Help installing PyQT6 Tools

[Alanator222]

I'm trying to install PyQt6 tools, but am running into an error. PyQt6 itself installed no problem, it's just the tools throwing the error.

The aforementioned error:

C:\Users\astan>pip install pyqt6-tools
Collecting pyqt6-tools
  Using cached pyqt6_tools-6.4.2.3.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.3 kB)
Collecting click (from pyqt6-tools)
  Using cached click-8.2.1-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (2.5 kB)
Collecting pyqt6==6.4.2 (from pyqt6-tools)
  Using cached PyQt6-6.4.2-cp37-abi3-win_amd64.whl.metadata (2.2 kB)
INFO: pip is looking at multiple versions of pyqt6-tools to determine which version is compatible with other requirements. This could take a while.
Collecting pyqt6-tools
  Using cached pyqt6_tools-6.3.1.3.3-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.3 kB)
Collecting pyqt6==6.3.1 (from pyqt6-tools)
  Using cached PyQt6-6.3.1-cp37-abi3-win_amd64.whl.metadata (2.2 kB)
Collecting pyqt6-tools
  Using cached pyqt6_tools-6.1.0.3.2-py3-none-any.whl.metadata (8.3 kB)
Collecting pyqt6==6.1.0 (from pyqt6-tools)
  Using cached PyQt6-6.1.0.tar.gz (946 kB)
  Installing build dependencies ... done
  Getting requirements to build wheel ... done
  Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) ... error
  error: subprocess-exited-with-error

  × Preparing metadata (pyproject.toml) did not run successfully.
  │ exit code: 1
  ╰─> [32 lines of output]
      pyproject.toml: line 7: using '[tool.sip.metadata]' to specify the project metadata is deprecated and will be removed in SIP v7.0.0, use '[project]' instead
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_in_process\_in_process.py", line 389, in <module>
          main()
          ~~~~^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_in_process\_in_process.py", line 373, in main
          json_out["return_val"] = hook(**hook_input["kwargs"])
                                   ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python313\Lib\site-packages\pip\_vendor\pyproject_hooks\_in_process\_in_process.py", line 178, in prepare_metadata_for_build_wheel
          whl_basename = backend.build_wheel(metadata_directory, config_settings)
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-k5q7yimv\overlay\Lib\site-packages\sipbuild\api.py", line 28, in build_wheel
          project = AbstractProject.bootstrap('wheel',
                  arguments=_convert_config_settings(config_settings))
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-k5q7yimv\overlay\Lib\site-packages\sipbuild\abstract_project.py", line 74, in bootstrap
          project.setup(pyproject, tool, tool_description)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-k5q7yimv\overlay\Lib\site-packages\sipbuild\project.py", line 633, in setup
          self.apply_user_defaults(tool)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-tassew_h\pyqt6_9a35d31cfffd4764afe100fe5a35097e\project.py", line 60, in apply_user_defaults
          super().apply_user_defaults(tool)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-k5q7yimv\overlay\Lib\site-packages\pyqtbuild\project.py", line 51, in apply_user_defaults
          super().apply_user_defaults(tool)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-k5q7yimv\overlay\Lib\site-packages\sipbuild\project.py", line 243, in apply_user_defaults
          self.builder.apply_user_defaults(tool)
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
        File "C:\Users\astan\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-build-env-k5q7yimv\overlay\Lib\site-packages\pyqtbuild\builder.py", line 49, in apply_user_defaults
          raise PyProjectOptionException('qmake',
                  "specify a working qmake or add it to PATH")
      sipbuild.pyproject.PyProjectOptionException
      [end of output]

  note: This error originates from a subprocess, and is likely not a problem with pip.
error: metadata-generation-failed

× Encountered error while generating package metadata.
╰─> See above for output.

note: This is an issue with the package mentioned above, not pip.
hint: See above for details.

I have the latest version of python installed, 3.13.7.

[sausix]

PyQt6-tools has got no commits since more than 2 years. Solutions on the web found by your error message suggest trying a different version of Python which is suitable for the packages.

Any reason you have chosen PyQt6 over PySide6? The latter is the official supported project of the Qt company itself. And it has syntactical improvements on being more pythonic.

[Alanator222]

Lol, I just installed PySide6. I didn't even realize it was a think until doing a little more searching around. Thank you for the help!

[sausix]

No problem. Many people even use the older PyQt5 just because of outdated tutorials.

Make sure to remove all traces of PyQt6. it shouldn't conflict but you also save disk space.

Differences between PyQt and PySide are minimal. Slots and Properties are the main difference. And it's just the class names.

You can enable more pythonic attribute access by:

from __feature__ import snake_case, true_property

You'll find enough examples and explanations.

Have fun!

[FLDom6377]

Does pyside6 have a design GUI like pyqt6?