Raised border on UserControl

Question

Hi

I'm trying to create a subclass of UserControl that has a raised border. The builtin BorderStyle property only seems to have sunken or flat borderstyles, which I don't want. I've tried overriding the OnPaint method and using ControlPaint::DrawBorder3D but this seems to have no effect. I don't know why, as the OnPaint is definitely being called (I put in a breakpoint to check this). If anyone knows how to do this I would be very grateful. The code is here:

using namespace System;
using namespace System::Windows::Forms;
using namespace System::Drawing;
using namespace System::ComponentModel;

namespace MidiCompozerControls
{
	public ref class MidiCompozerControl: public System::Windows::Forms::UserControl
	{
	private:
		System::Windows::Forms::TableLayoutPanel^ mainPanel;
		System::Windows::Forms::Label^ title;
		// Initialize the control elements.
		void InitializeComponent();

	protected:
		// Overridden paint event handler
		virtual void OnPaint(System::Windows::Forms::PaintEventArgs^) override;

	public:
		// Define the constructor.
		MidiCompozerControl()
		{
			InitializeComponent();
		}
	};
}

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "MidiCompozerControl.h"

using namespace MidiCompozerControls;

// Initialize the control elements.
void MidiCompozerControl::InitializeComponent()
{
	this->SetStyle(static_cast<ControlStyles>(ControlStyles::DoubleBuffer | ControlStyles::UserPaint), true);
	this->UpdateStyles();

	Size = System::Drawing::Size(100, 150);
	// The border style is wrong! poo
	//this->BorderStyle = System::Windows::Forms::BorderStyle::Fixed3D;

	// Table layout panel for all the child controls
	mainPanel = gcnew System::Windows::Forms::TableLayoutPanel;
	mainPanel->Location = Point(0, 0);
	mainPanel->Size = this->Size;
	mainPanel->Anchor = static_cast<AnchorStyles>(AnchorStyles::Top | AnchorStyles::Bottom | AnchorStyles::Left  | AnchorStyles::Right);	

	// Title label
	title = gcnew System::Windows::Forms::Label;
	title->Location = System::Drawing::Point(0, 0);
	title->Size = System::Drawing::Size(100, 20);
	title->Text = "Midi In";

	this->mainPanel->Controls->Add(title);
	this->Controls->Add(mainPanel);
}


void MidiCompozerControl::OnPaint(System::Windows::Forms::PaintEventArgs^ e)
{
	Rectangle borderRectangle = this->ClientRectangle;

	// Call base onpaint
	UserControl::OnPaint(e);
	// Draw 3d raised border, not working
	ControlPaint::DrawBorder3D(e->Graphics, borderRectangle, Border3DStyle::Raised);
}

Mary thanks

Mark

Answer 1

Hi Mark,

What does the "borderRectangle" refer to? I tried e->ClipRectangle and it works.
And I think this question is not related to VC++ Express, you could post WinForm question at Windows Forms General forum.

Sincerely,
Wesley

---

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Answer 2

Hi Wesley,

Thanks for your reply, and my apologies if I put this question in the wrong place. I am happy to move it, how might I do that?

I tried your suggestion and used the cliprectangle but with the same results. No border is drawn. Here is my modified OnPaint.

void MidiCompozerControl::OnPaint(System::Windows::Forms::PaintEventArgs^ e)
{
	System::Drawing::Rectangle borderRectangle = e->ClipRectangle;

	// Call base onpaint
	UserControl::OnPaint(e);
	// Draw 3d raised border, not working
	ControlPaint::DrawBorder3D(e->Graphics, borderRectangle, Border3DStyle::Raised);
}

In the original code the borderRectangle was obtained from the Control->ClientRectangle property. The SetStyle property is set as below.

this
->SetStyle(static_cast
<ControlStyles>(ControlStyles::DoubleBuffer | ControlStyles::UserPaint), true
);

I checked again that OnPaint was being called, and it is. But there is no change to the border at all. Further information that might help: I'm creating these controls at runtime, they are not in the design time toolbox, although I wouldn't have thought that would make a difference, they are subclassed from UserControl and they work fine apart from this one thing.

Thanks again for your help.

Cheers

Mark

Answer 3

Hi Mark,

I'm not a WinForm expert but your code looks good to me, I'm not sure what would be the problem in your project, I uploaded my test project for you at here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/o4ovxkylwyw/CPPWinForm.zip
Hope it can help you, if you still cannot figure it out, I can move it to the WinForm forum. :)

Sincerely,
Wesley

---

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Answer 4

Hi Wesley,

Sorry about messing up the 'mark as answer' bit, I was trying to mark my own reply as the answer and somehow made a mess of it, losing my reply in the process. Anyway, I found the problem. My UserControl contained a PanelControl which was anchored to the top, bottom, left and right, and this had obscured the raised border of the parent control. When I explicitly positioned the panel with a smaller size the parent control border came into view, perfectly raised :-).

If this thread would be better placed in the WinForms thread please put it there as it might help someone else. If you know any way to anchor a child control without obscuring the parent control borders that would be great, but I will scour the documentation.

Thanks again for your help,

All the best

Mark