Canvas Control in Silverlight



Introduction

This article demonstrates how to create a scale on a canvas. We can create a scale on a canvas control in Silverlight. For that we have created a custom control named Ruler Control in Silverlight.

Use this control on a canvas in our Silverlight application.

Step 1: Create a Ruler Control in Silverlight.

In RulerControl.Xaml file we have a canvas named LayoutRoot.

<Canvas x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White" />

Draw a line with the help of function in Silverlight. So we can add those lines on the canvas.

In RulerControl.Xaml.cs, we have a method which draws the lines on the canvas.

     public RulerControl()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
            this.Loaded += new RoutedEventHandler(MyrulerControl_Loaded);
        }

        void MyrulerControl_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            AddLine();
        }

        public void AddLine()
        {
            int count = 0;
            for (int i = 0; i <= 500; i++)
            {
                if (i == 0 || i % 50 == 0)
                {
                    Line l = new Line
                    {
                        Stroke = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black),
                        X1 = i,
                        Y1 = this.Height - 2,
                        X2 = i,
                        Y2 = this.Height - 2 - this.Height / 2
                    };
// Add lines in Canvas
                    LayoutRoot.Children.Add(l);

                    TextBlock tb = new TextBlock();
                    tb.Text = count.ToString();
                    tb.FontSize = 9;
                    tb.SetValue(Canvas.LeftProperty, (double)(i - 3));
                    tb.SetValue(Canvas.TopProperty, 15.5);
                    LayoutRoot.Children.Add(tb);
                    count++;

                }

                else if (i % 10 == 0)
                {
                    Line l = new Line
                    {
                        Stroke = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black),
                        X1 = i,
                        Y1 = this.Height - 2,
                        X2 = i,
                        Y2 = this.Height - 2 - this.Height / 4
                    };
                    LayoutRoot.Children.Add(l);
                }
 
            }
        }

Step 2: Use a RulerControl on another Silverlight page

Let's say we have MainPage.Xaml.

<x:Class="SilverlightApplication.MainPage">
<xmlns:rulerctrl="clr-namespace:SilverlightApplication.Controls">

<Canvas Height="27"  Name="canvas1"  Width="522" Background="White" Canvas.Left="27" >
 <rulerctrl:RulerControl Height="18" VerticalAlignment="Top"x:Name="firstruler"/>
</
Canvas>

It looks like as below.

canvas control in silverlight

Step 3: Move button on canvas scale.

We can move the button on the canvas. Take one Button in the Canvas as follows.

<Grid x:Name="LayoutRoot" Background="White">
        <Canvas Height="27"  Name="canvas1"  Width="522" Background="White" VerticalAlignment="Top" MouseMove="canvas1_MouseMove">
            <rulerctrl:RulerControl Height="18" VerticalAlignment="Top" x:Name="firstruler"></rulerctrl:RulerControl>
            <Button Height="18" Width="20" Canvas.Left="61" Canvas.Top="34" x:Name="btnFirst" Content="F" Style="{StaticResource btnstyle }">
                <Button.RenderTransform>
                    <RotateTransform Angle="180"></RotateTransform>
                </Button.RenderTransform>
            </Button>
        </Canvas>
    </Grid>

Here we have MouseMove event of canvas. Using this we can move the button on canvas.
Like,

private void canvas1_MouseMove(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
 {
     btnFirst.SetValue(Canvas.LeftProperty, e.GetPosition(canvas1).X);
 }

Output looks like as following

canvas control in silverlight

Summary :

We can create a scale on a canvas; we can also move the button on the canvas.as ruler in word file.

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