PyQt5: How to install/run Qt Designer

Question

Feeling really stupid, right now, but the title says it all:

How do you start the QtDesigner?

I've installed PyQt5 via pip and I believe to have identified the directory it's been installed in as

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Lib\site-packages\PyQt5

Now what? There are a lot of .pyd files, some .dll's, too, but nothing executable (well, except a QtWebEngineProcess.exe in ...\site-packages\PyQt5\Qt\bin, but that doesn't sound like what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

If pip does not work or you want to install it differently, you can install it using winget like this:

winget install --id Qt.QtDesigner

Answer 2

The Qt designer is not installed with the pip installation.

You can either download the full download from sourceforge (probably won't be the last pyqt release, and might be buggy on presence of another installation, like yours) or install it with another (unofficial) pypi package - pyqt5-tools (pip install pyqt5-tools), then run the designer from the following subpath of your python directory:

...\Python36\Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin\designer.exe

or from (outdated):

...\Python36\Lib\site-packages\pyqt5-tools\designer\designer.exe

Answer 3

The latest PyQt5 wheels (which can be installed via pip) only contain what's necessary for running applications, and don't include the dev tools. This applies to PyQt versions 5.7 and later. For PyQt versions 5.6 and earlier, there are binary packages for Windows that also include the dev tools, and these are still available at sourceforge. The maintainer of PyQt does not plan on making any further releases of such binary packages, though - only the runtime wheels will now be made available, and there will be no official wheels for the dev tools.

In light of this, someone has created an unofficial pyqt5-tools wheel (for Windows only). This appears to be in it's early stages, though, and so may not keep up with recent PyQt5 releases. This means that it may not always be possible to install it via pip. If that is the case, as a work-around, the wheel files can be treated as zip files and the contents extracted to a suitable location. This should then allow you to run the designer.exe file that is in the pyqt5-tools folder.

Finally, note that you will also see some zip and tar.gz files at sourceforge for PyQt5. These only contain the source code, though, so will be no use to you unless you intend to compile PyQt5 yourself. And just to be clear: compiling from source still would not give you all the Qt dev tools. If you go down that route, you would need to install the whole Qt development kit separately as well (which would then get you the dev tools).

Answer 4

Using python 3.9, I found the designer.exe in

site-packages -> qt5_applications -> Qt -> bin

Answer 5

For PyQt6 look at \Lib\site-packages\qt6_applications\Qt\bin

Answer 6

In a Windows' terminal, activate your virtual env where you have installed PyQt5 then just type designer.

You can create a shortcut by finding its path with where designer

Answer 7

For Qt Designer 6 this worked for me thanks for that protip from @Bhaskar

pip install pyqt6-tools

Then started:

qt6-tools designer

End up with nice working lightweight Qt Designer 6.0.1 version

@ pip install pyqt6-tools
Collecting pyqt6-tools
  Using cached pyqt6_tools-6.1.0.3.2-py3-none-any.whl (29 kB)
Collecting pyqt6-plugins<6.1.0.3,>=6.1.0.2.2
  Downloading pyqt6_plugins-6.1.0.2.2-cp39-cp39-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (77 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 77 kB 492 kB/s            
Collecting python-dotenv
  Using cached python_dotenv-0.19.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (17 kB)
Collecting pyqt6==6.1.0
  Downloading PyQt6-6.1.0-cp36.cp37.cp38.cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (6.8 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 6.8 MB 1.0 MB/s            
Requirement already satisfied: click in ./.pyenv/versions/3.9.6/lib/python3.9/site-packages (from pyqt6-tools) (8.0.1)
Collecting PyQt6-sip<14,>=13.1
  Downloading PyQt6_sip-13.2.0-cp39-cp39-manylinux1_x86_64.whl (307 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 307 kB 898 kB/s            
Collecting PyQt6-Qt6>=6.1.0
  Using cached PyQt6_Qt6-6.2.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (50.0 MB)
Collecting qt6-tools<6.1.0.2,>=6.1.0.1.2
  Downloading qt6_tools-6.1.0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl (13 kB)
Collecting click
  Downloading click-7.1.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (82 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 82 kB 381 kB/s            
Collecting qt6-applications<6.1.0.3,>=6.1.0.2.2
  Downloading qt6_applications-6.1.0.2.2-py3-none-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (80.5 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 80.5 MB 245 kB/s            
Installing collected packages: qt6-applications, PyQt6-sip, PyQt6-Qt6, click, qt6-tools, pyqt6, python-dotenv, pyqt6-plugins, pyqt6-tools
  Attempting uninstall: click
    Found existing installation: click 8.0.1
    Uninstalling click-8.0.1:
      Successfully uninstalled click-8.0.1
Successfully installed PyQt6-Qt6-6.2.2 PyQt6-sip-13.2.0 click-7.1.2 pyqt6-6.1.0 pyqt6-plugins-6.1.0.2.2 pyqt6-tools-6.1.0.3.2 python-dotenv-0.19.2 qt6-applications-6.1.0.2.2 qt6-tools-6.1.0.1.2

Answer 8

I was having the same problem, however I was able to install using the Pygame module installation code, changing some information:

pygame:

py -m pip install -U pygame --user

PyQt5:

py -m pip install -U pyqt5-tools --user

Answer 9

Download the module using pip:

pip install PyQt5Designer

Then, for anaconda users, open:

C:\ProgramData\AnacondaX\Lib\site-packages\QtDesigner\designer.exe

For python users:

• 64-bit:

  C:\Program Files\PythonXX\Lib\site-packages\QtDesigner\designer.exe
  

• 32-bit:

  C:\Program Files (x86)\PythonXX\Lib\site-packages\QtDesigner\designer.exe
  

Answer 10

If you are working in python virtual environment, in the command window

>>qt5-tools designer

can open designer window.

Answer 11

For anyone stumbling across this post in 2021+ and finding the answers outdated: QT Designer is now in the qt5-applications package, under Qt\bin\. On Windows this means the default path, for CPython 3.9 using the Python.org installer, is %APPDATA%\Python\Python39\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin\designer.exe.

Answer 12

If you cannot see the Designer , just look into this path "Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin" for designer.exe and run it.

Answer 13

By far the easiest way to do this is to use this installer:

https://build-system.fman.io/qt-designer-download

It seems as though the other answers here are now out of date, not to mention confusing for someone who is just starting out with this. Sourceforge no longer has this package, I installed the tools as suggested but nothing appeared in the scripts folder, and none of the pip commands above worked either.

Answer 14

you should find it here if your using anaconda

C:\Users\%username%\anaconda3\envs\untitled\Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin

Answer 15

PyQt5 works after pip install PyQt5Designer

Answer 16

If you are installing the pyqt5-tools then you can find the designer.exe file inside:

<python_installation>\Lib\site-packages\Qt

If you cannot locate the file or have any issues opening this directly, then open a command prompt and type:

<python_installation>\Scripts\pyqt5designer.exe

Answer 17

pip install pyqt5-tools

working in python 3.7.4

wont work in python 3.8.0

Answer 18

You can also install Qt Designer the following way:

1. Install latest Qt (I'm using 5.8) from Qt main site
2. Make sure you include "Qt 5.8 MinGW" component
3. Qt Designer will be installed in C:\Qt\5.8\mingw53_32\bin\designer.exe
4. Note that the executable is named "designer.exe"

Answer 19

Try using:

pip install pyqt5-tools

Now you'd find the designer in site-packages/pyqt5-tools.

Answer 20

pip install pyqt5-tools

Then restart the cmd, just type "designer" and press enter.

Answer 21

I struggled with this as well. The pyqt5-tools approach is cumbersome so I created a standalone installer for Qt Designer. It's only 40 MB. Maybe you will find it useful!