Styling CircularGauge | Qt Quick Controls 5.5

- Qt 5.5
- Qt Quick Controls
- Styling CircularGauge
- Qt 5.5.1 Reference Documentation

# Styling CircularGauge

### The Needle Component

The needle component is rotated around the gauge to represent the current value.

Starting from the default style, we'll add a very basic white needle:

    needle: Rectangle {
        y: outerRadius * 0.15
        implicitWidth: outerRadius * 0.03
        implicitHeight: outerRadius * 0.9
        antialiasing: true
        color: "#e5e5e5"
    }

As mentioned in the documentation for CircularGaugeStyle, `implicitWidth` and `implicitHeight` properties need to be set. This is so that the needle can be positioned properly. We always scale items by the outerRadius property of the style, ensuring the control resizes gracefully.

We offset the needle vertically so that its back sits beyond the knob.

### The Foreground Component

We've now changed the needle, but the default knob is still there; let's replace it. The foreground component defines the default knob, so we can specify our own by overriding it (note that we could also set it to `null` if we didn't want a foreground):

    foreground: Item {
        Rectangle {
            width: outerRadius * 0.2
            height: width
            radius: width / 2
            color: "#e5e5e5"
            anchors.centerIn: parent
        }
    }

Firstly, we create a circle from the Rectangle item by setting the radius to be half the width (either width or height will work here; they are always equal in this case). We make it a child of the Item, because the foreground fills the gauge. We then center it within the Item.

We set the color of the knob to the same white that we used before.

### The Tickmark Label Component

Suppose we want to caution the user if the value displayed by the gauge goes above or below a certain range. We could present this range to the user in several ways:

1. Change the color of the tickmarks depending on `styleData.value`
2. Add an image to the background
3. Draw it with Canvas

We'll choose options 1 and 3, as they are more flexible than using an image.

Firstly, let's change the color of the three highest tickmark labels:

    tickmarkLabel:  Text {
        font.pixelSize: Math.max(6, outerRadius * 0.1)
        text: styleData.value
        color: styleData.value >= 80 ? "#e34c22" : "#e5e5e5"
        antialiasing: true
    }

We also change the color of the rest of the labels to the same white that we used for the needle and knob.

### The Tickmark Component

Now let's do the same for the three highest tickmarks:

    tickmark: Rectangle {
        visible: styleData.value < 80 || styleData.value % 10 == 0
        implicitWidth: outerRadius * 0.02
        antialiasing: true
        implicitHeight: outerRadius * 0.06
        color: styleData.value >= 80 ? "#e34c22" : "#e5e5e5"
    }

### The Minor Tickmark Component

For the minor tickmarks, we'll only show those which are not higher than `80`:

    minorTickmark: Rectangle {
        visible: styleData.value < 80
        implicitWidth: outerRadius * 0.01
        antialiasing: true
        implicitHeight: outerRadius * 0.03
        color: "#e5e5e5"
    }

This is because we'll draw something between that range in the next section.

### The Background Component

We'll display the range that indicates caution with an orange arc:

    function degreesToRadians(degrees) {
        return degrees * (Math.PI / 180);
    }

    background: Canvas {
        onPaint: {
            var ctx = getContext("2d");
            ctx.reset();

            ctx.beginPath();
            ctx.strokeStyle = "#e34c22";
            ctx.lineWidth = outerRadius * 0.02;

            ctx.arc(outerRadius, outerRadius, outerRadius - ctx.lineWidth / 2,
                degreesToRadians(valueToAngle(80) - 90), degreesToRadians(valueToAngle(100) - 90));
            ctx.stroke();
        }
    }

We define a function to convert degrees to radians, which are the units used by Canvas.

Next, we do the drawing of the range using Canvas. We draw an arc between `80` and `100`, using the valueToAngle() function provided by CircularGaugeStyle. Note that we subtract `90` degrees before converting to radians, as our origin is north and Canvas' is east.

The finished product:

The complete code for this example is as follows:

    import QtQuick 2.0
    import QtQuick.Controls 1.4
    import QtQuick.Controls.Styles 1.4
    import QtQuick.Extras 1.4
    import QtQuick.Extras.Private 1.0

    Rectangle {
        width: 300
        height: 300
        color: "#494d53"

        CircularGauge {
            id: gauge
            anchors.centerIn: parent
            style: CircularGaugeStyle {
                id: style

                function degreesToRadians(degrees) {
                    return degrees * (Math.PI / 180);
                }

                background: Canvas {
                    onPaint: {
                        var ctx = getContext("2d");
                        ctx.reset();

                        ctx.beginPath();
                        ctx.strokeStyle = "#e34c22";
                        ctx.lineWidth = outerRadius * 0.02;

                        ctx.arc(outerRadius, outerRadius, outerRadius - ctx.lineWidth / 2,
                            degreesToRadians(valueToAngle(80) - 90), degreesToRadians(valueToAngle(100) - 90));
                        ctx.stroke();
                    }
                }

                tickmark: Rectangle {
                    visible: styleData.value < 80 || styleData.value % 10 == 0
                    implicitWidth: outerRadius * 0.02
                    antialiasing: true
                    implicitHeight: outerRadius * 0.06
                    color: styleData.value >= 80 ? "#e34c22" : "#e5e5e5"
                }

                minorTickmark: Rectangle {
                    visible: styleData.value < 80
                    implicitWidth: outerRadius * 0.01
                    antialiasing: true
                    implicitHeight: outerRadius * 0.03
                    color: "#e5e5e5"
                }

                tickmarkLabel:  Text {
                    font.pixelSize: Math.max(6, outerRadius * 0.1)
                    text: styleData.value
                    color: styleData.value >= 80 ? "#e34c22" : "#e5e5e5"
                    antialiasing: true
                }

                needle: Rectangle {
                    y: outerRadius * 0.15
                    implicitWidth: outerRadius * 0.03
                    implicitHeight: outerRadius * 0.9
                    antialiasing: true
                    color: "#e5e5e5"
                }

                foreground: Item {
                    Rectangle {
                        width: outerRadius * 0.2
                        height: width
                        radius: width / 2
                        color: "#e5e5e5"
                        anchors.centerIn: parent
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }