Question

I have a homework, where I need to create a winforms game using C#. I have the following components:

• Panel subclass with custom paint event
• Panel with default windows UI elements.

I want them to arrange like this:

Because I draw on the center panel manually, I want to set it’s Width, and Height fixed, so the Form subclass, what will contain it, would show the whole panel.

I tried setting the size manually in the panel subclass:

Width = someFixedWidth;
Height = someFixedHeight;

Then adding it to the containing Form:

GamePanel panel = new GamePanel(...);
panel.Dock = DockStyle.Center;
this.AutoSize = true;
this.AutoSizeMode = AutoSizeMode.GrowAndShrink;
this.Controlls.Add(panel);

Using this, I thought, that the form will respect the size of the Panel, but it just shrinks the window to so small, that nothing is visible, only the title.

So my question is, how would I be able to set the size of the GamePanel manually, and then dock it in the center of the form, so that the Form will respect the size I set, and doesn’t makes it smaller/bigger?

Answer 1

The Dock property is used to define the behavior of the component during resizing Container (Form) The way you did the screen is not centralized but is resized according to the screen changes, the ideal is to use a method to reposition the control and set its size. See this:

SuspendLayout();

Width = someFixedWidth;
Height = someFixedHeight;

panel.Size = new Size(panelWidth, panelHeight);

panel.Location = new Point( ClientSize.Width / 2 - panelWidth / 2, ClientSize.Height / 2 - panelHeight / 2);
panel.Anchor = AnchorStyles.None;
panel.Dock = DockStyle.None;

ResumeLayout();