STM32CubeMX projects

Open a project

• When you launch CLion, click Open on the Welcome screen.

  

  Then, navigate to your project folder, select it, and click Open. CLion then will open your project as a CMake one.

• You can also select the .ioc file in the project folder and then click Open as Project. Make sure that the name of the .ioc file does not contain spaces, non-latin symbols, or other special characters.

• If CLion is already run, navigate to File | Open and open the project folder or the .ioc file.

Create a new project

1. In CLion, navigate to File | New | Project and select STM32CubeMX as your project type:

   

   You can then follow the steps shown on the New Project screen or the more detailed instructions below.

2. Launch STM32CubeMX. In the window that opens, click ACCESS TO MCU SELECTOR. You can also select ACCESS TO BOARD SELECTOR.

   

3. Find your MCU or board in the list, then click Start Project in the upper right corner:

   

4. The Pinout & Configuration tab will open. From there, you can change the default settings displayed in Pinout view, configure additional parameters, or install middleware if necessary.

   

5. Click the Project Manager tab.

6. From the Toolchain / IDE dropdown menu, select CMake:

   

7. In the Project Name field, enter the name of your project:

   

8. In the upper right corner, click Generate Code.

9. Once generation is finished, close the Code Generation window:

   

10. Copy the path from the Toolchain Folder Location field using the keyboard shortcut: ^C on macOS or Ctrl + C on Windows/Linux:

    

11. Switch back to the CLion New Project window. Enter the path you copied in the Location field at the top of this dialog, then click Proceed:

    

12. Your STM32CubeMX project will be created:

    

Build a project

To build your project, click the button on the main toolbar:

If everything works correctly, you will see Build finished in the Messages window:

Debug a project

1. Ensure that you have configured the appropriate run/debug configuration and the ST-LINK debug server. If it is a new STM32CubeMX project, you can use the default settings that CLion pre-configures.

2. Set a breakpoint in your source code, then click the button on the main toolbar:

   

   If everything works correctly, you will see the message in the debugger Console tab: Debugger connected to ST-LINK.

3. Once your program has been suspended, you can perform various actions, such as:

   • View the registers and peripherals defined in .svd files. For STM32 MCUs, these files are located in the STMicroelectronics_CMSIS_SVD directory within the STM32CubeCLT installation directory.

   • Use live watches to monitor global variables in real time.

   • Debug disassembled code.

   • View raw memory of running processes.

   

Edit source code

• While editing the files generated by STM32CubeMX, always enclose your code in the /* USER CODE BEGIN ... */ and /* USER CODE END ... */ pseudo comments. Here is an example:

  /* Infinite loop */ /* USER CODE BEGIN WHILE */ while (1) { HAL_GPIO_TogglePin(LD3_GPIO_Port, LD3_Pin); HAL_Delay(1000); /* USER CODE END WHILE */

  This will protect your code from being overwritten by STM32CubeMX during code regeneration.

• If you add source or header files, place them in the Src and Inc directories. Also, extract pieces of code into separate .c or .h files.

Configure Cube CLI

1. Install cube as described in the ST documentation.

2. CLion detects the cube executable automatically. To check the detected path or set it manually for the current default toolchain, open Settings | Build, Execution, Deployment | Embedded Development | STM32 and use the Cube CLI Command field.

   

3. Cube CLI extends the environment of your CMake profiles with the bundles locked in the project. This feature is enabled by default. To turn it off, clear the Use STM32 Cube CLI to extend CMake's environment checkbox under STM32 in advanced settings.

Convert a project to a Cube project

When your project is not a Cube project yet, Tools | STM32 Cube CLI contains two actions: Convert to STM32 Cube Project and Open STM32 Cube CLI Terminal. For the terminal action, refer to Run Cube CLI commands.

1. Go to Tools | STM32 Cube CLI | Convert to STM32 Cube Project.

   

2. CLion initializes the Cube project and locks the tools that the project already uses, such as CMake and the compilers. The locked tools are stored in the project root, in .settings/bundles.store.json and .settings/bundles-lock.store.json.