How to stop Paint events from stacking up - c#

I'm creating an application to schedule different tasks. These are displayed by drawing rectangles on a panel. This has to be responsive. So I need to draw and invalidate on every size change. When I reach a maximum height of my planning panel it autoscrolls.
The problem is when I grab the scrollbar and start scrolling away for a bit, when I release the scrollbar my whole application and computer freezes.
Most likely this is due to the onpaint event being called on every little scroll and stacking up, leaving the application to hang until they are all done.
Now my question is: How would I be able to fix this? Possibly by keeping the paint event from being called multiple times, but how?
The method called by the paint event:
private void panelPlanning_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 0; i < userList.Count; i++)
{
Label temp = new Label();
temp.Text = userList[i].Text;
temp.Width = panelUsers.Width;
temp.Height = 50;
temp.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
temp.Location = new Point(0, i * 50);
temp.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter;
panelUsers.Controls.Add(temp);
foreach (FullTask task in taskList)
{
if (task.AssignedTo == userList[i].Text && task.StartDate != "" && task.DueDate != "")
{
DateTime start = DateTime.ParseExact(task.StartDate, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
DateTime end = DateTime.ParseExact(task.DueDate, "dd/MM/yyyy", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
Brush brush;
if (task.Priority == Enums.priorities[2])
{
brush = Brushes.Yellow;
}
else if (task.Priority == Enums.priorities[1])
{
brush = new SolidBrush(Color.FromArgb(255, 0, 80, 123));
}
else
{
brush = Brushes.Red;
}
panelPlanning.CreateGraphics().FillRectangle(brush, new Rectangle((start.Subtract(dtPickerStart.Value).Days + 1) * labelDaysWidth, i * 50, (end.Subtract(start).Days + 1) * labelDaysWidth, 25));
}
}
}
}

You are adding new Label controls on every single paint event. Don't do this:
// Label temp = new Label();
// temp.Text = userList[i].Text;
// temp.Width = panelUsers.Width;
// temp.Height = 50;
// temp.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
// temp.Location = new Point(0, i * 50);
// temp.TextAlign = ContentAlignment.MiddleCenter;
// panelUsers.Controls.Add(temp);
Also, use the e.Graphics object supplied by the argument, not CreateGraphics,

The following line of code should only be executed once:
panelUsers.Controls.Add(temp);
You are constantly adding a new instance of temp to the panelUsers control.

You have to trace which FullTask actually has to be displayed on the screen. This can be achieved by looking on Control.ClientRectangle and keeping in mind current scroll position.
In this way from the all set of the FullTasks to draw you will get only that subset of tasks that actually visible on the screen, and draw only those ones.
This is a correct way of dealing with drawable artifacts which is implemented in more or less all drawing frameworks 2D or even 3D.
There is also concept of tracing if some element is covered (or part of it is covered) by another element, so it will be "culed", but in your case this doesn't seem to matter.
Pay attention also on fact that you adding controls. Do not do that. If the amount of FullTasks is big, just draw them with Graphics object.

as already Described by #LarsTech, don't add controls in the paint event, and use the supplied Graphics object instead of your own ...
If you still face performance problems, consider painting on a bitmap whenever you change something, and only draw that bitmap onto the screen in onPaint

Related

Drawing simultaneously on two controls in two windows without delay

In my application, there are 2 windows and both contain a PictureBox. The first (pb1) allows interaction and the image can be changed through click- and mouseMove-events. These events call pb1.Invalidate(); which works fine.
I want the second PictureBox (pb2) to redraw as well so I call pb2.Invalidate() from the paint-event of pb1. [Just for context, the second PictureBox shows nearly the same Image but on a bigger scale and some parts of the drawing will be left out in the future so I use the same Method in both paint events which decides what to draw and what not]
It works but it's "laggy" and I want it to be as smooth as the paint on the first PictureBox. I reduced the paint event just to a grid for test purposes.
Both windows are double buffered.
I tried replacing the picture boxes with SKGLControls from SkiaSharp (which should have better performance). The example code still uses the SkiaEvents so don't be confused if the problem occurs with both controls.
I tried to use .Update() or .Refresh() instead of .Invalidate() but i guess its to much to handle, the application just crashes..
Here is the method that is called by both OnPaint events
public void Update(SKPaintGLSurfaceEventArgs e, bool bigscreen)
{
SKCanvas canvas = e.Surface.Canvas;
canvas.Clear(SKColors.Beige);
//Zoom to specified area
SKMatrix matrix = SKMatrix.Identity;
if (!bigscreen)
{
matrix = matrix.PostConcat(SKMatrix.CreateScale(canvasSize / (float)zoomArea.Width, canvasSize / (float)zoomArea.Height));
}
else
{
matrix = matrix.PostConcat(SKMatrix.CreateScale(bigCanvasSize / (float)zoomArea.Width, bigCanvasSize / (float)zoomArea.Height));
}
matrix = matrix.PreConcat(SKMatrix.CreateTranslation(-zoomArea.X, -zoomArea.Y));
canvas.SetMatrix(matrix);
DrawGrid(canvas);
}
and the grid-draw method
private void DrawGrid(SKCanvas canvas)
{
using (SKPaint paint = new SKPaint() { IsAntialias = true,Color=SKColors.LightGray,StrokeWidth = 1})
{
canvas.DrawLine(0, 0, 0, gridCanvas.Height, paint); //Size gridCanvas is always the same at the moment and defines the space where the grid is drawn
canvas.DrawLine(0, 0, gridCanvas.Width, 0, paint);
for (int i = 0; i <= (gridCanvas.Width - gridoffsetX) / pxPerSquare; i++)
{
canvas.DrawLine(i * pxPerSquare + gridoffsetX, 0, i * pxPerSquare + gridoffsetX, gridCanvas.Height, paint);
}
for (int i = 0; i <= (gridCanvas.Height - gridoffsetY) / pxPerSquare; i++)
{
canvas.DrawLine(0, i * pxPerSquare + gridoffsetY, gridCanvas.Width, i * pxPerSquare + gridoffsetY, paint);
}
}
}
and finally the original Paint Event
private void Pb1_PaintSurface(object sender, SKPaintGLSurfaceEventArgs e)
{
win2.UpdateDrawing(); //Just calls .Invalidate() on pb2
painter.Update(e, false);
}
examplePicture
So my question is: Is there a way to make both controls draw at nearly the same time without delay, although I don't understand why the first PictureBox draws in real time and the second doesn't...
Thanks!
after searching for day i found this page right after posting, which helped me:
Onpaint events (invalidated) changing execution order after a period normal operation (runtime)

Dynamically display an array of PictureBoxes - Performance issue

I'd like to display coverarts for each album of an MP3 library, a bit like Itunes does (at a later stage, i'd like to click one any of these coverarts to display the list of songs).
I have a form with a panel panel1 and here is the loop i'm using :
int i = 0;
int perCol = 4;
int disBetWeen = 15;
int width = 250;
int height = 250;
foreach(var alb in mp2)
{
myPicBox.Add(new PictureBox());
myPicBox[i].SizeMode = System.Windows.Forms.PictureBoxSizeMode.StretchImage;
myPicBox[i].Location = new System.Drawing.Point(disBetWeen + (disBetWeen * (i % perCol) +(width * (i % perCol))),
disBetWeen + (disBetWeen * (i / perCol))+ (height * (i / perCol)));
myPicBox[i].Name = "pictureBox" + i;
myPicBox[i].Size = new System.Drawing.Size(width, height);
myPicBox[i].ImageLocation = #"C:/Users/Utilisateur/Music/label.jpg";
panel1.Controls.Add(myPicBox[i]);
i++;
}
I'm using the same picture per picturebox for convenience, but i'll use the coverart embedded in each mp3 file eventually.
It's working fine with an abstract of the library (around 50), but i have several thousands of albums. I tried and as expected, it takes a long time to load and i cannot really scroll afterward.
Is there any way to load only what's displayed ? and then how to assess what is displayed with the scrollbars.
Thanks
Winforms really isn't suited to this sort of thing... Using standard controls, you'd probably need to either provision all the image boxes up front and load images in as they become visible, or manage some overflow placeholder for the appropriate length so the scrollbars work.
Assuming Winforms is your only option, I'd suggest you look into creating a custom control with a scroll bar and manually driving the OnPaint event.
That would allow you to keep a cache of images in memory to draw the current view [and a few either side], while giving you total control over when they're loaded/unloaded [well, as "total" as you can get in a managed language - you may still need tune garbage collection]
To get into some details....
Create a new control
namespace SO61574511 {
// Let's inherit from Panel so we can take advantage of scrolling for free
public class ImageScroller : Panel {
// Some numbers to allow us to calculate layout
private const int BitmapWidth = 100;
private const int BitmapSpacing = 10;
// imageCache will keep the images in memory. Ideally we should unload images we're not using, but that's a problem for the reader
private Bitmap[] imageCache;
public ImageScroller() {
//How many images to put in the cache? If you don't know up-front, use a list instead of an array
imageCache = new Bitmap[100];
//Take advantage of Winforms scrolling
this.AutoScroll = true;
this.AutoScrollMinSize = new Size((BitmapWidth + BitmapSpacing) * imageCache.Length, this.Height);
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e) {
// Let Winforms paint its bits (like the scroll bar)
base.OnPaint(e);
// Translate whatever _we_ paint by the position of the scrollbar
e.Graphics.TranslateTransform(this.AutoScrollPosition.X,
this.AutoScrollPosition.Y);
// Use this to decide which images are out of sight and can be unloaded
var current_scroll_position = this.HorizontalScroll.Value;
// Loop through the images you want to show (probably not all of them, just those close to the view area)
for (int i = 0; i < imageCache.Length; i++) {
e.Graphics.DrawImage(GetImage(i), new PointF(i * (BitmapSpacing + BitmapWidth), 0));
}
}
//You won't need a random, just for my demo colours below
private Random rnd = new Random();
private Bitmap GetImage(int id) {
// This method is responsible for getting an image.
// If it's already in the cache, use it, otherwise load it
if (imageCache[id] == null) {
//Do something here to load an image into the cache
imageCache[id] = new Bitmap(100, 100);
// For demo purposes, I'll flood fill a random colour
using (var gfx = Graphics.FromImage(imageCache[id])) {
gfx.Clear(Color.FromArgb(255, rnd.Next(0, 255), rnd.Next(0, 255), rnd.Next(0, 255)));
}
}
return imageCache[id];
}
}
}
And Load it into your form, docking to fill the screen....
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
this.Controls.Add(new ImageScroller {
Dock = DockStyle.Fill
});
}
You can see it in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftr3v6pLnqA (excuse the mouse trails, I captured area outside the window)

Firing MouseDown events for overlapping Rectangles on a Canvas

I have a WPF window containing a Canvas which is populated with rotated Rectangles in code. The rectangles each have a MouseDown event and their positions will be distributed according to coordinates provided by the user. Often two or more will overlap, partially obstructing the rectangle beneath it.
I need the MouseDown event to fire for each rectangle that is under the mouse when it is pressed, even if that rectangle is obstructed by another rectangle, but I am only getting the MouseDown event for the topmost rectangle.
I have tried setting e.Handled for the clicked rectangle, and routing the events through the Canvas with no luck, and even gone as far as trying to locate the objects beneath the mouse based on their coordinates, but the rotation of the rectangles make that difficult to calculate.
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle() {Width = 80, Height = 120, Fill = Brushes.Blue };
r1.MouseDown += r_MouseDown;
RotateTransform rt1 = new RotateTransform(60);
r1.RenderTransform = rt1;
Canvas.SetLeft(r1, 150);
Canvas.SetTop(r1, 50);
canvas1.Children.Add(r1);
Rectangle r2 = new Rectangle() { Width = 150, Height = 50, Fill = Brushes.Green };
r2.MouseDown += r_MouseDown;
RotateTransform rt2 = new RotateTransform(15);
r2.RenderTransform = rt2;
Canvas.SetLeft(r2, 100);
Canvas.SetTop(r2, 100);
canvas1.Children.Add(r2);
}
private void r_MouseDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
Console.WriteLine("Rectangle Clicked");
}
}
There is another question that is similar to this, but it has no accepted answer and it is quite unclear as to what the final solution should be to resolve this issue. Let's see if we can be a little more clear.
First off, the solution outlined below will use the VisualTreeHelper.HitTest method in order to identify if the mouse has clicked your rectangles. The VisualTreeHelper allows us to find the rectangles even if they have moved around due to things like Canvas.SetTop and various .RenderTransform operations.
Secondly, we are going to be capturing the click event on your canvas element rather than on the individual rectangles. This allows us to handle things at the canvas level and check all the rectangles at once, as it were.
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
//Additional rectangle for testing.
Rectangle r3 = new Rectangle() { Width = 175, Height = 80, Fill = Brushes.Goldenrod };
Canvas.SetLeft(r3, 80);
Canvas.SetTop(r3, 80);
canvas1.Children.Add(r3);
Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle() { Width = 80, Height = 120, Fill = Brushes.Blue };
RotateTransform rt1 = new RotateTransform(60);
r1.RenderTransform = rt1;
Canvas.SetLeft(r1, 100);
Canvas.SetTop(r1, 100);
canvas1.Children.Add(r1);
Rectangle r2 = new Rectangle() { Width = 150, Height = 50, Fill = Brushes.Green };
RotateTransform rt2 = new RotateTransform(15);
r2.LayoutTransform = rt2;
Canvas.SetLeft(r2, 100);
Canvas.SetTop(r2, 100);
canvas1.Children.Add(r2);
//Mouse 'click' event.
canvas1.PreviewMouseDown += canvasMouseDown;
}
//list to store the hit test results
private List<HitTestResult> hitResultsList = new List<HitTestResult>();
The HitTest method being used is the more complicated one, because the simplest version of that method only returns "the topmost" item. And by topmost, they mean the first item drawn, so it's actually visually the one on the bottom of the stack of rectangles. In order to get all of the rectangles, we need to use the complicated version of the HitTest method shown below.
private void canvasMouseDown(object sender, MouseButtonEventArgs e)
{
if (canvas1.Children.Count > 0)
{
// Retrieve the coordinates of the mouse position.
Point pt = e.GetPosition((UIElement)sender);
// Clear the contents of the list used for hit test results.
hitResultsList.Clear();
// Set up a callback to receive the hit test result enumeration.
VisualTreeHelper.HitTest(canvas1,
new HitTestFilterCallback(MyHitTestFilter),
new HitTestResultCallback(MyHitTestResult),
new PointHitTestParameters(pt));
// Perform actions on the hit test results list.
if (hitResultsList.Count > 0)
{
string msg = null;
foreach (HitTestResult htr in hitResultsList)
{
Rectangle r = (Rectangle)htr.VisualHit;
msg += r.Fill.ToString() + "\n";
}
//Message displaying the fill colors of all the rectangles
//under the mouse when it was clicked.
MessageBox.Show(msg);
}
}
}
// Filter the hit test values for each object in the enumeration.
private HitTestFilterBehavior MyHitTestFilter(DependencyObject o)
{
// Test for the object value you want to filter.
if (o.GetType() == typeof(Label))
{
// Visual object and descendants are NOT part of hit test results enumeration.
return HitTestFilterBehavior.ContinueSkipSelfAndChildren;
}
else
{
// Visual object is part of hit test results enumeration.
return HitTestFilterBehavior.Continue;
}
}
// Add the hit test result to the list of results.
private HitTestResultBehavior MyHitTestResult(HitTestResult result)
{
//Filter out the canvas object.
if (!result.VisualHit.ToString().Contains("Canvas"))
{
hitResultsList.Add(result);
}
// Set the behavior to return visuals at all z-order levels.
return HitTestResultBehavior.Continue;
}
The test example above just displays a message box showing the fill colors of all rectangles under the mouse pointer when it was clicked; verifying that VisualTreeHelper did in fact retrieve all the rectangles in the stack.

Resizing drawlines on a paint event

I've seen few questions about this problem, I tried every solution but none of them worked for my case.
My code is working; this image shows what happens when I click on Draw button.
I need to zoom on that drawing.Is it possible to code something like autocad feature "zoom/extent"?
Pen myPen = new Pen(Color.Black);
int centerpointx, centerpointy;
private void pictureBoxDraw_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
centerpointx = pictureBoxDraw.Size.Width/2;
centerpointy = pictureBoxDraw.Size.Height/2;
myPen.Width = 2;
if (binary > 0)
{
var sizecrestgeo = 40;
var distancearraycrestgeo = new float[sizecrestgeo];
var elevationarraycrestgeo = new float[sizecrestgeo];
for (int i = 0; i < sizecrestgeo; i++)
{
distancearraycrestgeo[i] = float.Parse(dataGridViewCrestGeo.Rows[i].Cells[0].Value.ToString());
elevationarraycrestgeo[i] = float.Parse(dataGridViewCrestGeo.Rows[i].Cells[1].Value.ToString())*-1;
}
for (int i=0; i < sizecrestgeo-1; i++)
{
e.Graphics.DrawLine(myPen, distancearraycrestgeo[i]+centerpointx, elevationarraycrestgeo[i]+centerpointy, distancearraycrestgeo[i + 1]+centerpointx, elevationarraycrestgeo[i + 1]+centerpointy);
}
}
else
{
}
}
private void buttonDraw_Click_1(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (Hd > 0.0001)
{
binary = 1;
pictureBoxDraw.Invalidate();
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("No data to draw, perform analysis first.");
}
}
private void buttoncleardraw_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
binary = 0;
pictureBoxDraw.Invalidate();
}
}
This is not so hard, provided you know all the puzzle pieces.
Let's start with the obvious one:
You can scale the Graphics object to create zoomed graphics with ScaleTransform.
As I mentioned, this will include the widths of pens, font sizes and also any images you draw (though not the hatches of a HatchBrush).
You also asked about keeping the drawing 'centered'. This is a non-obvious concept: Just what is the center of your drawing surface??
When zooming (just like rotating) you always need to know the center point of the zoom (or the rotation.) By default this is the origin (0,0). I chose the center of the Panel. You may want to pick some other point..
Once you do you can move the origin of the graphics viewport to this point with TranslateTransform.
Once you have achieved all this you almost certainly will want to allow scrolling.
To do so you have two options:
You can keep AutoScroll = false and nest the canvas control inside another control, usually a Panel, which has AutoScroll = true; next make the canvas control big enough to always hold your drawing and you're done.
Or you can turn on AutoScroll for the canvas control and also set a large enough AutoScrollMinSize. If you then add the current scrolling position to the translation you are also done. Let's see this solution in action:
This is the code in the Paint event:
Size sz = panel3.ClientSize;
Point center = new Point(sz.Width / 2, sz.Height / 2);
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
// center point for testing only!
g.DrawEllipse(Pens.Orange, center.X - 3, center.Y - 3, 6, 6);
// you determine the value of the zooming!
float zoom = (trackBar1.Value+1) / 3f;
// move the scrolled center to the origon
g.TranslateTransform(center.X + panel3.AutoScrollPosition.X,
center.Y + panel3.AutoScrollPosition.Y);
// scale the graphics
g.ScaleTransform(zoom, zoom);
// draw some stuff..
using(Pen pen = new Pen(Color.Yellow, 0.1f))
for (int i = -100; i < 100; i+= 10)
g.DrawEllipse(Pens.Yellow, i-22,i-22,44,44);
A few notes:
I draw an orange circle in the center to show this point is invariant.
My coordinates go from the negative to the positive so you can see that this works nicely.
I draw with a tiny pen width; so the width of the drawing only changes once the resulting pen goes over 1 pixel. Anything draw will always be draw with 1 pxiel width, though.
I first translate and then scale so I don't have to calculate scaled poitions.
The only line in the TrackBar's Scroll event is to trigger the Paint event: panel3.Invalidate();
The only settings needed for the Panel are
panel3.AutoScroll = true;
panel3.AutoScrollMinSize = new Size(500, 500); // use the size you want to allow!
However to avoid flicker it is highly recommended to use a DoubleBuffered control, maybe a Panel subclass like this:
class DrawPanel : Panel
{
public DrawPanel() { DoubleBuffered = true; }
}
Update: Instead of a Panel, which is a Container control and not really meant to draw onto you can use a Picturebox or a Label (with Autosize=false); both have the DoubleBuffered property turned on out of the box and support drawing better than Panels do.
Graphics.ScaleTransform() is how you can zoom. Try using something like this inside your paint event handler:
e.Graphics.ScaleTransform(2.0F, 2.0F);

Move object for a specified distance over a specific amount of time

I need to create something similar to a progress bar but which gradually moves to the right of the form over time instead of percentage of completion. Both the time and the distance need to be specified when calling the move method e.g. I want the object to move 200px to the right over 10 seconds.
I just wanted to get some suggestions as to what is the best way to go about it?
I was thinking of using a timer and moving the object 1px to the right after every tick and then limiting the time by setting a limit to the ticks. Also, the object needs to look like a straight vertical line. I was thinking of using an image of a line, since I am more familiar with this than drawing images, but would drawing a line, then redrawing it constantly (like dragging) be a better approach?
Something quick and dirty:
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
const int maxWidth = 200;
const int maxTicks = 10;
var currentTick = 0;
// Create panel and add it to this form
var panel = new Panel { Location = new Point(1, 1), BackColor = Color.Blue, Width = 0, Height = 5 };
Controls.Add(panel);
// Create timer that handles updates
var t = new Timer { Interval = 1000 };
t.Tick += delegate
{
panel.Width = maxWidth / maxTicks * currentTick;
if (currentTick++ != maxTicks)
return;
panel.BackColor = Color.Green;
t.Dispose();
};
t.Start();
}

Categories