RESOLVED EDIT:
Because it is not clear through the discussion nothing was really wrong with the structure of the grids or their placement. The designer however misrepresented where the grid was. For some reason it placed the grid in the upper left hand corner of the window rather then within the content portion of the window. Once that is accounted for everything else lined up as anticipated.
I am working on a WPF project and have run into an issue with styling my forms. I needed a custom window, one without all the windows stuff; so I created a custom window style that I could apply to all my windows. Within that style I created a grid so that I could more easily place the default elements of the default window style. Then on my dashboard window I apply the default window style and all looks well. But once I attempt to place a grid within the dashboard window things start getting wonky.
In order to compensate for this I added an Adorner Decorator to the grid in the default style and placed it at the content location of that grid. This does allow me to place my content within dashboard window, but it does not follow the grid rules made by the dashboards grid.
So all I am attempting to do is create a custom window style that can be applied to all of my windows, and be able to use a grid to slice up the area designated contented by that windows default style.
This is the meaningful portion of the windows style, it lays out a grid for the boarders(drag labels), header, footer, control bar buttons(max, min, close) and content.
<Style x:Key="DefaultWindowStyle" TargetType="{x:Type Window}" >
<Setter Property="Margin" Value="5" />
<Setter Property="ResizeMode" Value="NoResize" />
<Setter Property="WindowStyle" Value="None" />
<Setter Property="Background" Value="MidnightBlue" />
<Setter Property="Template">
<Setter.Value>
<ControlTemplate TargetType="{x:Type Window}">
<Grid Name="WindowGrid">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Name="TopBorderRow" Height="5" />
<RowDefinition Name="TitleBarRow" Height="30" />
<RowDefinition Name="RContentRow" Height="*" />
<RowDefinition Name="BottomBorderRow" Height="5" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Name="LeftBorderCol" Width="5" />
<ColumnDefinition Name="CContentCol" Width="*" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="30" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="30" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="30" />
<ColumnDefinition Name="RightBorderCol" Width="5" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Height="5" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="6" Cursor="SizeNS" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Height="5" Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="6" Cursor="SizeNS" HorizontalAlignment="Stretch" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Width="5" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Grid.RowSpan="4" Cursor="SizeWE" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Width="5" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="5" Grid.RowSpan="4" Cursor="SizeWE" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Stretch" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Height="5" Width="5" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="0" Cursor="SizeNWSE" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Height="5" Width="5" Grid.Row="0" Grid.Column="5" Cursor="SizeNESW" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Height="5" Width="5" Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="0" Cursor="SizeNESW" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
<s:ResizeThumb Style="{StaticResource ThumbAsBorderStyle}" Height="5" Width="5" Grid.Row="3" Grid.Column="5" Cursor="SizeNWSE" HorizontalAlignment="Right" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" />
<s:DragLabel Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="0" Grid.ColumnSpan="6" Style="{DynamicResource DefaultWindowTitle}" Content="{TemplateBinding Title}"/>
<s:TitleBarButton x:Name="Minimize" Style="{StaticResource TitleBarButton}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="2">
<Image>
<Image.Style>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Image}">
<Setter Property="Source" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonMinimize}" />
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Source" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonMinimizeHover}"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Image.Style>
</Image>
</s:TitleBarButton>
<s:TitleBarButton x:Name="Maximize" Style="{StaticResource TitleBarButton}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="3">
<Image>
<Image.Style>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Image}">
<Setter Property="Source" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonMaximize}" />
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Source" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonMaximizeHover}"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Image.Style>
</Image>
</s:TitleBarButton>
<s:TitleBarButton x:Name="Close" Style="{StaticResource TitleBarButton}" Grid.Row="1" Grid.Column="4">
<Image>
<Image.Style>
<Style TargetType="{x:Type Image}">
<Setter Property="Source" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonClose}" />
<Style.Triggers>
<Trigger Property="IsMouseOver" Value="True">
<Setter Property="Source" Value="{DynamicResource ButtonCloseHover}"/>
</Trigger>
</Style.Triggers>
</Style>
</Image.Style>
</Image>
</s:TitleBarButton>
<AdornerDecorator Grid.Row="2" Grid.Column="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="4">
<ContentPresenter />
</AdornerDecorator>
</Grid>
</ControlTemplate>
</Setter.Value>
</Setter>
</Style>
And here is the code of the dashboard window where I am attempting to place fitted elements in their correct grid slots (those created by the dashboard window). The grid created blow looks as though all of the rows and columns are in the right spot, and their elements should simply fit, but they have strange margins. So the StudySessionPanel(which is 128×234) should fit perfectly within row 1, col 2, but as you can see it require colsaps, margins and other junk in order to place it at the correct location.
Title="Dashboard"
Style="{DynamicResource DefaultWindowStyle}" mc:Ignorable="d"
Height="840" Width="1024">
<Grid Name="DashboardGrid" Width="1024" Height="840">
<Grid.RowDefinitions>
<RowDefinition Height="63" />
<RowDefinition Height="128" />
<RowDefinition Height="234" />
<RowDefinition Height="18"/>
<RowDefinition Height="380" />
<RowDefinition Height="16" />
</Grid.RowDefinitions>
<Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<ColumnDefinition Width="16" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="15.25" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="234" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="15.25" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="280" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="15.25" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="417" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="15.25" />
<ColumnDefinition Width="16" />
</Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
<cc:PanelStudySession x:Name="StudySessionPanel" Grid.ColumnSpan="3" Margin="15,66,16,62" Grid.RowSpan="2" Grid.Row="1">
</cc:PanelStudySession>
<cc:PanelPerformance x:Name="PerformancePanel" Grid.Column="3" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Margin="0,66,10,62" Grid.Row="1" Grid.RowSpan="2">
</cc:PanelPerformance>
<cc:PanelProgress x:Name="ProgressPanel" Grid.Column="1" Grid.ColumnSpan="4" Margin="0,190,10,62" Grid.Row="2" Grid.RowSpan="3">
</cc:PanelProgress>
<cc:PanelHistory x:Name="HistoryPanel" Grid.Column="5" Grid.ColumnSpan="2" Margin="0,190,15,62" Grid.Row="2" Grid.RowSpan="3">
</cc:PanelHistory>
</Grid>
This is the image with the margins, and row/col spans
Ignoring the designer the elements sort of line up, though some of them get chopped. It looks the same when ran as it does in the presenter.
Your StudySessionPanel is actually being put in rows 1-2 (Row=1, RowSpan=2) and columns 0-2 (no column and ColumnSpan=3). Just set
Grid.RowandGrid.Columnif you want to put it in a cell.