STM32CubeIDE integration

CMake projects may be integrated in various IDEs.

Some IDEs sport a CMake plug-in, notably VScode. This is the easy case -- please refer to the documentation of the relevant plug-in.

Unfortunately, ST's Cube IDE does not have such a plug-in. A procedure to handle CMake projects nonetheless, using its built-in support for Makefiles, is detailed below.

Requirements

The same requirements as detailed in the Setup page for shell users apply. The walkthrough below was performed using CubeIDE version 1.10.1 ; some steps may differ when using another.

Walkthrough

Create or import the project

The first step is to create or import a "Makefile Project with Existing Code":

CubeIDE New Project wizard with Makefile Project with Existing Code selected

Then browse for the project's location, and leave all other settings to default as illustrated below:

CubeIDE project import settings with the project location selected

Configure the project build settings

The next step is to fill in the build settings. Right click on the project, hit "Properties" (or Alt+Enter), then go to the "C/C++ build" section. Fill in the "Builder Settings" and "Behavior" tabs as follows (be sure to replace the build location with the relevant value for your project).

CubeIDE C/C++ build Builder Settings for the imported project CubeIDE C/C++ build Behavior settings for the imported project

You may also change the build command to "ninja"; this is known to be much more efficient, in terms of build time, than Make.

Add a CMake build target

Once this is done, there remains to tell CubeIDE how to run CMake. Right click on the project, hit "Build targets" -> "Create" (or Shift+F9, "Add").

CubeIDE project menu with Build targets and Create selected

Fill the window that pops up as follows:

CubeIDE dialog for creating a CMake build target

Build command :

# if you stuck with Make in the previous step
cmake -S [source folder] -B [build folder] -G Unix\ Makefiles

# or, if you picked Ninja earlier,
cmake -S [source folder] -B [build folder] -G Ninja

For the source and build folder, you can use one of Cube's automatic variables, such as ${workspace_loc:/1_Blink}/build, as in the project settings. Make sure the build folder (-B) matches the value you passed in the project build configuration step!

Generate the build files

Run the CMake target created in the previous step (or hit F9) to generate the build files:

CubeIDE view for running the configured CMake build target

Build or rebuild the project

To rebuild the project, hit Ctrl+B, or right-click on the project -> "Build project".

CubeIDE project menu with Build project selected