How to update a QPixmap in a QGraphicsView with PyQt

Question

I am trying to paint on a QPixmap inside a QGraphicsView. The painting works fine, but the QGraphicsView doesn't update it.

Here is some working code:

#!/usr/bin/env python

from PyQt4 import QtCore
from PyQt4 import QtGui

class Canvas(QtGui.QPixmap):
    """ Canvas for drawing"""
    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        QtGui.QPixmap.__init__(self, 64, 64)
        self.parent = parent
        self.imH = 64
        self.imW = 64
        self.fill(QtGui.QColor(0, 255, 255))
        self.color = QtGui.QColor(0, 0, 0)

    def paintEvent(self, point=False):
        if point:
            p = QtGui.QPainter(self)
            p.setPen(QtGui.QPen(self.color, 1, QtCore.Qt.SolidLine))
            p.drawPoints(point)

    def clic(self, mouseX, mouseY):
        self.paintEvent(QtCore.QPoint(mouseX, mouseY))    

class GraphWidget(QtGui.QGraphicsView):
    """ Display, zoom, pan..."""
    def __init__(self):
        QtGui.QGraphicsView.__init__(self)
        self.im = Canvas(self)
        self.imH = self.im.height()
        self.imW = self.im.width()
        self.zoomN = 1            
        self.scene = QtGui.QGraphicsScene(self)
        self.scene.setItemIndexMethod(QtGui.QGraphicsScene.NoIndex)
        self.scene.setSceneRect(0, 0, self.imW, self.imH)
        self.scene.addPixmap(self.im)
        self.setScene(self.scene)
        self.setTransformationAnchor(QtGui.QGraphicsView.AnchorUnderMouse)
        self.setResizeAnchor(QtGui.QGraphicsView.AnchorViewCenter)
        self.setMinimumSize(400, 400)
        self.setWindowTitle("pix")

    def mousePressEvent(self, event):
        if event.buttons() == QtCore.Qt.LeftButton:
            pos = self.mapToScene(event.pos())
            self.im.clic(pos.x(), pos.y())
            #~ self.scene.update(0,0,64,64)
            #~ self.updateScene([QtCore.QRectF(0,0,64,64)])
            self.scene.addPixmap(self.im)
            print('items')
            print(self.scene.items())
        else:
            return QtGui.QGraphicsView.mousePressEvent(self, event)

    def wheelEvent(self, event):
        if event.delta() > 0:
            self.scaleView(2)
        elif event.delta() < 0:
            self.scaleView(0.5)

    def scaleView(self, factor):
        n = self.zoomN * factor
        if n < 1 or n > 16:
            return
        self.zoomN = n
        self.scale(factor, factor)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    import sys
    app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
    widget = GraphWidget()
    widget.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

The mousePressEvent does some painting on the QPixmap. But the only solution I have found to update the display is to make a new instance (which is not a good solution).

How do I just update it?

Answer 1

The pixmap can't be linked to your scene, the item uses an internal copy of it, so you have to update the QGraphicsPixmapItem with the new pixmap:

def __init__(self):
    ...
    # save the item as a member
    self.imItem = self.scene.addPixmap(self.im) 
    ...

def mousePressEvent(self, event):
    if event.buttons() == QtCore.Qt.LeftButton:
        pos = self.mapToScene(event.pos())
        self.im.clic(pos.x(), pos.y())
        self.imItem.setPïxmap(self.im)
    ...

But it would make more sense to make your class Canvas inherit from QGraphicsPixmapItem instead of QPixmap, you would still have to get the pixmap with pixmap(), paint on it, and call setPixmap to update it. As a bonus, that code would be in the item own mousePressEvent method.