Analog Clock in Expression Blend 2

• Download source (EB2 SP1) - 150.69 KB 
• Download demo - 67.96 KB

Introduction

This is a simple WPF App in Expression Blend 2 SP1 that shows you how we can create an analog clock with some effects like Shadow and Blur.
I haven't used any images in this project and everything that you see has been created with XAML code.

Background

Some days ago, I created another very simple anolog clock in Visual Studio 2008. If you think this project is a little difficult, you can see that first.
These training videos can also help you to work with Expression Blend. I've used them.

Using the Code

In Expression Blend, we don't need to edit XAML code manually (typically), but I think that if we know how the XAML code works, it helps us to create a better WPF app.

Well, the difficult part of this project is creating three pointers for our clock with rotation ability. For that, I've used this XAML code:

  <Rectangle Fill="#FFDCDCDC" Margin="86.169,8,85.904,88.555" 
  Stroke="#FFDCDCDC" StrokeDashCap="Round" 
  StrokeEndLineCap="Round" StrokeLineJoin="Round" 
  StrokeStartLineCap="Round" StrokeThickness="1" 
  RadiusX="1" RadiusY="1" Opacity="0.8" 
  x:Name="rectangleSecond" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,1" 
  d:IsHidden="True"> 
		<Rectangle.RenderTransform>
			<TransformGroup>
				<ScaleTransform ScaleX="1" ScaleY="1"/>
				<SkewTransform AngleX="0" AngleY="0"/>
				<RotateTransform x:Name="secondHand" Angle="0"/>
				<TranslateTransform X="0" Y="0"/>
			</TransformGroup>
		</Rectangle.RenderTransform>
</Rectangle>

Now we can rotate this pointer easily with this C# code:

secondHand.Angle = DateTime.Now.Second * 6;

That was very easy. Wasn't it?

Now we use a simple method for rotating our three pointers:

void timer_Elapsed(object sender, System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs e)
{
	this.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (Action)(() =>
	{
		secondHand.Angle = DateTime.Now.Second * 6; 
		minuteHand.Angle = DateTime.Now.Minute * 6; 
		hourHand.Angle = (DateTime.Now.Hour * 30) + 
				(DateTime.Now.Minute * 0.5); 
	}));
}

For further learning about the above method, you can see here.
That's all.

History

• 20^th November, 2008: First post