Develop Reference

C# WindowForm How can I make line cursor in PictureBox?

You know, we can easily to make line cursor for Chart (ex: Fig). But with PictureBox, how can I do it? Is there anyone has the solution?

You can intercept the MouseMove and the Paint events. Just draw the cross on the paint.
The advantage of using the Paint method, is that the original image is not changed, so no need to restore the overwritten pixels by the crosshair.
Here's an example:
I dropped a picturebox on a winform and linked some events.
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace MouseCrosshair
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
// to store the latest mouse position
private Point? _mousePos;
// the pen to draw the crosshair.
private Pen _pen = new Pen(Brushes.Red);
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void pictureBox1_MouseEnter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// when the mouse enters the picturebox, we just hide it.
Cursor.Hide();
}
private void pictureBox1_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
var pictureBox = (PictureBox)sender;
// on a mouse move, save the current location (to be used when drawing the crosshair)
_mousePos = e.Location;
// force an update to the picturebox.
pictureBox.Invalidate();
}
private void pictureBox1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
// if the mousepos is assigned (meaning we have a mouse pos, draw the crosshair)
if (_mousePos.HasValue)
{
var pictureBox = (PictureBox)sender;
// draw a vertical line
e.Graphics.DrawLine(_pen, new Point(_mousePos.Value.X, 0), new Point(_mousePos.Value.X, pictureBox.Height));
// draw a horizontal line
e.Graphics.DrawLine(_pen, new Point(0, _mousePos.Value.Y), new Point(pictureBox.Width, _mousePos.Value.Y));
}
}
private void pictureBox1_MouseLeave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// when the mouse is outside the picturebox, clear the mousepos
_mousePos = null;
// repaint the picturebox
pictureBox1.Invalidate();
// show the mouse cursor again.
Cursor.Show();
}
}
}
Because the events are using the sender, you can link multiple pictureboxes to these events.
It's also possible to inherit from the PictureBox, and write a new CrosshairPictureBox control, which has a crosshair by default.
If you want to draw charts in a PictureBox, use a Bitmap and draw on that using the Graphics.FromImage(bitmap) and put it in the PictureBox.Image. Don't forget to dispose the Graphics object.

You can achieve this by storing the position of the last point received, and then draw a line using the Graphics.DrawLine method between the old position and the new one.
Please also note, that when the mouse is moving, the Control.MouseMove event for every single pixel traveled by the mouse pointer isn't received for every single move. You do receive the Control.MouseMove events at a fairly consistent time interval. That means that the faster the mouse moves, the further apart the points you'll be actually receiving.
Check out this walkthrough for some examples - https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/mahesh/drawing-lines-in-gdi/

If I understand the question correctly, you are interested to draw x-axis and y-axis for a chart, but not using a chat control.
In this case, what you need to do is: Handle the Paint event of the PictureBox and draw the line from top middle to bottom middle and from left middle to right middle.
Here is the code which I write to produce above chart, y = Sin(x)
:
private void pictureBox1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
var axisWidth = 3;
var axisColor = Color.Red;
var chartLineWidth = 2;
var chartLineColor = Color.Blue;
var scale = 90;
var gridSize = 45;
var gridLineWidth = 1;
var gridLineColor = Color.LightGray;
var g = e.Graphics;
g.SmoothingMode = System.Drawing.Drawing2D.SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;
var w = pictureBox1.ClientRectangle.Width / 2;
var h = pictureBox1.ClientRectangle.Height / 2;
g.TranslateTransform(w, h);
g.ScaleTransform(1, -1);
//Draw grid
for (int i = -w / gridSize; i <= w / gridSize; i++)
using (var axisPen = new Pen(gridLineColor, gridLineWidth))
g.DrawLine(axisPen, i * gridSize, -h, i * gridSize, h);
for (int i = -h / gridSize; i <= h / gridSize; i++)
using (var axisPen = new Pen(gridLineColor, gridLineWidth))
g.DrawLine(axisPen, -w, i * gridSize, w, i * gridSize);
//Draw axis
using (var axisPen = new Pen(axisColor, axisWidth))
{
g.DrawLine(axisPen, -w, 0, w, 0); //X-Asxis
g.DrawLine(axisPen, 0, -h, 0, h); //Y-Asxis
}
//Draw y = Sin(x)
var points = new List<PointF>();
for (var x = -w; x < w; x++)
{
var y = System.Math.Sin(x * Math.PI / 180);
points.Add(new PointF(x, scale * (float)y));
}
using (var chartLinePen = new Pen(chartLineColor, chartLineWidth))
{
g.DrawCurve(chartLinePen, points.ToArray());
}
g.ResetTransform();
}
You also need the following piece of code to handle resizing of the picture box:
private void MyForm_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.pictureBox1.GetType().GetProperty("ResizeRedraw",
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic |
System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance).SetValue(
this.pictureBox1, true);
}
You can also add a crosshair and rubber-band rectangle to the control, like the following image:

why is rendering turning form black

I'm using an eye tracker to display eye movements on a form. The movements have been flickering a lot so I found out I can use BufferedGraphics which all works fine except when the eye movement starts it turns the form from the original colour to black. This is the code. Hopefully someone can help!
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var host = new Host();
var gazeStream = host.Streams.CreateGazePointDataStream();
gazeStream.GazePoint((x, y, ts)
=> drawCircle(new PointF((float)x, (float)y)));
}
delegate void SetCallback(PointF point);
private void drawCircle(PointF point)
{
float x = point.X;
float y = point.Y;
if (this.InvokeRequired)
{
SetCallback d = new SetCallback(drawCircle);
this.Invoke(d, new object[] { point });
}
else
{
SolidBrush semiTransBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Coral);
Pen pen = new Pen(Color.Aquamarine, 2);
BufferedGraphicsContext currentContext;
BufferedGraphics myBuffer;
// Gets a reference to the current BufferedGraphicsContext
currentContext = BufferedGraphicsManager.Current;
// Creates a BufferedGraphics instance associated with Form1, and with
// dimensions the same size as the drawing surface of Form1.
myBuffer = currentContext.Allocate(this.CreateGraphics(),this.DisplayRectangle);
myBuffer.Graphics.DrawEllipse(pen, x, y, 100, 100);
myBuffer.Graphics.FillEllipse(semiTransBrush, x, y, 100, 100);
// Renders the contents of the buffer to the specified drawing surface.
myBuffer.Render(this.CreateGraphics());
myBuffer.Dispose();
}
You can see in the image that the circle appears behind the controls which seems like the form is gone?

When you allocate the buffer, it creates a compatible rendering surface with the graphics you provided. But it will not copy it or anything so if you just paint a single circle, the remaining parts remain black.
BufferedGraphics really can help you to avoid flickering in special cases (eg. when system double buffering must be disabled for some reason), but here this is an overkill.
So the key is just enabling double buffering and do every paint in the Paint event (or OnPaint method). In your code you do immediate paint, which always flickers. Instead, you should just invalidate the form and let the system do a regular repaint session, which can use double buffering if you wish.
Into the constructor:
SetStyle(ControlStyles.OptimizedDoubleBuffer | ControlStyles.DoubleBuffer | ControlStyles.AllPaintingInWmPaint, true);
Then modify the click event:
private PointF lastGazePoint;
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var host = new Host();
var gazeStream = host.Streams.CreateGazePointDataStream();
gazeStream.GazePoint((x, y, ts) =>
{
lastGazePoint = new PointF((float)x, (float)y);
Invalidate();
});
}
The painting itself:
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
DrawCircle(e.Graphics, lastGazePoint.X, lastGazePoint.Y);
}
And finally, modify DrawCircle to use the Graphics from PaintEventArgs:
private void DrawCircle(Graphics g, float x, float y)
{
using (Brush semiTransBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Coral))
{
using (Pen pen = new Pen(Color.Aquamarine, 2))
{
g.DrawEllipse(pen, x, y, 100, 100);
g.FillEllipse(semiTransBrush, x, y, 100, 100);
}
}
}

C# draw in panel and shift left the drawn objects

I'm drawing rectangles in a panel starting from the left side.
When I reach the right side of the panel I'd like to shift left the rectangles previously drawn to have the space to draw another one, and so on.
Which is the simplest way to do it?
I'm drawing using System.Drawings.Graphics.
I'm using Winforms. The code is:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace FFViewer
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
[DllImport("shlwapi.dll")]
public static extern int ColorHLSToRGB(int H, int L, int S);
int x=0;
int y=300;
int h = 0;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
panel_Paint();
x = x + 40;
h = h + 40;
if (h >= 240)
h = 0;
}
private void panel_Paint()
{
int val;
Color color;
val = ColorHLSToRGB(h, 128, 240);
Graphics g = panel1.CreateGraphics();
color = ColorTranslator.FromWin32(val);
SolidBrush sb = new SolidBrush( color );
g.FillRectangle(sb, x, y, 40, 100);
}
}
}
So, when I draw the latest rectangle on the right side, I'd like to shift left all the rectangles to leave the space to draw another one on the right side.
P.S. I don't have enough reputation to post images :(

Here's the "old school" way of doing it. This is basically what was done when a continuous graph of a real-time value needed to be displayed AND you didn't want to store the any of the values anywhere. This has severe limitations as it copies from the screen and the drawing will be erased the when window repaints itself. This first example is simply here to demonstrate the process, and is an extension of the way you created the initial blocks:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
[DllImport("shlwapi.dll")]
public static extern int ColorHLSToRGB(int H, int L, int S);
int x = 0;
int width = 40;
int y = 300;
int height = 100;
int h = 0;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (x + width > panel1.ClientSize.Width) // if drawing the next block would exceed the panel width...
{
// capture what's currently on the screen
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(x, height);
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp))
{
g.CopyFromScreen(panel1.PointToScreen(new Point(0, y)), new Point(0, 0), bmp.Size);
}
// draw it shifted to the left
using (Graphics g = panel1.CreateGraphics())
{
g.DrawImage(bmp, new Point(-width, y));
}
// move x back so the new rectangle will draw where the last one was previously
x = x - width;
}
// draw the new block and increment values
panel_Paint();
x = x + width;
h = h + width;
if (h >= 240)
{
h = 0;
}
}
private void panel_Paint()
{
int val;
Color color;
val = ColorHLSToRGB(h, 128, 240);
color = ColorTranslator.FromWin32(val);
using (Graphics g = panel1.CreateGraphics())
{
using (SolidBrush sb = new SolidBrush(color))
{
g.FillRectangle(sb, x, y, width, height);
}
}
}
}
This could be fixed by creating a Bitmap of the correct size and drawing to that instead. Then you shift everything and draw the new block on the right side. Finally, you'd draw that Bitmap in the Paint() event. So this is doing the same thing as above except we aren't copying from the screen, and the panel will properly redraw itself when requested:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
[DllImport("shlwapi.dll")]
public static extern int ColorHLSToRGB(int H, int L, int S);
int x = 0;
int width = 40;
int y = 300;
int height = 100;
int h = 0;
Bitmap bmp;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
this.Load += Form1_Load;
panel1.Paint += Panel1_Paint;
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int numBlocks = (int)(panel1.Width / width);
bmp = new Bitmap(numBlocks * width, height);
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp))
{
g.Clear(panel1.BackColor);
}
}
private void Panel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (bmp != null)
{
e.Graphics.DrawImage(bmp, new Point(0, y));
}
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp))
{
if (x + width > bmp.Width) // if drawing the next block would exceed the bmp width...
{
g.DrawImage(bmp, new Point(-width, 0)); // draw ourself shifted to the left
x = x - width;
}
// draw the new block
int val;
Color color;
val = ColorHLSToRGB(h, 128, 240);
color = ColorTranslator.FromWin32(val);
using (SolidBrush sb = new SolidBrush(color))
{
g.FillRectangle(sb, x, 0, width, height);
}
}
x = x + width;
h = h + width;
if (h >= 240)
{
h = 0;
}
panel1.Invalidate(); // force panel1 to redraw itself
}
}

You should not use panel1.CreateGraphics(), but instead handle the Paint event of the panel, otherwise the rectangles might disappear, for instance after a popup appears in front of your form:
panel1.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(panel1_paint);
You'll need to paint all (visible) rectangles in the paint handler; you could keep a List<Rectangle> in your form to store the rectangles you have added:
private List<Rectangle> rectangles = new List<Rectangle>();
...
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
rectangles.Add(new Rectangle(x, y, width, height));
panel1.Invalidate(); // cause the paint event to be called
// todo increment x/y
}
Then, in the panel1_Paint handler you can simply draw the rectangles, after having called Graphics.TranslateTransform() to shift the whole drawing area:
private void panel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
e.Graphics.TranslateTransform(-x, 0);
foreach (Rectangle rectangle in rectangles)
{
// paint em
}
e.Graphics.ResetTransform();
}

Get coordinates of a drawing point from Chart Values in TextBoxes?

In the designer I have two TextBoxes.
And also a Chart control.
I want that when I type in the first textBox the number 120 and in the second one type the number 1 it will draw a point on the chart in 120,1 but I mean 120 and 1 as axis x and axis y values.
The red filled circle is not at 120 and 1.
I mean that the red circle should be drawn on the left axis on 120.
And if I will put instead 120 116 and instead 1 25 then the circle should be drawn at the left axis 116 and on the bottom axis on 25.
But now the circle is drawn out of the chart.
This is my code:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms.DataVisualization.Charting;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System.Collections;
namespace Test
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private Point startPoint = new Point();
private Point endPoint = new Point();
private int X = 0;
private int Y = 0;
private List<Point> points = new List<Point>();
private Point lastPoint = Point.Empty;
private ArrayList myPts = new ArrayList();
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Random rdn = new Random();
for (int i = 120; i > 0; i--)
{
chart1.Series["Series1"].Points.AddXY
(rdn.Next(0, 10), rdn.Next(0, 10));
}
chart1.Series["Series1"].ChartType = SeriesChartType.FastLine;
chart1.Series["Series1"].Color = Color.Red;
ChartArea area = chart1.ChartAreas[0];
area.AxisX.Minimum = 1;
area.AxisX.Maximum = 30;
area.AxisY.Minimum = 1;
area.AxisY.Maximum = 120;
LineAnnotation line = new LineAnnotation();
Point p1 = new Point(1, 120);
chart1.Annotations.Add(line);
line.AxisX = area.AxisX;
line.AxisY = area.AxisY;
line.IsSizeAlwaysRelative = false;
line.X = 1; line.Y = 120;
line.Right = 30; line.Bottom = 1;
line.LineColor = Color.Blue;
line.LineWidth = 3;
}
SolidBrush myBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);
private void chart1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
foreach (Point p in myPts)
g.FillEllipse(myBrush, p.X, p.Y, 10, 10);
}
private void chart1_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
myPts.Add(new Point(X,Y));
chart1.Invalidate();
}
private void txtT_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
X = int.Parse(txtWeight.Text);
}
private void txtDays_TextChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Y = int.Parse(txtDays.Text);
}
}
}
What I did is that after I enter both textBoxes values then when I click anywhere on the Chart control area with the mouse it should draw the circule on the coordinates from the TextBoxes.
But the circle is not drawing on the right place.
The textBox name txtT is the left one the axis on the left values.
The textBox txtDays should is the axis on the bottom values.

The task of translating drawing coordinates into DataPoints and back is not exactly intuitive.
It is possible but you need to know the rules and pay a certain price.
I have outlined the way in this post and it is worth looking into..
But as the problem is coming up repeatedly, here is a more general solution.
Here is how to call it:
private void button11_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
valuePoints.Add(new PointF(640, 1));
valuePoints.Add(new PointF(670, 10));
paintToCalaculate = true;
chart1.Invalidate();
}
And here is the result: Two red points drawn at the values 640, 1 and 670, 10:
The points are placed correctly event though I have zoomed and scrolled in the chart and also resized it..
To make it work we need three class level variables: A flag and two point lists. One list is the input with the values in the chart where the points are, the other is the output, receiving the current pixel coordinates.
bool paintToCalaculate = false;
List<Point> drawPoints = new List<Point>();
List<PointF> valuePoints = new List<PointF>();
I use a flag to avoid recalculating the Points when the system causes redraws. And after setting it I trigger the Paint event by Invalidating the Chart. During the Paint event I reset the flag.
Please note that these values are very volatile: They change:
Whenever you zoom or scroll
Whenever you resize the chart
Whenever the layout changes, maybe because new points need room or trigger a change in a label format..
Therefore those drawing coordinates will have to be updated on each such event!
Here is one example, that takes care of zoom and scrolling:
private void chart1_AxisViewChanged(object sender, ViewEventArgs e)
{
paintToCalaculate = true;
chart1.Invalidate();
}
You need to add these two lines, or a function to wrap them, to a few other spots in your program, depending what things you allow to happen in the chart.. Resize is also an obvious candidate..
Now for the actual caculation. It is using the ValueToPixelPosition, which does all the work. Unfortunately is only works inside of any of the three paint events of a chart (PrePaint,Paint and PostPaint) . Here I use the normal Paint event.
private void chart1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (paintToCalaculate)
{
Series s = chart1.Series.FindByName("dummy");
if (s == null) s = chart1.Series.Add("dummy");
drawPoints.Clear();
s.Points.Clear();
foreach (PointF p in valuePoints)
{
s.Points.AddXY(p.X, p.Y);
DataPoint pt = s.Points[0];
double x = chart1.ChartAreas[0].AxisX.ValueToPixelPosition(pt.XValue);
double y = chart1.ChartAreas[0].AxisY.ValueToPixelPosition(pt.YValues[0]);
drawPoints.Add(new Point((int)x, (int)y));
s.Points.Clear();
}
paintToCalaculate = false;
chart1.Series.Remove(s);
}
//..
// now we can draw our points at the current positions:
foreach (Point p in drawPoints)
e.Graphics.FillEllipse(Brushes.Red, p.X - 2, p.Y - 2, 4, 4);
}
Note that I add and remove a dummy Series and add and clear one Point to it for each data point, just to calculate its pixel coordinates. Yes, a bit involved, but the results are worth it..
I assume you can change the Button_Click code to read in the values from your TextBoxes instead of the using my hard-coded numbers..

c# Custom control click event

I've made a custom control and I want to add a click event so when the user clicks anywhere on the control it will return the position of where the user has clicked on the control. For example if the user clicks in the middle of the bar it would essentially return me enough information for me to calculate 50% and that the user has clicked in the middle.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Data;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
namespace CustomRangeBar
{
public partial class RangeBar : UserControl
{
public RangeBar()
{
InitializeComponent();
label1.ForeColor = Color.Black;
this.ForeColor = SystemColors.Highlight; // set the default color the rangeBar
this.Click += new EventHandler(RangeBar_Click);
}
protected float percent = 0.0f; // Protected because we don't want this to be accessed from the outside
// Create a Value property for the rangeBar
public float Value
{
get
{
return percent;
}
set
{
// Maintain the value between 0 and 100
if (value < 0) value = 0;
else if (value > 100) value = 100;
percent = value;
label1.Text = value.ToString();
//redraw the rangeBar every time the value changes
this.Invalidate();
}
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
Brush b = new SolidBrush(this.ForeColor); //create brush that will draw the background of the range bar
// create a linear gradient that will be drawn over the background. FromArgb means you can use the Alpha value which is the transparency
LinearGradientBrush lb = new LinearGradientBrush(new Rectangle(0, 0, this.Width, this.Height), Color.FromArgb(255, Color.White), Color.FromArgb(50, Color.White), LinearGradientMode.Vertical);
// calculate how much has the rangeBar to be filled for 'x' %
int width = (int)((percent / 100) * this.Width);
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(b, 0, 0, width, this.Height);
e.Graphics.FillRectangle(lb, 0, 0, width, this.Height);
b.Dispose(); lb.Dispose();
}
private void RangeBar_SizeChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
// maintain the label in the center of the rangeBar
label1.Location = new Point(this.Width / 2 - 21 / 2 - 4, this.Height / 2 - 15 / 2);
}
}
}
public void RangeBar_Click(object obj, EventArgs ea)
{
// This get executed if the pictureBox gets clicked
label1.text = "Increment 1";
}

OnClick is not a good function to override or subscribe to because it does not tell you the position where the click happened which is what you are looking for.
What you want is OnMouseClick which includes the x,y of the click point.
protected override void OnMouseClick(MouseEventArgs e)
{
int x = e.X;
int y = e.Y;
//Do your calculation here.
}