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How to pass parameters in C# GDI+ Windows Desktop

I'm interested in learning about C# GDI+ and have googled many tutorials. I'm attempting to create a simple windows form that has two textbox controls and a button. I simply want to put a length dimension in one textbox and a height dimension in the other, click the button and have the app draw the rectangle on the window using those two entered dimensions. To date, all I have been able to do is locate tutorials where the rectangle parameters are hardcoded into the Form_Load and Form_Paint. How would I take the user input from the textboxes and pass them to make the app refresh and draw the rectangles on the button click?
Please let me know if more info is needed.
Thanks in advance for your knowledge!
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
Bitmap drwBitmap;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Graphics graphicObj;
drwBitmap = new Bitmap(this.ClientRectangle.Width, this.ClientRectangle.Height,
System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb);
graphicObj = Graphics.FromImage(drwBitmap);
graphicObj.Clear(Color.White);
Pen myPen = new Pen(System.Drawing.Color.Red, 3);
Rectangle rectObj;
rectObj = new Rectangle(10, 10, 100, 200);
graphicObj.DrawEllipse(myPen, rectObj);
graphicObj.Dispose();
}
private void Form1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e, Graphics graphicsObj)
{
Graphics graphicsObj1 = graphicsObj;
graphicsObj1.DrawImage(drwBitmap, 0, 0, drwBitmap.Width, drwBitmap.Height);
graphicsObj.Dispose();
}

The current approach is quite strange as it draws directly to the form. It's difficult to modify as a bitmap is created early on and then must somehow be changed. Furthermore, there is no need for a bitmap.
A better approach is to create a custom control:
public class EllipseControl : Control
{
private float m_ellipseWidth = 200;
private float m_ellipseHeight = 120;
public float EllipseWidth
{
get { return m_ellipseWidth; }
set
{
m_ellipseWidth = value;
Invalidate();
}
}
public float EllipseHeight
{
get { return m_ellipseHeight; }
set
{
m_ellipseHeight = value;
Invalidate();
}
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
var graphics = e.Graphics;
using Pen pen = new Pen(System.Drawing.Color.Red, 3);
graphics.DrawEllipse(pen, 0, 0, EllipseWidth, EllipseHeight);
}
}
This control can then be placed on the form. It has two properties: EllipseWidth and EllipseHeight.
In the event handler for the button click, you can take the values from the text fields and set them on the ellipse control.

C# Forms - How to draw shape over existing panels

Trying to draw a shape over existing panels for a good while, but by now out of ideas. Could somebody help me out, please? It ends up always behind the panels (and pictureBox /the grey one/). I tried 3 different ways, whithout success. this is my code:
namespace DrawingOnFront
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void panel11_MouseClick(object sender, MouseEventArgs e)
{
DrawIt(90, 70);
}
private void DrawIt(int x, int y)
{
Rectangle Circle = new Rectangle(x,y,40,40);
SolidBrush Red = new SolidBrush(Color.Red);
Graphics g = this.CreateGraphics();
g.FillEllipse(Red, Circle);
/*
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(pictureBox1.Width, pictureBox1.Height);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp);
int width = pictureBox1.Width /4;
int height = pictureBox1.Height /2;
int diameter = Math.Min(width, height);
g.FillEllipse(Red, x, y, width, height);
pictureBox1.Image = bmp;
*/
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
using (Graphics g = e.Graphics)
{
Rectangle Circle = ClientRectangle;
Circle.Location = new Point(100, 60);
Circle.Size = new Size(40, 40);
using (SolidBrush Green = new SolidBrush(Color.Green))
{
g.FillEllipse(Green, Circle);
}
}
}
}
}
Sorry for this basic lama question, probably for most of you it is very easy, I am still learning it. Thanks a lot in advance.

My comments above apply. Here is an example of how to draw onto each control and the form separately:
We best have a common drawing routine that we can call from the Paint event of each participating element, in our case a Panel, a PictureBox and the Form.
The trick is for all nested elements to draw the circle shifted by their own location. To do so we pass these things into the drawing routine:
a valid Graphics object. We get it from the Paint events.
and a reference to the control; we use it to offset the drawing on each control (except the form) with Graphics.TranslateTransform..:
Result:
As you can see it looks as if we painted one circle over all elements but actually we drew three circles, each onto one element..:
private void canvasForm_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
draw(sender as Control, e.Graphics);
}
private void panel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
draw(sender as Control, e.Graphics);
}
private void pictureBox1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
draw(sender as Control, e.Graphics);
}
private void draw(Control ctl, Graphics g)
{
Rectangle r = new Rectangle(200, 100, 75, 75);
if (ctl != canvasForm) g.TranslateTransform(-ctl.Left, -ctl.Top);
g.FillEllipse(Brushes.Green, r);
g.ResetTransform();
}
Note that the same result could be created with three calls, one FillRectangle, one DrawImage and one FillEllipse :-)

Refresh does not refresh

I made an user control and I draw a rectangle directly in the window, like this (this is a simplified version):
private int rec_len = 200;
private void Draw_()
{
Pen pn = new Pen( Color.Black, WIDTH_LINE );
Graphics graph = this.CreateGraphics();
graph.Clear( Color.Transparent );
this.Refresh();
graph.DrawRectangle( pn, 20, 10, rec_len, 40 );
this.Refresh();
graph.Dispose();
}
public void button_Build_Click( object sender, EventArgs e )
{ rec_len += 10; Draw_(); }
The strange thing is that the second refresh actually poses a problem: if I comment it out, the rectangle is visible, if I let it in the code, the rectangle is not visible. In the real code I have to draw more than a rectangle and I want the refresh at the end, otherwise the background is visible between the moment I erase old drawing and the moment the new one is ready.

The surface of a control is not stored: When you paint on a control, the drawing is not saved and need to be redrawn each time the control is repainted (After a refresh for example). To create a persistante graphic, you can create a bitmap, draw on the bitmap and assign this bitmap to the BackgroundImage property.
Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(WIDTH, HEIGHT);
void Initialize()
{
this.BackgroundImage = bmp;
}
private int rec_len = 200;
private void Draw_()
{
Pen pn = new Pen(Color.Black, WIDTH_LINE);
using (Graphics graph = Graphics.FromImage(bmp))
{
graph.Clear(Color.Transparent);
this.Refresh();
graph.DrawRectangle(pn, 20, 10, rec_len, 40);
this.Refresh();
}
}
public void button_Build_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) { rec_len += 10; Draw_(); }

Adding element to another element win forms

I am adding one panel to another panel it works but circle which is in inspanel not shown. how can i solved this.
I am using below code. It works but not show circle
public static int xTemp = 0;
public static int yTemp = 0;
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Panel insPanel = new Panel();
Random xRandom = new Random();
xTemp= xRandom.Next(20,100);
Random yRandom = new Random();
yTemp = yRandom.Next(20, 100);
insPanel.Location = new Point(xTemp, yTemp);
insPanel.Width=40;
insPanel.Height = 40;
insPanel.Visible = true;
insPanel.BorderStyle = BorderStyle.FixedSingle;
insPanel.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(insPanel_Paint);
panel1.Controls.Add(insPanel);
}
void insPanel_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
System.Drawing.SolidBrush myBrush = new System.Drawing.SolidBrush(System.Drawing.Color.Red);
System.Drawing.Graphics formGraphics =this.CreateGraphics();
formGraphics.FillEllipse(myBrush, new Rectangle(xTemp,yTemp, 10, 10));
myBrush.Dispose();
formGraphics.Dispose();
}

Main issue: you're trying to draw your circle at wrong coordinates.
xTemp and yTemp are coordinates of insPanel relative to panel1. But when you drawing your circle, you should use coordinates relative to panel you're drawing at - insPanel.
Another issue: there is no need to create and dispose graphics each time you're drawing something on your panel. You can use e.Graphics from Paint eventhandler arguments.
Based on above, your code could look like:
void insPanel_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
using (var myBrush = new SolidBrush(Color.Red))
{
e.Graphics.FillEllipse(myBrush, new Rectangle(0, 0, 10, 10));
}
}
Also note - since paint event can occur very frequently, it could be a good idea not to create and dispose brush every time, but use brush cached in your class private field.

Use e.Graphics instead of this.CreateGraphics:
System.Drawing.Graphics formGraphics = e.Graphics;
One more issue is you're getting coordinates in range of 20 - 100 (xRandom.Next(20,100)) and your panel dimensions are just 40, 40.

Create rectangle drawing inside the picturebox

After button click event I want the program to draw a rectangle inside a picturebox. I don't know how to do that. So far I made only a rectangle outside of picture box like this. Afterwards I want to implement a flood fill algorithm to fill the rectangle with a color. That's why I have to have those bitmaps there.
namespace howto_floodfill
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
// The background image.
private Bitmap bm;
private Bitmap32 bm32;
// Make a rectangle
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bm = new Bitmap(ClientSize.Width, ClientSize.Height);
using (Graphics gr = Graphics.FromImage(bm))
{
gr.Clear(Color.Silver);
gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 5, 5, 100, 60);
}
bm32 = new Bitmap32(bm);
this.BackgroundImage = bm;
}
}
}

You can set a Paint event handler for the PictureBox that will allow you to do drawing over the top of the PictureBox contents:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private bool _drawRectangle = false;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
pictureBox1.Paint += new PaintEventHandler(this.pictureBox1_Paint);
}
private void pictureBox1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e)
{
if (_drawRectangle) {
Graphics g = e.Graphics;
// use g to do your drawing
}
}
}
Just set _drawRectangle to true in your button click handler and call pictureBox1.Invalidate(). Doing your drawing in the Paint event handler guarantees that whenever the PictureBox is redrawn (say, because another window was over it), your rectangle gets drawn as well.
This will let you draw a rectangle over the PictureBox's contents. Rather than a flood fill algorithm, have you considered just using FillRectangle?
If you really want to do a flood fill, you'll have to work with an image as you're already doing, so you can read pixels from the image to know if a boundary has been reached. Then you could set the PictureBox's Image property with the resulting bitmap. (In this case, it wouldn't be necessary to do the graphics work in the Paint event handler, since the PictureBox will make sure its Image is drawn on every paint.)

You can use the control.CreateGraphics() method invoked from your picturebox.
namespace WindowsFormsApplication_Test
{
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private Bitmap bm;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
bm = new Bitmap(pB.ClientRectangle.Width, pB.ClientRectangle.Height);
}
private void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Graphics gF = pB.CreateGraphics();
gF.Clear(Color.Silver);
gF.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 5, 5, 100, 60);
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Graphics gF = Graphics.FromImage(bm);
gF.Clear(Color.Silver);
gF.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 5, 5, 100, 60);
pB.Image = bm;
}
}
}
btn_click() is an example of getting the graphics context from the control and drawing directly.
Form prior to clicking...
Clicking the button will draw on the control directly - note that by default it gives you the clientRectangle portion of the control, which is nice...
Clicking on the button gives you this.
Now I resized the form.
Unfortunately, drawing on the form this way makes you responsible for redrawing your data any time the window is invalidated.
You can also just set the Image property of the form to be your private bitmap and then the framework handles redrawing for you. This is shown in the button1_Click() method.
You can still draw directly on the control if you wish, but you'll need to hook into the control events and redraw when the form does. For example, adding a flag as a private bool to the form class, overriding the OnPaint method, and adding code to your button event to swap the flag. Rather than duplicating the drawing code in the button event, you can just flip the flag and call this.Invalidate();
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private Bitmap bm;
private bool bDrawn = false;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
bm = new Bitmap(pB.ClientRectangle.Width, pB.ClientRectangle.Height);
}
protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
{
base.OnPaint(e);
if (bDrawn)
{
Graphics gF = pB.CreateGraphics();
gF.Clear(Color.Silver);
gF.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 5, 5, 100, 60);
}
}
private void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Graphics gF = pB.CreateGraphics();
//gF.Clear(Color.Silver);
///gF.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 5, 5, 100, 60);
bDrawn = true;
this.Invalidate();
}

Assign the created bitmap to the Image property of the picture box. Now you can draw whatever you want on the bitmap, and then manipulate it's data.
namespace howto_floodfill {
public partial class Form1 : Form {
private Bitmap bitmap;
public Form1() {
InitializeComponent();
this.bitmap = new Bitmap(100, 100);
this.pictureBox1.Image = this.bitmap;
}
// Make a rectangle
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
if (this.bitmap != null) {
this.bitmap.Dispose();
}
this.bitmap = new Bitmap(ClientSize.Width, ClientSize.Height);
using (Graphics gr = Graphics.FromImage(bitmap)) {
gr.Clear(Color.Silver);
gr.DrawRectangle(Pens.Black, 5, 5, 100, 60);
}
this.pictureBox1.Image = this.bitmap;
}
}
}
Note that you may not need to re-create the bitmap each time if it has a fixed size.