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Circular Gauge Custom Control for Silverlight 3 and WPF

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22 Jul 2009BSD4 min read 418.6K   22.3K   157   86
An article on creating a circular gauge custom control for Silverlight 3

circulargaugecontrol/gauge_cb.png

Introduction

The Silverlight 3 SDK and toolkit includes more than a hundred controls but is missing a circular gauge control, so I decided to create one. My goal was to create a customizable gauge that is easy to use and also looks professional. You can see a live demo here.

Using the Code

In this section, I will explain how you can use the gauge control in your application. The easiest way to get started would be to copy this template code snippet in your project after referencing CircularGauge.dll and the CircularGauge namespace.

XML
<!--Black Gauge -->
<gauge:CircularGaugeControl x:Name="myGauge1" 
  Grid.Column="0" Grid.Row="0" 
  Radius="150" 
  ScaleRadius="110" 
  ScaleStartAngle="120" 
  ScaleSweepAngle="300"
  PointerLength="85" 
  PointerCapRadius="35" 
  MinValue="0" 
  MaxValue="1000" 
  MajorDivisionsCount="10" 
  MinorDivisionsCount="5" 
  CurrentValue="{Binding Score}"
  ImageSource="silverlightlogo.png"
  ImageSize="60,50"
  RangeIndicatorThickness="8"
  RangeIndicatorRadius="120"
  RangeIndicatorLightRadius="10"
  RangeIndicatorLightOffset="80"
  ScaleLabelRadius="90"
  ScaleLabelSize="40,20"
  ScaleLabelFontSize="10"
  ScaleLabelForeground="LightGray"
  MajorTickSize="10,3"
  MinorTickSize="3,1"
  MajorTickColor="LightGray"
  MinorTickColor="LightGray"
  ImageOffset="-50"
  GaugeBackgroundColor="Black"
  PointerThickness ="16"
  OptimalRangeStartValue="300"
  OptimalRangeEndValue="700" 
  DialTextOffset="40" 
  DialText="Black"
  DialTextColor="Black"> 
</gauge:CircularGaugeControl>

The CircularGauge control has several options to completely customize all its elements. Most of the property settings are intuitive to use, so I will only discuss a few here.

PropertiesComments
BackgroundSetting the background color would automatically create a gradient and glass effect using the set color as the base. This makes it very easy to drastically change the look.
ScaleRadius, ScaleLabelRadius, RangeIndicatorRadiusThese properties provide options to place the scale, range indicator, and scale labels anywhere within the gauge.
CurrentValueThe CurrentValue property is a dependency property so you can data bind to it.
ImageOffset, DialTextOffset, RangeIndicatorLightOffsetThese properties control the placement of the image, dial text, and the range indicator light along the Y-axis with respect to the center of the gauge.
OptimalRangeStartValue, OptimalRangeEndValueThese properties help define the recommended range of values. The range indicators are drawn based on these values. In addition to the range indicators, the RangeIndicatorLight also provides visual feedback using the same information. The colors representing these value zones can be customized using the BelowOptimalRangeColor, AboveOptimalRangeColor, and OptimalRangeColor values.

Creating a Custom Template

This is a look-less control, so all the details of appearance is described in the default style specified in generic.xaml. In case you would like to create a new control template, the gauge control expects the following elements in its control template:

Element NameElement Type
LayoutRootGrid
PointerPath
RangeIndicatorLightEllipse
PointerCapEllipse

You can find the complete markup for the default style in the generic.xaml file included in the source code.

Points of interest

This section outlines the main steps in creating this control. Most parts of the visual representation of the gauge control were drawn using Expression Blend. The container that contains all the elements of the gauge is a Grid. The gauge/rim, pointer cap, pointer, range indicator light, and the glass effect which is another ellipse with reduced opacity, were all drawn using Expression Blend 3. I drew the shapes and then template bound the height, width, and other attributes. Here is the markup for the pointer:

XML
 <!-- Pointer -->
<Path x:Name="Pointer" Stroke="#FFE91C1C" StrokeThickness="2" 
  Width="{TemplateBinding PointerLength}" 
  Height="{TemplateBinding PointerThickness}" HorizontalAlignment="Center"
  Data="M1,1 L1,10 L156,6 z" Stretch="Fill" RenderTransformOrigin="0,0.5" 
  RenderTransform="{Binding RelativeSource={RelativeSource TemplatedParent}, 
  Path=PointerLength, Converter={StaticResource pointerCenterConverter}}">
<Path.Fill>
<LinearGradientBrush EndPoint="0.5,1" StartPoint="0.5,0">
<GradientStop Color="#FF890A0A" Offset="0.197"/>
<GradientStop Color="#FFC40808" Offset="1"/>
<GradientStop Color="#FFE32323" Offset="0.61"/>
</LinearGradientBrush>
</Path.Fill>

</Path>

All the items in the template that you would like to access in code would need to be named appropriately. This is the way to establish binding between the user interface and the control. We then override the OnApplyTemplate method to get access to the named elements in the UI.

Drawing the Scale and Range Indicator

The elements which cannot be defined in the generic.xaml file are the scale and the range indicator which need to be drawn in code. The Major and Minor tick marks are just rectangles that have been rotated and moved using render transforms. Similar to the tick marks, the scale labels are text blocks that have been rotated and moved. In order to draw the scale, we need to compute the location of the points on the circumference of the scale circle. This can be computed using this formula:

circulargaugecontrol/gauge_formula4.png

Formula to find a point on the circumference, given an angle and a radius:

x = a + r * cos(θ)
y = b + r * sin(θ)

where:

  • r is the radius of the circle
  • (a,b) is the center of the circle
  • (x,y) is the point on the circumference
  • θ is the angle in degrees
  • radian = degree * π/180

Similar to drawing the scale, we use the same formula to compute the four points that comprise the range segment.

circulargaugecontrol/gauge_formula3.png

Animating the Pointer

Finally, animating the pointer only involves creating a double animation and setting its target to the pointer's rotate transform angle.

C#
void AnimatePointer(double oldcurrentvalueAngle, double newcurrentvalueAngle)
{
    if (pointer != null)
    {
        DoubleAnimation da = new DoubleAnimation();
        da.From = oldcurrentvalueAngle;
        da.To = newcurrentvalueAngle;

        double animDuration = Math.Abs(oldcurrentvalueAngle - newcurrentvalueAngle) * 
                                       animatingSpeedFactor;
        da.Duration = new Duration(TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(animDuration));

        Storyboard sb = new Storyboard();
        sb.Completed += new EventHandler(sb_Completed);
        sb.Children.Add(da);
        Storyboard.SetTarget(da, pointer);
        Storyboard.SetTargetProperty(da, new PropertyPath(
          "(Path.RenderTransform).(TransformGroup.Children)[0].(RotateTransform.Angle)"));

        if (newcurrentvalueAngle != oldcurrentvalueAngle)
        {
            sb.Begin();
        }
    }
}

WPF Version

Porting to WPF was very easy, all I had to do was create a WPF custom control project and move the code from the Silverlight version, and everything worked without any changes.

Conclusion

This code is licensed under the Free BSD license, so feel free to use in commercial applications. I hope this gauge is useful, and would really appreciate any comments/feedback.

History

  • Version 1.0 - 07/22/2009
  • WPF version updated - 07/28/2009

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The BSD License


Written By
Web Developer
United States United States
I have worked mainly with ASP.NET but also have exposure to Windows forms, WPF and Silverlight. I also enjoy developing user interfaces using Expression Blend.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralThanks! Pin
mktschudi15-Aug-10 10:28
professionalmktschudi15-Aug-10 10:28 
GeneralStandalone usage Pin
JamieMeyer0110-Aug-10 11:51
JamieMeyer0110-Aug-10 11:51 
GeneralRe: Standalone usage Pin
Rob Branaghan1-Feb-11 22:46
Rob Branaghan1-Feb-11 22:46 
GeneralTo use the project in windows 8 Pin
dheeraj pk27-Aug-12 2:00
dheeraj pk27-Aug-12 2:00 
GeneralCannot find CircularGauge.dll Pin
Cataliz3er1-Jun-10 11:29
Cataliz3er1-Jun-10 11:29 
QuestionHow do I make this dial as hyperlink Pin
dtvravi20-May-10 3:47
dtvravi20-May-10 3:47 
GeneralThanks and ... Pin
Jerry Evans11-Feb-10 15:06
Jerry Evans11-Feb-10 15:06 
Generalbinding to CurrentValue Pin
maarten77231-Jan-10 22:51
maarten77231-Jan-10 22:51 
Binding to CurrentValue (or just setting any value to it) does not work in my application. Upon debugging, I found out that the needle does not move because the pointer object is null when the code reaches AnimatePointer:

void AnimatePointer(double oldcurrentvalueAngle, double newcurrentvalueAngle)
{
    if (pointer != null)


Also, I found out that OnApplyTemplate (where the pointer object is created) only fires after the AnimatePointer method is called (which explains why pointer was null?).

Other than that, the control looks very nice! Poke tongue | ;-P

maybe one other thing to improve is to use default values for the dependencyproperties, so the control does not crash if you do not provide them and you do not have to specify so much in xaml.
GeneralSizing Gauge Pin
canard_16-Jan-10 2:00
canard_16-Jan-10 2:00 
GeneralRe: Sizing Gauge Pin
kintz22-Jan-10 2:03
kintz22-Jan-10 2:03 
GeneralRe: Sizing Gauge Pin
iamveritas2-Jul-11 2:31
iamveritas2-Jul-11 2:31 
Generalproblem with RangeIndicator Pin
_dros12-Jan-10 4:19
_dros12-Jan-10 4:19 
GeneralRe: problem with RangeIndicator Pin
ozkary25-Jan-10 11:42
ozkary25-Jan-10 11:42 
GeneralRe: problem with RangeIndicator Pin
_dros25-Jan-10 22:15
_dros25-Jan-10 22:15 
GeneralRe: problem with RangeIndicator Pin
ozkary26-Jan-10 7:27
ozkary26-Jan-10 7:27 
QuestionRe: problem with RangeIndicator Pin
_dros27-Jan-10 1:02
_dros27-Jan-10 1:02 
AnswerRe: problem with RangeIndicator Pin
GaborTorok9-Feb-10 23:02
GaborTorok9-Feb-10 23:02 
QuestionHow can we support binding with Min/Max and OptimalRange values? Pin
akjoshi5-Jan-10 23:17
akjoshi5-Jan-10 23:17 
GeneralRe: How can we support binding with Min/Max and OptimalRange values? Pin
GaborTorok9-Feb-10 23:13
GaborTorok9-Feb-10 23:13 
GeneralRe: How can we support binding with Min/Max and OptimalRange values? [modified] Pin
mktschudi15-Aug-10 10:52
professionalmktschudi15-Aug-10 10:52 
GeneralRe: How can we support binding with Min/Max and OptimalRange values? Pin
GaborTorok20-Aug-10 0:26
GaborTorok20-Aug-10 0:26 
GeneralHigh CPU usage Pin
Graham Stevenson9-Dec-09 2:47
Graham Stevenson9-Dec-09 2:47 
GeneralVery good, thanks! Pin
Patrick Doesburg6-Dec-09 23:02
Patrick Doesburg6-Dec-09 23:02 
GeneralVery Good!! Pin
gugaway2-Dec-09 10:35
gugaway2-Dec-09 10:35 
QuestionIt is possible to change the style during runtime from code bihind? Pin
mbanchio2-Nov-09 6:02
mbanchio2-Nov-09 6:02 

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