OFFICIAL RELEASE: X-CUBE-TOUCHGFX v4.13.0

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Goodmorning everyone!

With the release of CubeMX 5.5.0 we've removed TouchGFX from the Middleware section of CubeMX and are now offering TouchGFX configuration through an X-CUBE.

The X-CUBE pack contains the following:

1. TouchGFX Designer .msi, as per usual
2. TouchGFX Generator - A tool through "additional software" for creating your TouchGFX HAL based on CubeMX settings.

CubeMX is a tool for configuring your MCU.

CubeMX is not a tool for completely configuring peripherals like touch controllers and external memories.

TouchGFX Generator (new since 4,13) is a CubeMX extension that can generate all or parts of your TouchGFX HAL Layer based partially on settings taken from your MCU configuration in CubeMX.

TouchGFX Generator (new since 4,13) is not a tool that provides complete configurations for touch controllers, external memories, etc. It only generates the TouchGFX HAL - Rendering strategies, acceleration strategies, etc.

TouchGFX Designer is a tool that can supply you with application templates for existing stm32 display kits. We are working on getting all of them updated to use the new Generator.

Please read the following guides for instructions on how to install the new TouchGFX X-CUBE and how to use the TouchGFX Generator to develop your TouchGFX HAL:

• https://touchgfx.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011039799-Installing-TouchGFX
• https://touchgfx.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360010921760-TouchGFX-HAL-Development

From now on it is the X-CUBE that receives a version bump, bumping the version of both tools contained within.

A few application templates already support the new TouchGFX Generator (and thus CubeMX 5.5.0), with lots more to come. One of our main priorities is to get the rest of the application templates ported to use the TouchGFX Generator,

• STM32H7BI-DK v.3.0.0 (uploaded)
• STM32F746-DISCO v.3.0.0 (uploaded)
• STM32F769I-DISCO v.3.0.0 (uploaded)
• STM32H750B-DK v3.0.0 (uploaded)
• STM32F750-DK v3.0.0 (in progress)
• STM32L4R9-DISCO v3.0.0 (in progress)
• STM32L4P5-DISCO v3.0.0 (in progress)
• STM32H743-EVAL v3.0.0 (In progress)

Generally, any application template that supports the Generator/CubeMX 5.5.0 will be major version 3.

 

Let me know here if you have any questions or face any issues! We're eager to see how this works for everyone.

Now that we are officially live with X-CUBE-TOUCHGFX we'll continue working on improving documentation, offering support and updating the current application templates you can find through the designer.

Aside from that i'll do my best to catch up on this community, something i've had to neglect a bit because of the new Generator.

Best regards,

TouchGFX Generator Team

[egoltzman]

I tried the advance option with no success.

I do get a warning message after generating the code, it is attached

[Bob Bailey]

I believe most of us reading this have active projects using the old/current version. In my case, based on the 746G-DISCO board. The base template in the old version of CubeIDE did not enable the QSPI or touchscreen so based on various Youtube videos those things were added by hand. Those changes get overwritten when regenerating the cube code, but not when regenerating the TouchGFX code.

Are these functions combined now (it sounds like it)? If this is the case I hesitate to upgrade unless the template for the 746G-DISCO is fixed and generates code for all of the board peripherals (or at least the minimum to make the TouchGFX demos work).

What are the improvements and enhancements in this version?

Thanks!

Bob

[scottSD]

Can CubeMX 5.4 still be used after installing CubeMX 5.5?

With the previous update to STM32CubeIDE 1.1.0, I was still able to keep an the older version of TouchGFX as well using the older version of STM32CubeIDE. This was convenient because I did not lose older projects.

However, when starting to install the new version of CubeMX 5.5, it appears that it will wipe out the previous version of CubeMX. Is there a way to continue to use both versions of CubeMX?

[Bob Bailey]

I want to also comment on your statement that the Disco boards are used for GUI development and the hardware development is mainly done on target hardware.

In my experience, development of both is done on the disco boards using the 'arduino' connectors, prototyping areas, and other equivalent features. This reduces the number of iterations of hardware development. With the 746G-DISCO board I will be able to develop and test ~95% of the final code/features before moving to target hardware. As such, all of the hardware feature support needs to be functional in the Cube so that both GUI and hardware code can be developed. I am using CubeIDE for this project. For previous projects I used Codewarrior with Motorola/......../NXP (for 20 years). TouchGFX is the main reason I am changing to STM32 for this one.

Bob

[egoltzman]

Martin? Any idea how to solve this?

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Sure, simply install them at different locations. Default path does not have a version attached to it, so that's what i usually do. Just rename the install path "<whatever>/CubeMX-5.5.0". During development of the generator i had maybe 15 different versions of CubeMX installed :D

/Martin

[Martin KJELDSEN]

I don't know, Eyal. This seems like a CubeMX issue - I'll forward your issue to someone relevant.

[Martin KJELDSEN]

I've never seen this message before myself, but i'm sure the CubeMX team has at one point or another. Is there a log to go with that error message?

/Martin

[Martin KJELDSEN]

CubeMX does not care about board related stuff. SDRAM CAS Latency, QSPI Memory mapped mode, etc. Only MCU configuration. I doubt it ever will. As long as you have your code in USER CODE sections, it won't get overwritten. There's an application template for F746G-DISCO using the new generator available through the 4.13.0 designer.

/Martin

[Martin KJELDSEN]

Thanks for that insight, Bob. Maybe i'll update the current documentation to reflect your scenario.

/Martin