How to Draw Circles on GUI?

[Lost User]

Stuck At Zero wrote:

Am I better off doing this on Visual C++ or Visual Basic?

Only if you have more experience with either of those languages, although the issue is exactly the same whether you use VB.NET or C#. My original suggestion to use the graphics class is still your best option.

Use the best guess

[Lost User]

True. I should have said "generally"; or "moving forward". I assumed that at some point, he would be doing something other than "drawing circles". But I could be wrong.

[Lost User]

Why is that "the best option"? I see no reason why it is better than say WPF. Or flipping picture images as the OP is thinking of.

[Lost User]

Gerry Schmitz wrote:

why it is better than say WPF.

In the original question the OP states: "I'm a total noob at C# 2005", which suggests that WPF would be an even bigger mountain to climb.

Use the best guess

[Lost User]

You assume too much. If the OP was prepared to use WPF, I would have posted a solution that any "noob" would have understood. Any solution (in this case) that is at least object-oriented is superior to one that simply "draws". The OP is creating a UI (not some scribbles); and creating "leds" implies managing "state" (i.e. on/off); image controls (the OP's thinking), "shapes", etc. are a lot more useful in this case than simply "drawing" (as you are suggesting).

[Lost User]

Gerry Schmitz wrote:

You assume too much

Not at all; if someone states that they are completely new to C# then it's a fair bet that they would not find WPF easy.

Gerry Schmitz wrote:

Any solution (in this case) that is at least object-oriented is superior to one that simply "draws".

I never claimed that it wasn't.

Gerry Schmitz wrote:

more useful in this case than simply "drawing" (as you are suggesting).

I made no such suggestion; I merely pointed the OP at the .NET Graphics Class[^] which can be used to draw circles. I left the actual implementation to him/her to figure out.

Use the best guess

[cjb110]

I don't know what VisualStudio it came with but there is a VisualBasic PowerPack that added the basic graphics objects to the toolbox for C# WinForm usage. There's also multiple articles about creating LED controls on this site. Search If you want to do it yourself, then you need to start looking into UserControls, and basically you create a class inheriting from UserControl and then you override the OnPaint event. This is the OnPaint I did, its not great but it looks like a little led (with fade from colour to colour) which is all I wanted.

    protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
    {
        base.OnPaint(e);

        Pen borderPen = new Pen(Color.Black);
        borderPen.Width = ClientSize.Width <= 16 ? 2 : 4;

        if (this.IsError)
        {
            using (Graphics g = e.Graphics)
            {
                SolidBrush brushError = new SolidBrush(ColorError);
                g.FillEllipse(brushError, 0, 0, ClientSize.Width, ClientSize.Height);

                g.DrawEllipse(borderPen, 0, 0, ClientSize.Width, ClientSize.Height);

                brushError.Dispose();
            }
        }
        else
        {
            Pen pen = new Pen(PercentageColor);

            SolidBrush brushInside = new SolidBrush(PercentageColor);

            int colorStepGradient = 1;
            byte colorGradient = 255 / 10;

            using (Graphics g = e.Graphics)
            {
                g.SmoothingMode = SmoothingMode.AntiAlias;

                int x = 0, y = 0;
                Color origPenColor = pen.Color;
                Color origBrushColor = brushInside.Color;
                int width = ClientSize.Width, height = ClientSize.Height;

                //draw ellipses at smaller and smaller sizes, stepping by \_colorStepGradient
                for (; x <= width && y <= height; x += colorStepGradient, y += colorStepGradient, width -= 2 \* colorStepGradient, height -= 2 \* colorStepGradient)
                {
                    g.DrawEllipse(pen, x, y, width, height);
                    g.FillEllipse(brushInside, x, y, width, height);

                    byte newR = pen.Color.R;
                    byte newG = pen.Color.G;
                    byte newB = pen.Color.B;

[Stuck At Zero]

I was just about to post that someone at work mentioned to me about the Visual Basic Power Pack. This is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much for posting and walking a mile in my shoes. I will look into the more specialized LED search you hyperlinked, but I suspect the Power Pack is all that I need. I definitely want to avoid coding the "LEDs" by hand since I'm dealing with a lot of these things. Thanks Again!!!

[Stuck At Zero]

I'm a total newbie when it comes to C#, so I've been trying to wing it with online tutorials on making GUI apps. Powers that be don't really care HOW I do it. They just want to see a notional version of what they had envisioned.

[Stuck At Zero]

I don't know how much this software will morph over time, but the only other special thing I will need to look into is a "console" window on one of the tabs of my GUI to take manual commands as things are running. Outside of that, my best guess is that the "drawing circles" is the only quirky feature I need to have for this GUI that isn't obvious on the standard C# toolbox. Time will prove me wrong.

[cjb110]

A custom user control seems a perfect solution then tbh. You can go the route I took and do it all via code, or you could use the VB PowerPack to draw the circles on the empty canvas it gives you.