTDIR/bin !"
  error=1
fi
 
test=`grep 'Data=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)' $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf`
if [ -z "$test" ];
then
  echo "You need to edit $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf to use 'Data=\$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)'"
  error=1
fi
test=`grep 'Headers=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/include/Qt' $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf`
if [ -z "$test" ];
then
  echo "You need to edit $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf to use 'Headers=\$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/include/Qt'"
  error=1
fi
test=`grep 'Libraries=$(MAYA_LOCATION)/MacOS' $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf`
if [ -z "$test" ];
then
  echo "You need to edit $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf to use 'Libraries=\$(MAYA_LOCATION)/MacOS'"
  error=1
fi

if [ $error -eq 1 ];
then
    exit
fi
 
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$MAYA_LOCATION/MacOS
export DYLD_FRAMEWORK_PATH=$MAYA_LOCATION/Frameworks
 
export SIPDIR=$MAYAQTBUILD/sip-4.19.3
export PYQTDIR=$MAYAQTBUILD/PyQt5_gpl-5.9
 
export SIP_EXE=$MAYA_LOCATION/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/sip
export SIP_INCLUDE=$MAYA_LOCATION/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/include/python2.7

pushd $PYQTDIR
export PATH=$QTDIR/bin:$PATH

echo 
echo Environment
echo -----------
set
echo -----------
echo QT Settings
echo -----------
qmake -query
echo -----------
echo
$MAYA_LOCATION/bin/mayapy ./configure.py QMAKE_MAC_SDK=macosx10.11 QMAKE_RPATHDIR+=$LIBDIR_QT --sip=$SIP_EXE --sip-incdir=$SIP_INCLUDE -w --no-designer-plugin 
make -j 8
sudo make install
popd

popd

Note that I am compiling against Mac OS X SDK 10.11 which is same as the developer environment. If you want to compile against other versions, please modify the script(macosx10.11).

You're done! Please check the testing paragraph at the end of the article.

Linux

/home/cyrille/Documents/_Maya2018Scripts/sip-4.19.3
/home/cyrille/Documents/_Maya2018Scripts/PyQt5_gpl-5.9
/home/cyrille/Documents/_Maya2018Scripts being my local folder.

Here are the instructions and scripts for building SIP and PyQt.

Follow the instructions from the API docs to setup your environment (Developer Resources > API Guide > Setting up your build environment > Linux environments (64 bit), in the Maya Documentation).

The qt.conf file uses MAYA_LOCATION and DEVKIT_LOCATION to locate the expected header/library files. Therefore, users must set both environment variables before building the PyQt5.

DEVKIT_LOCATION should point to the directory where the devkit include, mkspecs, cmake directories are located.

Please backup your qt.conf first, you'll need to restore it after building PyQt5. Replace …/bin/qt.conf with below:

[Paths] 
Prefix= 
Libraries=$(MAYA_LOCATION)/lib 
Binaries=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/bin
Headers=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/include/Qt 
ArchData=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION) 
Data=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION) 
HostData=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION) 
HostBinaries=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/bin

Untar the /include/qt-5.6.1-include.tar.gz into /include/Qt

Untar the /mkspecs/qt-5.6.1-mkspecs.tar.gz into /mkspecs

Make qmake, moc executables from the Maya bin directory

sudo chmod aog+x /usr/autodesk/maya2018/bin/moc 
sudo chmod aog+x /usr/autodesk/maya2018/bin/qmake

Build & Install SIP

Please use the script below, you can also find it in GitHub.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
MAYAQTBUILD="`dirname \"$0\"`" # Relative
export MAYAQTBUILD="`( cd \"$MAYAQTBUILD\" && pwd )`" # Absolutized and normalized
pushd $MAYAQTBUILD
 
export SIPDIR=$MAYAQTBUILD/sip-4.19.3
export MAYA_LOCATION=/usr/autodesk/maya2018
 
pushd $SIPDIR
$MAYA_LOCATION/bin/mayapy ./configure.py
make
sudo make install
popd

popd

Build & Install PyQt

Please use the script below, you can also find it in GitHub.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
 
MAYAQTBUILD="`dirname \"$0\"`" # Relative
export MAYAQTBUILD="`( cd \"$MAYAQTBUILD\" && pwd )`" # Absolutized and normalized
pushd $MAYAQTBUILD
 
export MAYA_LOCATION=/usr/autodesk/maya2017
export QTDIR=$MAYA_LOCATION
export DEVKIT_LOCATION=$MAYA_LOCATION
export QMAKESPEC=$QTDIR/mkspecs/linux-g++-64
export INCDIR_QT=$MAYA_LOCATION/include/Qt
export LIBDIR_QT=$QTDIR/lib

error=0
if [ ! -f $QMAKESPEC/qmake.conf ];
then
  echo "You need to install qt-5.6.1-mkspecs.tar.gz in $QTDIR/mkspecs !"
  error=1
fi
if [ ! -f $INCDIR_QT/QtCore/qdir.h ];
then
  echo "You need to uncompress $MAYA_LOCATION/include/qt-5.6.1-include.tar.gz in $INCDIR_QT !"
  error=1
fi
# qt.conf - $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf
if [ ! -f $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf ];
then
  echo "You need to copy $QTDIR/Resources/qt.conf in $QTDIR/bin !"
  error=1
fi

# The grep string should be in single quote('), if it is in double quote (""), 
# shell will expand the variable, hence the intension of the below grep will fail 
test=`grep 'Headers=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/include/Qt' $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf`
if [ -z "$test" ];
then
  echo "You need to edit $QTDIR/bin/qt.conf to use 'Headers=$(DEVKIT_LOCATION)/include/Qt'"
  error=1
fi

if [ $error -eq 1 ];
then
    exit
fi
 
export SIPDIR=$MAYAQTBUILD/sip-4.19.3
export PYQTDIR=$MAYAQTBUILD/PyQt5_gpl-5.9
 
pushd $PYQTDIR
export PATH=$QTDIR/bin:$PATH
$QTDIR/bin/mayapy ./configure.py LIBDIR_QT=$LIBDIR_QT INCDIR_QT=$INCDIR_QT MOC=$QTDIR/bin/moc -w --no-designer-plugin 
make -j 8
sudo make install
popd

popd

You're done! Please check the testing paragraph at the end of the article.

Windows

D:\__sdkext\_Maya2018 Scripts\sip-4.19.3
D:\__sdkext\_Maya2018 Scripts\PyQt5_gpl-5.9
D:\__sdkext\_Maya2018 Scripts being my local folder.

Here are the instructions and scripts for building SIP and PyQt.

Follow the instructions from the API docs to setup your environment (Developer Resources > API Guide > Setting up your build environment > Windows environment (64-bit), in the Maya Documentation)

Please backup your qt.conf first, you'll need to restore it after building PyQt5. Replace …/bin/qt.conf with below:

[Paths]
Prefix=$(MAYA_LOCATION)
Libraries=lib 
Binaries=bin 
Headers=include/Qt
Data=.
Plugins=qt-plugins 
Translations=qt-translations 
Qml2Imports=qml

Unzip the /include/qt-5.6.1-include.tar.gz into /include/Qt

Unzip the /mkspecs/qt-5.6.1-mkspecs.tar.gz into /mkspecs

Please run following build scripts with VS2012 x64 Native Tools Command Prompt. If your Maya installed in folders required administrator privilege(e.g. Program files), please run the command prompt as Administrator.

Environment Setup

@echo off

set MAYAVERSION=2018
set ADSKQTVERSION=5.6.1
set SIPVERSION=4.19.3
set PYQTVERSION=5.9
set MAYADRIVE=m:
set BUILDDRIVE=v:

if exist %MAYADRIVE%\nul subst %MAYADRIVE% /d
subst %MAYADRIVE% "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya%MAYAVERSION%"
set MAYA_LOCATION=%MAYADRIVE%

set MAYAPYQTBUILD=%~dp0
rem Removing trailing \
set MAYAPYQTBUILD=%MAYAPYQTBUILD:~0,-1%

if exist %BUILDDRIVE%\nul subst %BUILDDRIVE% /d
subst %BUILDDRIVE% "%MAYAPYQTBUILD%"

set SIPDIR=%BUILDDRIVE%\sip-%SIPVERSION%
set PYQTDIR=%BUILDDRIVE%\PyQt5_gpl-%PYQTVERSION%
rem set ADSKQTDIR=%BUILDDRIVE%\qt-%ADSKQTVERSION%
set QTDIR=%MAYA_LOCATION%

set PATH=%QTDIR%\bin;%PATH%
set MSVC_VERSION=2015
set MSVC_DIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 14.0
set QMAKESPEC=%QTDIR%\mkspecs\win32-msvc%MSVC_VERSION%
set _QMAKESPEC_=win32-msvc%MSVC_VERSION%

if ["%LIBPATH%"]==[""] call "%MSVC_DIR%\VC\vcvarsall" amd64

set INCLUDE=%INCLUDE%;%MAYA_LOCATION%\include\python2.7
set LIB=%LIB%;%MAYA_LOCATION%\lib

Build & Install SIP

Please use the script below, you can also find it in GitHub.

@echo off
set XXX=%~dp0
if ["%MAYAPYQTBUILD%"]==[""] call "%XXX%setup.bat"

pushd %SIPDIR%
rem "%MAYA_LOCATION%\bin\mayapy" configure-ng.py --spec %_QMAKESPEC_%
"%MAYA_LOCATION%\bin\mayapy" configure.py
nmake
nmake install
popd

Build & Install PyQt

Please use the script below, you can also find it in GitHub.

@echo off
set XXX=%~dp0
if ["%MAYAPYQTBUILD%"]==[""] call "%XXX%setup.bat"

set QMAKESPEC=%QTDIR%\mkspecs\%_QMAKESPEC_%
if not exist "%QMAKESPEC%\qmake.conf" (
    echo "You need to uncompress %MAYA_LOCATION%\mkspecs\qt-5.6.1-mkspecs.tar.gz !"
    goto end
)
if not exist "%MAYA_LOCATION%\include\Qt\QtCore\qdir.h" (
    echo "You need to uncompress %MAYA_LOCATION%\include\qt-5.6.1-include.tar.gz in %MAYA_LOCATION%\include\Qt !"
    goto end
)
findstr /L /C:"Headers=include/Qt" "%MAYA_LOCATION%\bin\qt.conf" >nul 2>&1
if ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    echo "You need to edit %MAYA_LOCATION%\bin\qt.conf to use 'Headers=include/Qt'"
    goto end
)
findstr /L /C:"-lqtmain -lshell32" "%QTDIR%\mkspecs\common\msvc-desktop.conf" >nul 2>&1
if ERRORLEVEL 1 (
    echo "You need to edit %QTDIR%\mkspecs\common\msvc-desktop.conf to use 'QMAKE_LIBS_QT_ENTRY     = -lqtmain -lshell32'"
    goto end
)
if not exist "%MAYA_LOCATION%\include\Qt\qtnfc.disabled" (
    echo "You need to rename %MAYA_LOCATION%\include\Qt\qtnfc to %MAYA_LOCATION\include\Qt\qtnfc.disabled"
    goto end
)
    
pushd %PYQTDIR%

"%MAYA_LOCATION%\bin\mayapy" configure.py --spec %QMAKESPEC% LIBDIR_QT="%QTDIR%\lib" INCDIR_QT="%QTDIR%\include\Qt" MOC="%QTDIR%\bin\moc.exe" --sip="%QTDIR%\Python\sip.exe" --sip-incdir="%QTDIR%\Python\include" -w --no-designer-plugin
nmake
nmake install
popd

:end

You're done! Please check the testing paragraph at the end of the article.

Testing

Copy and paste this example in the Maya Script Editor (in a Python tab), and execute the code:

import sys 
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import (QWidget, QToolTip, QPushButton) 
from PyQt5.QtGui import QFont     
 
class Example(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super(Example,self).__init__()
        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):
        QToolTip.setFont(QFont('SansSerif', 10))
        self.setToolTip('This is a <b>QWidget</b> widget')
        btn = QPushButton('Button', self)
        btn.setToolTip('This is a <b>QPushButton</b> widget')
        btn.resize(btn.sizeHint())
        btn.move(50, 50) 
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 300, 200)
        self.setWindowTitle('Tooltips')
        self.show()
        
ex = Example()