How do I keep aspect ratio on scalable, scrollable content in WPF? - c#

I'm fairly new to WPF and I've come across a problem that seems a bit tricky to solve. Basically I want a 4x4 grid thats scalable but keeps a square (or any other arbitrary) aspect ratio. This actually seems quite tricky to do, which surprises me because I would imagine its a reasonably common requirement.
I start with a Grid definition like this:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinition>
...
</Grid>
Now if you set that to stretch, it can fill the Window or whatever container you put it in. The rows and column are uniform but the aspect ratio isn't fixed.
Then I tried putting it in a StackPanel to use the available space. Didn't help. What did get me most of the way there was when I remembered Viewboxes.
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<Viewbox>
<Grid Height="1000" Width="1000"> <!-- this locks aspect ratio -->
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<Grid.RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<Grid.ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinition>
...
</Grid>
</viewbox>
<Label HorizontalAlignment="Stretch">Extra Space</Label>
</StackPanel>
Now my content scales and keeps aspect ratio. The problem is that if the window isn't wide enough some of my grid is off the screen. I'd like to be able to scroll to it if that were the case. Likewise, I might need a minimum size, which might lead to vertical scrolling too.
Now I've tried putting my StackPanel and Grid (separately) in an appropriate ScrollViewer container but then the content no longer scales to fit the window. It goes to full size, which is no good.
So how do I go about doing this? Am I barking up the wrong tree? Is there a better/easier way of doing this?

You need to put the content (the grid) inside a Viewbox and set the Viewbox.Stretch Property to Stretch.Uniform
The Viewbox control is used to stretch or scale a child element and lets you control the way the child is stretched. Check the examples here.
(source: microsoft.com)

In this instance, your best bet is a UniformGrid. This is only useful if you want NxN grids.

You need to set SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight" on the window to give you the behaviour you're after.

put 0.25* instead of * for each Column and RowWidth

Related

Increase font size when screen is smaller

I have this in my XAML
<Grid>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.4*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="0.4*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Column="1">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="0.5*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="0.5*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Row="1" >
<TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Center" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="Hello there and welcome!" />
</Grid>
</Grid>
</Grid>
The problem I'm facing is that the TextBlock will remain the same FontSize on all screen sizes, so when the screen is small, its easy to read but as the screen gets bigger its harder to read.
How do I keep it at a nice FontSize so it's readable from all screen sizes? Is there a way of increasing the font size as the screen expands?
You can wrap it inside the ViewBox
<Window xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation">
<Viewbox>
<TextBlock HorizontalAlignment="Center" TextWrapping="Wrap" Text="Hello there and welcome!" />
</Viewbox>
</Window>
WPF fonts are DPI aware, so they'll be the same size regardless of resolution. A viewbox will allow you to scale everything down to fit, although in my experience it typically results in everything looking too small, especially if it's been designed on a desktop and then viewed on a laptop. What I do myself is create two themes and choose the appropriate one based on physical display size (i.e. product of DPI and resolution). Not sure if it's the best solution, but so far it seems to be working.

How do I specify that a buttons width should be 70% of its height in Windows Phone Xaml?

I want the buttons below to take as much space as available horizontally and the height of the buttons to be 70% of the widths. Should, and probably is simple but I haven't found the solution.
Code:
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition></RowDefinition>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
<ColumnDefinition></ColumnDefinition>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button x:Name="startButton">Start</Button>
<Button x:Name="stopButton" Grid.Column="1">Stop</Button>
</Grid>
There shouldn't be much difference between normal WPF and Windows-Phone WPF, so try this link:
Dynamic percentage-based width in WPF

Cannot get grid splitter to work the way I would like within 3 column grid in WPF

I have the following grid using WPF and a few third party controls (Telerik):
<Grid x:Name="grid2" Grid.Row="1">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" MinWidth="150"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="5"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" MinWidth='80'/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Column="0">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="26"/>
<RowDefinition/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<telerik:RadBreadcrumb Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Header="RadBreadcrumb"/>
<telerik:RadTreeView Grid.Row="1"/>
</Grid>
<GridSplitter Grid.Column="1" HorizontalAlignment="Center" Width="5" Height="auto"/>
<telerik:RadTransitionControl x:Name="Trans" Grid.Column="2" Width="auto"/>
</Grid>
Currently I am trying to make it so that the grid in column 0 (on the left side) will not re-size while re-sizing the window. I was able to achieve this effect by setting the width of column "0" to either a static 150 or auto. However, when I did this, the grid splitter no longer respected the minimum width of column 2 and allowed it to drag off the screen. By setting both column 0 and 2 to a width of star (the way I have it in the code now) the min widths are respected (the columns can't shrink past the 150 and 80 defined) but they don't re-size properly (the left column re-sizes in proportion to the right column). I would like to somehow get both the resize and the gridsplitter to work at the same time. Let me know if I wasn't clear enough or if more input is needed.
So, this isn't exactly what I was looking for, but it's doing the job for me:
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="auto" MinWidth="150" MaxWidth="1000"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="5"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
I set the MaxWidth of my left hand column so that you could no longer drag the splitter past the point of no return on the right side. This solution also allows me to set the first column's width to auto (which makes the re-sizing work the way I intended as well). Unless you have a monitor smaller than 1000px wide (which in the environment I'm working in won't happen) this solution will work just using XAML. Again, I'm a little disappointed with this solution but its at least working in a simplistic manner.

Grid RowDefinitions trouble in Windows Phone 8

Critical problem here. In my case i assemble the below code for my application. Unfortunately, it creates the bigger problem in layout. Even we put RowDefinitions with Auto, it does not consider the RowHeight and goes underneath to the Bottom of the Windows Phone emulator.
<Grid>
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid Grid.Row="0" x:Name="firstGrid" Tap="FirstGrid_OnTap"/>
<Grid Grid.Row="1" Visibility="Collapsed">
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Button Content="A"/>
<Button Grid.Column="1" Content="B"/>
</Grid>
</Grid>
</Grid>
On loading of the page, it fills the firstGrid with the ImageBrush. Hence whenever user taps on the firstGrid, It will just insert one more row to the Grid by enabling the visibility of the second grid. This second grid will have couple of buttons. I astonished when i see the second grid because it hides in the bottom of the emulator. Even my hundred of different attempts , i am not able dig into the main problem which actually it has. Any help is much appreciated.
As per my understanding u need to make this change in code first row should be auto and second *.
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>

WPF - Resizing controls within a window with resize

So I'm pretty new to WPF and I'm having trouble with the layout of my Window. Currently I have a WPF application with a Grid defined as such:
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="23" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
<RowDefinition Height="Auto" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
In the very top row, spanning two columns, I have a Menu. In the second row I have some Labels in the first column and an Image and a WindowsFormsHost in the second, finally, in the third row I have a graphing control in the second column. By default, I set the size of the Image and WFH to 570 x 413. Now, I'd like for both the Image and WFH to expand when my Window is resized such that they maintain the same relative (to the Window) size. (I actually would like the same to happen to my graphing control as well, but I can probably figure that one out if I can get the others. I cannot for the life of me figure out what setting I need to turn on/off or what I might need to bind or whatever in order to make this happen. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Have you tried:
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
Make sure to assign your Grid.Row within your image or control, but do not sign the controls height/width properties. The control should autosize with expansion.
Update
Did a quick test to make sure this works.
<Grid>
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="23"/>
<RowDefinition Height="*"/>
<RowDefinition Height="Auto"/>
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Label Grid.Row="0" Content="Example"/>
<Image Grid.Row="1" Source="c:\Example.jpg"/>
<Label Grid.Row="2" Content="Example2"/>
</Grid>
The image expands with the application based on the image's proportions. It does expand, but it keeps it's dimensions along with the full image in view. If you were to change the rowdefinition from ***** to Auto, you will notice that the image will expand, but it will expand past your view. Meaning you will not always see the full image.
I would suggest making a simple application like above, and playing with constraints to figure out what each does.
You need to show more information in your description, because all of the properties of the Grid and of the Image, etc. will factor into the layout.
However, you probably want to look at the HorizontalAlignment and VerticalAlignment properties of your Grid and of your Image, as well as the Stretch property of the Image. Also, you don't want to specify a fixed size for the image (you can specify a MinWidth and a MinHeight if you want them to be a certain size when starting up).
Here's a quick example that shows a grid filling a window, with a scaling image.
<Grid HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
VerticalAlignment="Stretch">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="23" />
<RowDefinition Height="*" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="Auto"/>
<ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<Label Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Content="First Row" />
<Label Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="1" Content="Column 0, Row 1" />
<Image Grid.Column="1" Grid.Row="1"
HorizontalAlignment="Stretch"
VerticalAlignment="Stretch"
Source="Resources\ExamplePicture.png"
Stretch="Uniform" />

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