Question

I’m trying to write a program that creates a 30×30 grid of 20px x 20px boxes. When you click on a box in the grid it changes the color of the box and stores the RGB value of it and the x,y coordinates (hidden in the box). So basically I’m making a simple paint program. The purpose of it is to assist me in programming LED RGB animations for a 30×30 pixel grid. So once I draw something I export the X,Y,R,G,B of each pixel in the image.

So my question is, is there an easy way to do this. With out creating 900 buttons and putting them together? I’ve got something sorta working :

Panel BU = new Panel();

BU.AutoSize = false;
BU.Location = new System.Drawing.Point(xpos, ypos);
BU.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Transparent;
BU.Font = new System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif", 5, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, ((byte)(0)));
BU.Name = row_num + " x " + col_num;
BU.Size = new System.Drawing.Size(20, 20);
BU.MouseDown +=new MouseEventHandler(BU_MouseDown);
BU.MouseEnter +=new EventHandler(BU_MouseEnter);

this.Controls.Add(BU);

xpos = xpos + 20;

px_num++;
col_num++;

if (col_num == 30) 
{ 
   col_num = 0; 
   ypos = ypos + 20;
   row_num++; 
   xpos = 0;
};

But it takes WAAAAAY to long to load.

Answer 1

Yes.

Create one panel, and handle the grid painting and mouse events inside that.

Super simple example, optimized for nothing and flicker happy:

private Color[,] _Colors = new Color[30, 30];

private void panel1_Paint(object sender, PaintEventArgs e) {
  int left = 0;
  int top = 0;

  for (int y = 0; y < 30; y++) {
    left = 0;
    for (int x = 0; x < 30; x++) {
      Rectangle r = new Rectangle(left, top, 20, 20);

      using (SolidBrush sb = new SolidBrush(_Colors[x, y]))
        e.Graphics.FillRectangle(sb, r);
      ControlPaint.DrawBorder3D(e.Graphics, r, Border3DStyle.Raised, Border3DSide.Left | Border3DSide.Top | Border3DSide.Right | Border3DSide.Bottom);

      left += 20;
    }
    top += 20;
  }
}

private void panel1_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) {
  if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Left) {
    int left = 0;
    int top = 0;

    for (int y = 0; y < 30; y++) {
      left = 0;
      for (int x = 0; x < 30; x++) {
        Rectangle r = new Rectangle(left, top, 20, 20);

        if (r.Contains(e.Location)) {
          _Colors[x, y] = Color.Red;
          panel1.Invalidate();
        }
        left += 20;
      }
      top += 20;
    }
  }
}