WPF Grid IsLayer
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Hi All, I'm just doing a bit of a review on a WPF app I'm working on at work and we have a few user controls at the moment which are being treated with the usual .Visible / .Hidden method of showing and hiding various bits of the interface. However, I'm just looking into converting this setup using layers instead of having to make each control hidden or visible each time a navigation button is changed. Has anyone here used them? I can't find anything about them in the Adam Nathan book WPF Unleashed and it appears that they are something to do with Blend ... The grid declaration is like:
<Grid d:IsLayer="True" x:Name="Layer"
Which is hooked up to a namespace of:
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2006"Seems like a nice solution but was just wondering if anyone here knows of any potential pitfalls? Cheers,Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Hi All, I'm just doing a bit of a review on a WPF app I'm working on at work and we have a few user controls at the moment which are being treated with the usual .Visible / .Hidden method of showing and hiding various bits of the interface. However, I'm just looking into converting this setup using layers instead of having to make each control hidden or visible each time a navigation button is changed. Has anyone here used them? I can't find anything about them in the Adam Nathan book WPF Unleashed and it appears that they are something to do with Blend ... The grid declaration is like:
<Grid d:IsLayer="True" x:Name="Layer"
Which is hooked up to a namespace of:
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2006"Seems like a nice solution but was just wondering if anyone here knows of any potential pitfalls? Cheers,Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
Jammer, WPF does not have the concept of layers like in Photoshop for example. That markup you are seeing is something that Blend puts in. I honestly do not know why it does it. You can use the ZIndex to bring objects to the front or send them to the rear. You can also do some cool things with the Grid control as it stacks controls on top of each other unless you move them with margins or place in other rows or columsn.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
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Jammer, WPF does not have the concept of layers like in Photoshop for example. That markup you are seeing is something that Blend puts in. I honestly do not know why it does it. You can use the ZIndex to bring objects to the front or send them to the rear. You can also do some cool things with the Grid control as it stacks controls on top of each other unless you move them with margins or place in other rows or columsn.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
Hi Karl, That is interesting. I picked this up from the Microsoft Expression Blend Bible by Gurdy and Mary Leete. They even go on to describe how you can programmatically change the visibility of the layers from C# ... Layer1.Visibility = Visibility.Visible/Hidden ... I did have the controls stacked on top of each other originally and I suppose you could do some efficient Hidden/Visible switching using borders to control their children. I just liked the idea of using layers and switching just two things each time a navigation button is clicked rather than having a long list of user controls and so on ... Regards,
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Hi Karl, That is interesting. I picked this up from the Microsoft Expression Blend Bible by Gurdy and Mary Leete. They even go on to describe how you can programmatically change the visibility of the layers from C# ... Layer1.Visibility = Visibility.Visible/Hidden ... I did have the controls stacked on top of each other originally and I suppose you could do some efficient Hidden/Visible switching using borders to control their children. I just liked the idea of using layers and switching just two things each time a navigation button is clicked rather than having a long list of user controls and so on ... Regards,
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
Now that I have added these layers into the blend project they are appearing as objects in the intellisense inside VS2008 and have the Visibility property ready for managing multiple controls ... Layers seems to work as expected ...
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Jammer, WPF does not have the concept of layers like in Photoshop for example. That markup you are seeing is something that Blend puts in. I honestly do not know why it does it. You can use the ZIndex to bring objects to the front or send them to the rear. You can also do some cool things with the Grid control as it stacks controls on top of each other unless you move them with margins or place in other rows or columsn.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
Oh MY! Karl!! Great, Great, Great job on Mole ... have been using it for a week now ... SO HANDY!! Thank you! I blogged about it on my own personal blog last wednesday and by thursday I was at the top of the uk google search for "mole v4"! haha!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Hi Karl, That is interesting. I picked this up from the Microsoft Expression Blend Bible by Gurdy and Mary Leete. They even go on to describe how you can programmatically change the visibility of the layers from C# ... Layer1.Visibility = Visibility.Visible/Hidden ... I did have the controls stacked on top of each other originally and I suppose you could do some efficient Hidden/Visible switching using borders to control their children. I just liked the idea of using layers and switching just two things each time a navigation button is clicked rather than having a long list of user controls and so on ... Regards,
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
Jammer wrote:
Layer1.Visibility = Visibility.Visible/Hidden
Layer1is the name of a control like a StackPanel, Grid, Border, etc., but it's not a "true" layer like Photoshop. However, it may be easier for designers to think in terms of layers of controls by naming them, but just keep in mind, there is no Layer control.Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
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Oh MY! Karl!! Great, Great, Great job on Mole ... have been using it for a week now ... SO HANDY!! Thank you! I blogged about it on my own personal blog last wednesday and by thursday I was at the top of the uk google search for "mole v4"! haha!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
Jammer, Thanks for the comments on Mole. :) Currently working a version for Silverlight 2.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
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Jammer wrote:
Layer1.Visibility = Visibility.Visible/Hidden
Layer1is the name of a control like a StackPanel, Grid, Border, etc., but it's not a "true" layer like Photoshop. However, it may be easier for designers to think in terms of layers of controls by naming them, but just keep in mind, there is no Layer control.Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
Indeed. Just for terminology its a handy thing. I've not confirmed this but it would makes sense that you could control any 'group' of UI controls but tying visibility switching to their parents in the visual tree ... such as a border. Either way its tidying up my code-behind nicely.
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Jammer, Thanks for the comments on Mole. :) Currently working a version for Silverlight 2.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
Ahhh, great. I've not had the time (nor real-world reason) to look into Silverlight too deeply as yet. Sounds like it could be some form of web developers nirvana in a year or so when its a little more extablished. Still you have to hand it to MS for getting the deal to stream the Olympics in Silverlight format. That should go a LONG way to securing its spreading use. I've also just been given Zam3D to work with and that is really going to help lever the online 3D stuff away from being exclusively a Flash thing. Really great app. Best,
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Ahhh, great. I've not had the time (nor real-world reason) to look into Silverlight too deeply as yet. Sounds like it could be some form of web developers nirvana in a year or so when its a little more extablished. Still you have to hand it to MS for getting the deal to stream the Olympics in Silverlight format. That should go a LONG way to securing its spreading use. I've also just been given Zam3D to work with and that is really going to help lever the online 3D stuff away from being exclusively a Flash thing. Really great app. Best,
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
Zam3D is awesome! No 3D support in Silverlight yet. The SL apps they demonstrated at MIX were fantastic. Super nice stuff. Even AOL ported their client to SL 2.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
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Zam3D is awesome! No 3D support in Silverlight yet. The SL apps they demonstrated at MIX were fantastic. Super nice stuff. Even AOL ported their client to SL 2.
Cheers, Karl» CodeProject 2008 MVP My Blog | Mole's Home Page | How To Create Screen Capture Videos For Your ArticlesJust a grain of sand on the worlds beaches.
Indeed ... What i've seen of Zam3D is great. I also use Blender and Cinema4D, C4D is simply stunning and I find myself creating most object in that app and porting them as .obj. Zam3D is just so damn fast to make things, the Laythe feature is truly inspiring to use and the catelog of materials and animations (and the ability to save your own) is really great. Still its an arse since I have only started with WPF 1 month ago and I have to have a complete app interface to demo to the BOD on the 18th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No time for working out the idiosyncracies of WPF 3D in this schedule!!!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Indeed ... What i've seen of Zam3D is great. I also use Blender and Cinema4D, C4D is simply stunning and I find myself creating most object in that app and porting them as .obj. Zam3D is just so damn fast to make things, the Laythe feature is truly inspiring to use and the catelog of materials and animations (and the ability to save your own) is really great. Still its an arse since I have only started with WPF 1 month ago and I have to have a complete app interface to demo to the BOD on the 18th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No time for working out the idiosyncracies of WPF 3D in this schedule!!!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
That's interesting. I do most of my work in Cinema4D - it's workflow is simply the easiest to work with. I've not tried Zam3D - why do you think it's that good?
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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That's interesting. I do most of my work in Cinema4D - it's workflow is simply the easiest to work with. I've not tried Zam3D - why do you think it's that good?
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
Mainly because its just a really straight forward app. You could never do what C4D does in it and I think for that it makes it a nice quick 3D app. Plus when your targeting WPF the fact that it then outputs EVERYTHING to XAML is just great. All the animations etc are all in storyboards ... Add to that the opportunity of just taking that XAML file and opening it in your browser to quickly 'check out' before going anywhere near your WPF app, Expression Designer or Blend and your onto a winner in my book. Its just so easy!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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Mainly because its just a really straight forward app. You could never do what C4D does in it and I think for that it makes it a nice quick 3D app. Plus when your targeting WPF the fact that it then outputs EVERYTHING to XAML is just great. All the animations etc are all in storyboards ... Add to that the opportunity of just taking that XAML file and opening it in your browser to quickly 'check out' before going anywhere near your WPF app, Expression Designer or Blend and your onto a winner in my book. Its just so easy!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
OK - I'm downloading a demo of Swift3D (there's no Zam3D demo - but they say they work in the same way). I may just purchase a copy if it's any good.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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OK - I'm downloading a demo of Swift3D (there's no Zam3D demo - but they say they work in the same way). I may just purchase a copy if it's any good.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
A lot of the Flash 3D stuff you see on the web is done using Swift3D or its plugin into other 3D apps. Well worth checking out ... and for £120 its a bargain imo ... Have a look at this ... its done using the Swift3D plugin ... http://www.tokyoplastic.com/[^] Click the top "enter tokyoplastic" link ... incredible!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
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A lot of the Flash 3D stuff you see on the web is done using Swift3D or its plugin into other 3D apps. Well worth checking out ... and for £120 its a bargain imo ... Have a look at this ... its done using the Swift3D plugin ... http://www.tokyoplastic.com/[^] Click the top "enter tokyoplastic" link ... incredible!
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
That's pretty damn impressive animation. Totally useless in a business site, but impressive non :-D theless.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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That's pretty damn impressive animation. Totally useless in a business site, but impressive non :-D theless.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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OK - I'm downloading a demo of Swift3D (there's no Zam3D demo - but they say they work in the same way). I may just purchase a copy if it's any good.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.
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How are you getting on with Swift3D Pete?
Jammer Going where everyone here has gone before! :)
Well - I've downloaded and installed it, but that's as far as it goes. I'll hopefully get some time to look at it by the end of this week.
Deja View - the feeling that you've seen this post before.