Draw someshapes in Panel without using Panel1_Paint() event - c#

I am drawing something, let us assume an image over the panel in Windows form.
I can able to draw i I follow the below steps:
1) added panel to the Form
2) used the below code:
private void panel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
e.Graphics.DrawImage(im, leftTop);
}
Is this the only way to draw over the panel.
I have a plan to draw withoutusing this event
I tried by the below code, results negative.
this.panel1.CreateGraphics().DrawImage(im, leftTop);
in both the case im is an Image.
.. can I able to draw. ?

Yes, you can draw it, however if the Paint event is raised, the default stuff will be re-drawn and all the thing you have drawn will be covered/erased/cleared.
So to draw your image, the best approach is to add drawing code in Paint event handler as the first code you posted does.
Otherwise, you have to draw your image periodically which is not efficient, because we just need to re-draw it when we need. The system provides the Paint event to notify when we need to repaint the control (beside the default drawing).
Here is the way in which you use a timer to draw your image periodically, but this is not recommended, just for demonstrative purpose:
Timer t = new Timer();
t.Interval = 10;
Graphics g = null;
panel1.HandleCreated += (s,e) => {
g = panel1.CreateGraphics();
};
t.Tick += (s,e) => {
if(g == null) return;
g.DrawImage(im,leftPoint);
};
//
t.Start();
In fact, the Paint event is raised when the WM_PAINT is sent to your Panel, you can catch this message to draw the image instead of draw it when Paint is raised.
public class MyPanel : Panel {
Graphics g;
public MyPanel(){
HandleCreated += (s,e) => {
g = panel1.CreateGraphics();
};
}
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m){
base.WndProc(ref m);
if(m.Msg == 0xf&&g!=null)//WM_PAINT = 0xf
g.DrawImage(im,leftTop);
}
//.... suppose somehow you pass im and leftTop in...
}

Related

How to call Paint event on MouseHover?

I have a panel's Paint event which draws a rectangle around the panel to highlight it.
Paint event-
private void deal_details_panel_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
int thickness = 2;//it's up to you
int halfThickness = thickness / 2;
using (Pen p = new Pen(Color.GreenYellow, thickness))
{
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(p, new Rectangle(halfThickness,
halfThickness,
deal_details_panel.ClientSize.Width - thickness,
deal_details_panel.ClientSize.Height - thickness));
}
}
Initially i dont want this rectangle to be shown, I have a button on which if i hover, only then i want to show this rectangle and on MouseLeave event i want to make it invisible again.
Button_Hover-
private void add_MouseHover(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
deal_details_panel.Invalidate();
}
I saw some answers which were to use Invalidate(), but, Invalidate() is not working for me.
Use Refresh() instead of Invalidate().
The Invalidate() method does not force repaint, it simply marks the control as "need repainting", leaving it up to the OS to repaint when needed.
The Refresh() method will force repainting immediately.
For more information, read Whats the difference between Control.Invalidate, Control.Update and Control.Refresh? blog post, where it clearly states:
Control.Invalidate( ) / Control.Invalidate(bool) / Control.Invalidate(Rectangle) / Control.Invalidate(Rectangle, bool) / Control.Invalidate(Region) / Control.Invalidate(Region, bool)
....
The important thing to note here is that these functions only “invalidate” or “dirty” the client area by adding it to the current update region of the window of the control. This invalidated region, along with all other areas in the update region, is marked for painting when the next WM_PAINT message is received. As a result you may not see your control refreshing (and showing the invalidation) immediately (or synchronously).
Update
In order for the panel to show the YellowGreen border only when the mouse is hovering over the button, you need to change your code a little bit.
First, add a bool field to your form, to indicate whether to draw the border or not, initialized to false:
private bool _drawBorder = false;
Then, change the paint method to take that value into consideration:
private void deal_details_panel_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if(_drawBorder)
{
int thickness = 2;//it's up to you
int halfThickness = thickness / 2;
using (Pen p = new Pen(Color.GreenYellow, thickness))
{
e.Graphics.DrawRectangle(p, new Rectangle(halfThickness,
halfThickness,
deal_details_panel.ClientSize.Width - thickness,
deal_details_panel.ClientSize.Height - thickness));
}
}
}
Finally, don't use the mouse_Hover event on the button, use MouseEnter and MouseLeave instead.
This is for two reasons - 1: Mouse_Hover have a built in delay and 2: using Mouse_Hover you don't get an indication when the mouse stops hovering over the button.
In the MouseEnter and MouseLeave event handlers, all you need to do is update the value of _drawBorder and call deal_details_panel.Refresh():
private void add_MouseEnter(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
_drawBorder = true;
deal_details_panel.Refresh();
}
private void add_MouseLeave(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
_drawBorder = false;
deal_details_panel.Refresh();
}
Zohar pointed correct solution but I would add a suggestion to change:
using (Pen p = new Pen(Color.GreenYellow, thickness))
to:
using (Pen p = new Pen(Color.Transparent, thickness))
This will set correct state from the start so no need to repaint.

How to delete/remove/undo DrawString in C# WinForm

My form has a background image. I have some pictureBoxes i am using as buttons. I am attempting to have a MouseEnter/MouseLeave event to display label or pictureBox.
I have been trying various approaches. I am getting similar results- The label or picturebox appears fine, but on MouseLeave, label1.Visible = false; causes a very temporary blank box over the background image of the form. While it is fully functional, it just seems like a very slight lag, but makes the program look bad.
I experimented with the DrawString method. This seems like it could be a good option, but i cannot figure out how to remove the object on a MouseLeave event.
Is this possible? If not, is there a better option to accomplish what i am trying to accomplish?
Here is how I am drawing my string (in buttonClick event for testing):
Graphics g = this.CreateGraphics();
string letter = "Yo Dawg!";
g.DrawString(letter, new Font(FontFamily.GenericSansSerif, 20, FontStyle.Regular),
new SolidBrush(Color.Black), 100, 100);
You would draw in the paint event, in MouseLeave set a flag, cause a paint with Invalidate() then within paint if the flag is not set don't draw anything.
public partial class TheForm : Form
{
private Font _font = new Font(FontFamily.GenericSansSerif, 20, FontStyle.Regular);
private bool _hovering = false;
public TheForm() {
InitializeComponent();
picBox.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(picBox_Paint);
picBox.MouseEnter += (sender, e) => UpdateText(true);
picBox.MouseLeave += (sender, e) => UpdateText(false);
}
private void picBox_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e) {
if (_hovering)
e.Graphics.DrawString("Yo Dawg!", _font, Brushes.Black, 100, 100);
}
private void UpdateText(bool show) {
_hovering = show;
picBox.Invalidate();
}
}

Invisible controls drawing over graphic object

I have a method where I disable or enable some custom controls and then use a graphics object to draw lines and rectangles.
The gist of the method:
void MyMethod()
{
//...
mycontrol.enabled = false;
mycontrol.visible = false;
mycontrol.Invalidate();
mycontrol.Update();
GraphicsObject.DrawLines();
//...
}
Right after this method returns, the screen looks great. I have rectangles and lines where controls used to be.
However, after the click event handler returns (which called the above method). The controls which should be invisible draw over the lines and rectangles (leaving those area's blank - the same color as the background form).
Is there any way to fix this?
Thanks
As I mentioned in my comment if you are drawing on an object if you do not use the OnPaint Method or the Paint Event your custom drawing will not be automatically redrawn. Depending on what you are drawing on you can do something like( I am assuming you are drawing on a Form).
void MyMethod()
{
//...
mycontrol.enabled = false;
mycontrol.visible = false;
mycontrol.Invalidate();
mycontrol.Update();
this.Invalidate();
}
private void Form1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
//Conditional Logic to determine what you are drawing
// myPoints is a Point array that you fill elsewhere in your program
e.Graphics.DrawLines(new Pen(Brushes.Red), myPoints);
}

How to draw on Control so drawing doesn't disappear?

I want to display graphic file in PictureBox I have:
private void btnLoad_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (dgOpenFile.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
{
Bitmap img = new Bitmap(dgOpenFile.FileName);
picture.Width = img.Height;
picture.Height = img.Height;
g.DrawImage(img, 0f, 0f);
}
}
That's g
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
g = picture.CreateGraphics();
}
But when I move my Form outside the window my picture disappears. How can I prevent that?
You should do any custom drawing in the OnPaint event of the control to make it persistent. This causes your drawing to be redrawn every time the control is painted.
However, in this case it would be easier to use the picture box as it was designed:
picture.Image = img;
Windows uses a Paint-on-Request principle.
So when it sends a WM_PAINT message to your Control, it's OnPaint() is called. You should be ready to draw the image (again) in an overridden OnPaint() or in a Paint event handler.
But a Picturebox will do all this for you.

How to allow user to move a control on the form

I have a winform on which i want to allow the user to move a control.
The control is (for now) a vertical line : label with border and a width of 1.
The context is not very important but i'll give it to you anyways. I have a background with some graphics and i'd like the user to be able to slide a guideline above the graphics. The graphics are made with the NPlots library. It looks something like this:
http://www.ibme.de/pictures/xtm-window-graphic-ramp-signals.png
If i can find out how the user can click and drag the label/line control around the screen, i can solve my guideline problem. Please help.
The code for this can get a bit complex, but essentially you will need to capture the MouseDown, MouseMove, and MouseUp events on your form. Something like this:
public void Form1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if(e.Button != MouseButton.Left)
return;
// Might want to pad these values a bit if the line is only 1px,
// might be hard for the user to hit directly
if(e.Y == myControl.Top)
{
if(e.X >= myControl.Left && e.X <= myControl.Left + myControl.Width)
{
_capturingMoves = true;
return;
}
}
_capturingMoves = false;
}
public void Form1_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if(!_capturingMoves)
return;
// Calculate the delta's and move the line here
}
public void Form1_MouseUp(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
if(_capturingMoves)
{
_capturingMoves = false;
// Do any final placement
}
}
In WinForms, you can handle the MouseDown, MouseMove and MouseUp events of a control. On MouseDown, set some bit or reference telling your form what control the mouse was clicked on, and capture the X and Y of the mouse from MouseEventArgs. On MouseMove, if a control is set, adjust its X and Y by the difference between your last captured X and Y and the current coordinates. On MouseUp, release the control.
I would set up an "edit mode" for this; when the user enters this mode, the current event handlers of your form's controls should be detached, and the movement handlers attached. If you want to persist or revert these changes (like you're making a custom form designer your client can use to customize window layouts), you'll also need to be able to take some sort of snapshot of the before and after layouts of the controls.
I wrote a component to do exactly that: move a control on a form (or move a borderless form on the screen). You can even use it from the designer, without writing any code.
http://www.thomaslevesque.com/2009/05/06/windows-forms-automatically-drag-and-drop-controls-dragmove/
Here's an extension method that you can use for any control. It uses Rx and is based on the A Brief Introduction to the Reactive Extensions for .NET, Rx post and sample by Wes Dyer.
public static class FormExtensions
{
public static void EnableDragging(this Control c)
{
// Long way, but strongly typed.
var downs =
from down in Observable.FromEvent<MouseEventHandler, MouseEventArgs>(
eh => new MouseEventHandler(eh),
eh => c.MouseDown += eh,
eh => c.MouseDown -= eh)
select new { down.EventArgs.X, down.EventArgs.Y };
// Short way.
var moves = from move in Observable.FromEvent<MouseEventArgs>(c, "MouseMove")
select new { move.EventArgs.X, move.EventArgs.Y };
var ups = Observable.FromEvent<MouseEventArgs>(c, "MouseUp");
var drags = from down in downs
from move in moves.TakeUntil(ups)
select new Point { X = move.X - down.X, Y = move.Y - down.Y };
drags.Subscribe(drag => c.SetBounds(c.Location.X + drag.X, c.Location.Y + drag.Y, 0, 0, BoundsSpecified.Location));
}
}
Usage:
Button button1 = new Button();
button1.EnableDragging();
Well in all honesty there is a simpler way where by you initialize a global boolean variable called whatever you like, in this case, isMouseClicked. On your control you wish to allow dragging you go to its mouse down event,
Make sure these event are your control events not your forms event.
if (e.button == MouseButtons.left)
//this is where you set the boolean to true
Then go to its mouse move event
if (isMouseClicked == true)
//You then set your location of your control. See below:
Button1.Location = new Point(MousePosition.X, MousePosition.Y);
On your mouse up make sure to set your isMouseClicked to false;

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