Qt Creator does not allow to specify initial cmake options when opening cmake based project.

From here:

If the MY_ROOT variable is configured to be cached in your CMakeLists.txt, then it will be available for editing in the table in the Build settings of your project.

One exception is if the CMakeLists.txt file is not created because the configuration fails for default settings. Example is my project https://cgit.kde.org/kproperty.git which, without –

-DKPROPEERTY_KF=OFF

cmake option (before --build) won't configure properly in system without the KF5 dependency. 

In such pretty standard scenarios Creator does not provide cmake variables at all (no surprise as cmake server won't list them). But what is worse, adding custom variables using Add->Boolean for example is ignored.

The only know solution so far is to use cmake-gui completely outside of Creator and then switch back to Creator once the 1st successful configuration finishes. This is not how a good cmake integration looks...

I'd propose extra and explicit field CMAKE OPTIONS or accept the custom variables prior to configuration.

 See also QTCREATORBUG-16360.