Programming Forums - Visual Basic 6.0 Form Effects

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Visual Basic 6.0 Form Effects

Hi,
Does anyone know some code which enables a form to "Fade in and Fade Out"
Also Does anyone know how to make a form "Shrink" Below is some code to make a form Grow

You must first create a module (See Below)

Public Sub CentreForm(F As Form)

  F.Move (Screen.Width - F.Width) \ 2, (Screen.Height - F.Height) \ 2

End Sub

Now insert this into the form

 Private Sub Form_Load()

    Me.Width = 0 'Starting Size Can Be Changed To What You Want

    Me.Height = 0

    Me.Move (Screen.Width - Me.Width) \ 2, (Screen.Height - Me.Height) \ 2

    Timer1.Enabled = True

    End Sub 



    Private Sub Timer1_Timer()  

    Me.Height = Me.Height + 50

         Me.Width = Me.Width + 72



    If Me.Width > 6195 Then  'Can be change accordingly

         Timer1.Enabled = False

    End If

    CentreForm Me ' Relates to module

    End Sub

Timers must be set to an interval of 1

Can the above code be change to make it shrink?
Any Ideas about the fading?
Thanks
:rolleyes:

I can't be held responsible for tasteless misuse of this code

So put this in your form:

Const LWA_COLORKEY = &H1

Const LWA_ALPHA = &H2

Const GWL_EXSTYLE = (-20)

Const WS_EX_LAYERED = &H80000

Private Declare Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long

Private Declare Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal crKey As Long, ByVal bAlpha As Byte, ByVal dwFlags As Long) As Long



Private Sub Form_Activate()

Dim Alpha As Byte

Dim Delay As Single

Do

    Delay = Timer

    Do While (Timer - Delay) < 0.01

        DoEvents

    Loop

    Alpha = Alpha + 5

    SetLayeredWindowAttributes Me.hWnd, 0, Alpha, LWA_ALPHA

Loop Until Alpha = 255

End Sub



Private Sub Form_Load()

    Dim Ret As Long

    Ret = GetWindowLong(Me.hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE)

    Ret = Ret Or WS_EX_LAYERED

    SetWindowLong Me.hWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, Ret

End Sub

Fade not working in MDI

Hi. The fading form works if its mdi value is false. I have created an mdi main form and two mdi client form and i want to apply the fading effect on one of the client mdi form. Does anyone know how to make this happen?

Thanks!

Unfortunately the layered window attribute LWA_ALPHA is only directly exposed for parent (top level) objects, meaning you could use this code only on the MDI parent as it is. One work-around, aside from complex subclassing, would be to use the SetParent API plus pictureboxes instead of the MDI form system (which I personally think is rather crap).

So say if you had two forms, Form1 and Form2 on screen, form1 being the simulated "MDI parent" with a picture box called PictureBox1:

' in some module

Public Declare Function SetParent Lib "user32" (ByVal hWndChild As Long, ByVal hWndNewParent As Long) As Long



' called on startup

SetParent Form2.Hwnd, Form1.PictureBox1.Hwnd

Then if you put the fade in code onto form2 it should work.

As an aside, I think that's a much better way of creating container forms than the built in VB6 way, as it allows much more control over layout, window region etc, even in VB.NET and C# when using Windows.Forms.

i downloaded some help for vb6 and the shrink code was in it but not the fade sorry. here is the grow shrink anyway:

'Shrink the form

'Decrease the form height by 100 twips

frmFormFun.Height = frmFormFun.Height - 100

'Decrease the form width by 100 twips

frmFormFun.Width = frmFormFun.Width - 100

End Sub

by the way make a command box and put that code in

Quote:

Originally Posted by 13EN

by the way make a command box and put that code in

Surely you mean a timer control, a loop or a repeating thread? Anyway the best way to make an animation like this would be to use a sprite rather than the window itself (custom type for the window animation API or manually implemented using graphical methods) as the form DC is constantly re-drawn and consequently looks jerky.

Also the question was fairly specific, about alphablending on a MDI form, as well as being several months old! :)

i mean a command box. you click the button and the form shrinks and shrinks untill u stop.