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- WHAT'S A MULTISHAPE?
- ....................
-
- TMultiShape is a simple but powerful VCL component which allows you to
- create many graphic effects on your forms.
- The basic idea is very simple: you can specify a base shape which
- can be repeated horizontally, vertically or in both directions.
- The basic shape can be a geometrical shape (rectangle, ellipse, triangle.
- diamond or line) or a text label.
- The text can be rotated and each shape can have a shadow effect.
- Using a single char with the Wingdings font you can have a lot of
- other base shapes: stars, arrows, checks and so on.
- The repetition of the basic shape creates a texture and since TMultiShape
- acts as a transparent layer you can use several layers to get very complex
- textures.
- However the best way to understand what you can do with it is to
- have a look to the demo program which comes with the component.
-
- HINTS
- .....
-
- TMultiShape is very easy to use and the best way to understand its
- capabilities is to explore it with the object inspector.
- I'll just give you some hints about the most important properties.
-
- ShapeType: allows you to choose the base shape among msRectangle,
- msDiamond, msTriangle, msElllipse, ms RoundRect, msLine, msText.
-
- ShapeW and ShapeH: these two properties set the size of the base
- shape.
-
- XSpacing and YSpacing: these two properties allow you to set the
- specing between the base shapes when repetition is enabled (see
- RepeatMode).
-
- XMargin and YMargin: you can shift the shape grid horizontally and
- vertically with these properties.
-
- RepeatMode: this property determines how the base shape is repeated
- in the component area. Allowed values are : rpNone, rpHoriz, rpVert
- and rpBoth (default). If you set RepeatMode to rpNone and ShapeType
- to msText you have a Rotating Label component. Isf RepeatMode is
- set to rpNone the component size and the base shape size are
- synchronized. When you change ShapeW Width is changed accordingly
- and so on.
-
- Angle: sets the orientation of the base shape, the value range
- goes from -179 to 180 degrees. You can set any value for msText but
- only 45 degrees steps for msTriangle and msLine. Only TrueType
- fonts can be rotated.
-
- Filled: determines if the base shape is filled or it's just an outline.
- The BorderWidth property sets the width of the outline. At the moment
- msRoundRect can't be an outline.
-
- Border: if you set this property to true a border is drawn around
- the base shape. This doesn't apply to msText and msLine. The color
- of the border can be changed with BorderColor.
-
- BorderWidth: sets the width of the border. For msLine this sets
- the thickness of the line.
-
- ShadowX and ShadowY allow you to move the shadow (if Shadow s set to
- true, of course).
-
- Align: it's a standard VCL property and works like the one in TPanel.
-
- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
- ..........................
-
- HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
-
- Nothing ... oh well, almost nothing.
- MultiShape is distributed under the innovative ANYWARE concept.
- If you are happy with it, but only if you are very happy,
- you can send me anything you want:
-
- postcards, e-mail messages (if you are lazy), photos of your cat,
- cookies, donoughts, candies,
- books, newspapers, magazines,
- 10$, 100$ or 1 million $ (if your name is Bill Gates),
- coins, pins and stamps,
- ...
- ...
-
- CAN I REALLY SEND ANYTHING?
-
- Unfortunately we don't accept snakes, crocodiles and kangaroos,
- we used to accept them but, quite surprisingly, this created some
- problems with our neighbours...
-
- AND IF I'M VERY HAPPY WITH MULTISHAPE AND I DON'T SEND YOU ANYTHING?
-
- Well, let's speak about my hobbies: VOODOO for example...
-
- LAST WORD
- .........
-
- Thamks to all the people who contributed to the discussion about Delphi with
- their components and examples, I learned a lot from them.
-
- Enjoy multishape and be happy!
-
- Enrico
-
-
- ...............................
- Enrico Lodolo
- via F. Bolognese 27/3
- 40129 Bologna
- E-mail: e.lodolo@bo.nettuno.it
- CompuServe: 100275,1255
- Fax: +39 51 371018
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