Build: Build with Visual Studio

Download prerequisites

• Git
• Visual Studio Community 2019 or 2022 (be sure to select C++ and CMake during installation)
• Qt 6

Clone the git repo

git clone https://github.com/swift-project/pilotclient.git
git submodule update --init

Install required third-party dependencies

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate # on Linux und macOS
.venv\Scripts\activate.bat # on Windows 
pip install conan
conan profile detect
conan profile path default

The last command displays the path to the conan profile file. Append the following lines to this file:

[conf]
tools.cmake.cmaketoolchain:generator=Ninja

Depending on whether you want to build swift in Debug, RelWithDebInfo or Release mode, also adapt the build_type within the profile!

Then install the dependencies:

conan install . --output-folder=build_conan --build=missing --deployer=full_deploy

Build

Tip

It might be a good idea to exclude the build directory from your virus scanner, as otherwise new executable will not work properly.

Open the pilotclient folder in Visual Studio as described here to load the project. Select the corresponding CMake Preset (default is Development Debug:

That's it! You now have a working Visual Studio environment to build and execute the project.

swift uses CMake presets to configure CMake. By default, the dev-debug (display name: Development Debug) profile will be loaded. While this profile contains the required config for most of swift's components, some features, like the X-Plane and Microsoft simulator plugins are disabled. For more information on how to extend the default profile to enable more features, see this page.

For more information about the Visual Studio CMake integration and how to launch and debug targets, see this page.