STM32CubeIDE Tips

I was a Keil user. With the projects I'm dealing with are getting bigger, the free trial version of Keil with 32K byte limit no longer a choice for me. My teacher even encourage us to use a pirate version of Keil.
I'm a fan of opensource and VS Code. Microsoft does a great job on optimization and F1 command is so convinient. But there are still lots of steps to do for debugging in VS Code, I choosed STM32CubeIDE, which is based on ECLIPSE and intergrated with stm32Cube.
This note is written with STM32CubeIDE Version: 1.4.0

STM32CubeMX Bug list

• USB device descriptor request failed: Adjust PLL parameters in clock configuration tab. Try different parameters that still outputs 48MHz to USB peripheral.
• USB device DFU class: USBD_DFU_MEDIA Interface, aka FLASH_DESC_STR, longest size is 127 chars. Doesn't go any further even you change any parameter found in CubeMX.

Include a header file correctly

If you are including something like stdio.h, then you can probably compile and call your function without error. But when you are trying to include a header file elsewhere(not in project folder), such as stm32746g_discovery_lcd.h, it becomes triky.
For the compiler to know where stm32746g_discovery_lcd.h is, you need to add it to Include Paths:

Project ==> Properties ==> C/C++ General ==> Paths and Symbol
==> Includes ==> GNU C ==> Add…, then paste the folder path where your header file located.

And for linker to know where your .c file located(), you need to add the folder to Link Folder...:

Project ==> Properties ==> C/C++ General ==> Paths and Symbol
==> Source Location ==> Link Folder ==> Check Link to folder…, then paste the folder path where .c loacted at the second textbar.

Link a static library(*.a or *.lib)

Get the path of the library

Add in Libraries and Library search path
For *.a files, you can either remove lib and .a as shown in the picture
or you can type :*.a

• Ref: Include DSP library
• Ref: 扩展库 .a 文件 在 CUBE IDE内 引用的方法

Export and Import

• Preference
  • Export

    File ==> Export ==> General ==> Preference, Click Next
    Check Export all ==> Choose To preference file, click Finish.

  • Import

    File ==> Import ==> General ==> Preference, Click Next
    Choose From preference file ==> Check Import all, click Finish.

  • Preference backup at 20201028
• Projects
  • bla bla bla

Folding any codes

Not realy useful, not recommanded.
It seems that STM32CubeIDE does not support folding on any {}, so I will use #if 1 and #endif to fold codes that I'm not editing, especially those parts generated by Cube. Here is a clean main.c with #if 1 and #endif at specific lines. When your project just built and you have the first code generation, erase everything in ./Core/Src/main.c and paste the following snippet in it. It's important that you can only do this when the project just built and there is nothing from you in ./Core/Src/main.c, otherwise you have to do it line by line manually.

main.c

/* USER CODE BEGIN Header */
/* USER CODE END Header */
/* Includes ------------------------------------------------------------------*/
#include "main.h"

/* Private includes ----------------------------------------------------------*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN Includes */

// Folding Private variables by Cube
#if 1
/* USER CODE END Includes */

/* Private typedef -----------------------------------------------------------*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN PTD */

/* USER CODE END PTD */

/* Private define ------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN PD */
/* USER CODE END PD */

/* Private macro -------------------------------------------------------------*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN PM */
//
// Folding

/* USER CODE END PM */

/* Private variables ---------------------------------------------------------*/


/* USER CODE BEGIN PV */

#endif

// Folding Private function prototypes of Cube
#if 1
/* USER CODE END PV */

/* Private function prototypes -----------------------------------------------*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN PFP */
#endif
/* USER CODE END PFP */

/* Private user code ---------------------------------------------------------*/
/* USER CODE BEGIN 0 */

/* USER CODE END 0 */

/**
  * @brief  The application entry point.
  * @retval int
  */
int main(void)
{
  /* USER CODE BEGIN 1 */

// Folding Private variables initialization of Cube
#if 1
  /* USER CODE END 1 */

  /* MCU Configuration--------------------------------------------------------*/

  /* Reset of all peripherals, Initializes the Flash interface and the Systick. */

  /* USER CODE BEGIN Init */

  /* USER CODE END Init */

  /* Configure the system clock */

  /* USER CODE BEGIN SysInit */

  /* USER CODE END SysInit */

  /* Initialize all configured peripherals */
  /* USER CODE BEGIN 2 */
#endif

  /* USER CODE END 2 */

  /* Infinite loop */
  /* USER CODE BEGIN WHILE */
  while (1)
  {
    /* USER CODE END WHILE */
    /* USER CODE BEGIN 3 */
  }

// Folding Private functions implementation of Cube
#if 1
  /* USER CODE END 3 */
}

/* USER CODE BEGIN 4 */
#endif

/* USER CODE END 4 */

/************************ (C) COPYRIGHT STMicroelectronics *****END OF FILE****/