Question

How to get the "inner" rectangle of a System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox?

Asked by: JimR123b

Hi.

I've got my own GroupBox class which descends from System.Windows.Forms.GroupBox.

I'm overriding the OnPaint method, so that I can draw my GroupBox in a custom way.

The problem I'm having is figuring out exactly where to draw everything. I figure that if I can work out where the "inner" rectangle is (the area in which child controls are docked to), I can then use that to draw things in the correct place.

How do I find the "inner" (docking) rectangle of a GroupBox control?

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Asked On
2009-09-28 at 01:23:38ID24766158
Tags

C#

,

GroupBox

,

Paint

Topic

C# Programming Language

Participating Experts
2
Points
250
Comments
7

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Answers

 

by: alefzeroPosted on 2009-09-28 at 01:36:31ID: 25437559

As with all Windows Forms controls, the "inner" area is the so called client area. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.clientrectangle.aspx or http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.control.clientsize.aspx . And as always, the client area axes begin at the top left corner of the client area (0, 0 - width, height).

 

by: JimR123bPosted on 2009-09-28 at 01:42:04ID: 25437582

It seems that the ClientRectangle for a GroupBox is the size of the entire GroupBox control, and not the "inner" rectangle that I want.

With the attached code, all I see is red, and no yellow.

With the attached code, I would like to see yellow around the outside (where the border and heading text is displayed), and red only in the docking area (where the child controls get docked).

        protected override void OnPaint(PaintEventArgs e)
        {
            e.Graphics.Clear(Color.Yellow);
            e.Graphics.FillRectangle(new SolidBrush(Color.Red), ClientRectangle);
        }
                                              
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Select allOpen in new window

 

by: alefzeroPosted on 2009-09-28 at 01:49:19ID: 25437613

Ah I see. I'm sorry I can't test it now, but two ideas come to mind:
1) What about the Padding property?
2) What about the Controls property? You could use the controls contained inside and try to determine the drawing area from their positions and dimensions.

 

by: alefzeroPosted on 2009-09-28 at 01:51:39ID: 25437624

And it is only logical you see only red after the redraw. The Clear and the FIllRectangle both fill the whole ClientArea (Clear by default, FillRectangle because you specified it). You could try to make the ClientArea a bit smaller after you get it. For example moving it by one pixel to the right and one down and decreasing both dimensions by two px.

 

by: JimR123bPosted on 2009-09-28 at 02:05:34ID: 25437686

The Padding property doesn't seem to be it, as it's customisable and has a default value of 3,3,3,3.

I couldn't use the controls contained within as they wouldn't necessarily fill the entire "inner" rectangle.

Is there not a way to find the docking area within a control?

 

by: alefzeroPosted on 2009-09-28 at 02:19:31ID: 25437736

Not that I know of, but there may be. Someone else?
In the meantime you might try getting the ClientRectangle into a variable and resizing it by a few pixels until it fits your needs.

 

by: MentorKPosted on 2009-09-28 at 02:46:41ID: 25437847

Hello Jim,

Use the DisplayRectangle property of groupbox.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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