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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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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.
modified 27-Feb-21 21:01pm.
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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!
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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 wrote: Layer1.Visibility = Visibility.Visible/Hidden
Layer1 is 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.
modified 27-Feb-21 21:01pm.
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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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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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Jammer,
Thanks for the comments on Mole. Currently working a version for Silverlight 2.
modified 27-Feb-21 21:01pm.
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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!
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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.
modified 27-Feb-21 21:01pm.
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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!
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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?
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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!
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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.
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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!
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That's pretty damn impressive animation. Totally useless in a business site, but impressive non  theless.
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indeed ... its the beautiful amalgamation of great sound (i'm also a sound engineer) and graphics that gets me every time ...
Jammer
Going where everyone here has gone before!
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How are you getting on with Swift3D Pete?
Jammer
Going where everyone here has gone before! 
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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.
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Can i use silverlight with Visula Studio 2005. and what requirements i will need to run it with VS 2005.
Thanks
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Syed Ali Raza Rizvi wrote: Can i use silverlight with Visula Studio 2005. and what requirements i will need to run it with VS 2005.
Yes. You can. but I'm sure that this is NOT a good way. I highly recommend you to use VS 2008 for developing Silverlight application.. UX team from Microsoft put a lot of efforts in Silverlight 2 that you can't get the template in VS 2005. So, if you are using VS 2005, you will miss a lot of features.. another thing is "support". There are a number of active community member who are willing to help the Silverlight 2 problems. (cuz they can learn from your problems.)
So, if you are just a starter of Silverlight, I suggest you to use VS 2008 instead of VS 2005.
You can read my reply in this link below.
Minimum Requirements for Silverlight?[^]
Let me know if you have any question.
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You're better off with VS2008 if you are going to do anything with Silverlight. I've tried with VS2005 and it is not as pleasant as VS2008
"I guess it's what separates the professionals from the drag and drop, girly wirly, namby pamby, wishy washy, can't code for crap types." - Pete O'Hanlon
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Since you seem to be the man to ask - I installed the beta 2 tools and what not, but there doesn't seem to be any drag and drop support in the VS 2008 designer and the properties windowy/sidebar thingy is empty. Is this correct?
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Yes, it is seems so. Right now I am using VS2008 and Expression Blend combo...
"I guess it's what separates the professionals from the drag and drop, girly wirly, namby pamby, wishy washy, can't code for crap types." - Pete O'Hanlon
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hi.. how do i allow only integer input into my textbox.. only integer is shown when they type..
thanks
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