resizing controls

while my program is running, I would like to allow the user to resize the different controls on the form. Is there an API or some other way that I can implement this?


thanks!

You can write your own code by detecting the mousedown and mousemove events.

There are also splitterbar controls available that can do some resizing.

It depends on what you want to do exactly....

I think there is an api function for that... resizeall or something like that.... try doing a search.. or go to www.allapi.net

well, my program is sort of like a VERY slimmed down Visual Basic...after the program starts, a user can create a form, and then drag and drop different controls from one form to their new form. I then want to allow them to resize the controls after they drop them on the form they are creating. I have an edit menu which allows them to manually enter values for the different properties, but it would be much nicer if they could do it all with the mouse.

idk myself.. but if you are makeing a version like vb then make sure to include api functions..... lol

haha! this is just a little project where the users can create forms with different buttons and text boxes, etc. it doesnt realy do anything. lol

Here is an example of using mousedown and mousemove to move and resize a picturebox. As you can see, there is a fair amount of code....


Option Explicit

Private Declare Function GetCursorPos Lib "user32" (lpPoint As POINTAPI) As Long
Private Type POINTAPI
X As Long
Y As Long
End Type
Private Type RECT
Left As Long
Top As Long
Right As Long
Bottom As Long
End Type

Dim MouseXY As POINTAPI
Dim MouseState As Integer
Dim OldSize As RECT

Private Const BORDERWIDTH As Integer = 60

Private Sub Picture1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
Dim edgemask As Integer
GetCursorPos MouseXY
With Picture1
MouseXY.X = MouseXY.X - .Left / Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
MouseXY.Y = MouseXY.Y - .Top / Screen.TwipsPerPixelY
OldSize.Left = .Left
OldSize.Top = .Top
OldSize.Right = .Width + .Left
OldSize.Bottom = .Height + .Top
edgemask = 0
If X < BORDERWIDTH Then edgemask = edgemask Or 1
If Y < BORDERWIDTH Then edgemask = edgemask Or 2
If X > (.ScaleWidth - BORDERWIDTH) Then edgemask = edgemask Or 4
If Y > (.ScaleHeight - BORDERWIDTH) Then edgemask = edgemask Or 8
MouseState = edgemask
Select Case edgemask
Case 1, 4: .MousePointer = vbSizeWE 'left edge or right edge
Case 2, 8: .MousePointer = vbSizeNS 'top edge or bottom edge
Case 3, 12: .MousePointer = vbSizeNWSE 'topleft corner or bottom right
Case 6, 9: .MousePointer = vbSizeNESW 'top right corner or bottom left
Case Else 'not near any of the edges, or odd combination...
.MousePointer = vbSizeAll
MouseState = 0
End Select
End With
End Sub

Private Sub Picture1_MouseMove(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
Dim XY As POINTAPI
Dim l!, t!, w!, h!
Dim dx!, dy!

With Picture1
l = .Left: t = .Top: w = .Width: h = .Height
End With
GetCursorPos XY
If Button = 1 Then
dx = (XY.X - MouseXY.X) * Screen.TwipsPerPixelX
dy = (XY.Y - MouseXY.Y) * Screen.TwipsPerPixelY
Select Case MouseState
Case 0 'move
l = dx
t = dy
Case 1 'left edge
l = dx
w = OldSize.Right - l
Case 2 'top edge
t = dy
h = OldSize.Bottom - t
Case 3 'top left
l = dx
t = dy
w = OldSize.Right - l
h = OldSize.Bottom - t
Case 4 'right edge
w = OldSize.Right + dx - 2 * OldSize.Left
Case 6 'top right
t = dy
h = OldSize.Bottom - t
w = OldSize.Right + dx - 2 * OldSize.Left
Case 8 'bottom edge
h = OldSize.Bottom + dy - 2 * OldSize.Top
Case 9 'bottom left
l = dx
w = OldSize.Right - l
h = OldSize.Bottom + dy - 2 * OldSize.Top
Case 12 'bottom right
w = OldSize.Right + dx - 2 * OldSize.Left
h = OldSize.Bottom + dy - 2 * OldSize.Top
End Select
Picture1.Move l, t, w, h
End If
End Sub

Private Sub Picture1_MouseUp(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
Picture1.MousePointer = vbNormal
End Sub

well I think that I understand most of what you are doing. But, when I implemented it, I get an error on the line:

If X > (.ScaleWidth - BORDERWIDTH) Then.....

with the .ScaleWidth...the error says: "Method or Data Member not Found"

any ideas as to what is wrong?

well, let's see if anyone can help with this problem this morning :D

Pictureboxes have a ScaleWidth property, other controls do not. What were you trying to resize?

ahhh, right now I am trying to resize buttons, labels, text boxes, and eventually check boxes and combo boxes.

In most cases, you can use the WIDTH property instead of SCALEWIDTH