Windows Forms Diagram Overview

30 May 20234 minutes to read

This section covers information on Essential Diagram control, its key features, and prerequisites to use the control, its compatibility with various OS and browsers and finally the documentation details complimentary with the product. It comprises the following sub sections:

Introduction To Essential Diagram

Essential Diagram is an extensible and high-performance .NET Diagramming Framework for Windows Applications. It can be used for developing Microsoft Visio-like interactive graphics and diagramming applications. It stores graphical objects in a node graph and renders those objects onto the screen. Essential Diagram supports both vector and raster graphics on the drawing surface.

Essential Diagram lets users create interactive diagrams easily using the Diagram Builder utility included with the Diagram. It explicitly lays out diagram objects, or allows our built-in layout managers to handle the job, making complex layout diagrams a snap. Using the Symbol Designer utility, you can create domain or business specific symbols by using custom shapes and images.

Overview of WindowsForms Diagram

Key Features

Some of the key features of Essential Diagram are listed below.

  • Essential Diagram supports Matrix Transformations likeTranslate (Move), Rotate and Scale.
  • Shape nodes are the graphical objects that can be drawn on the diagram area by activating one of several drawing tools such as the RectangleTool, RoundRectTool, EllipseTool, LineTool, PolylineTool, OrthogonalLineTool, BezierTool, CurveTool, ArcTool and PolygonTool.
  • DecoratorShape can be added at the head and tail of Connectors. The shapes include arrows, circles, diamonds, crosses, squares and custom decorators.
  • Essential Diagram supports rendering TextNodes and RichTextNodes, and offers full text formatting through sufficient properties. Text editing and text rotation are also supported.
  • Zooming, scrolling, and panning are supported and can be achieved using sufficient interactive diagram tools.
  • Automatic Line Routing and Line Bridging: while a link is drawn between two nodes and if any other node is found in between them, the line will be automatically re-routed around those nodes.
  • The PrintDialog class enables the user to set the printer to be used, and allows to define the pages and the number of copies to be printed.
  • The PrintPreviewDialog class provides an overview of how the document will appear when printed, which is invoked using the ShowDialog method.
  • PaletteGroupBar control is a WinForm control that can be added to the Visual Studio .NET toolbox. It has the following capabilities:
  • It displays list of symbols in a symbol palette as icons
  • It allows user to drag symbols onto diagrams
  • It supports multiple symbol palettes at a time
  • It has a user interface similar to Microsoft Outlook bar
  • It is implemented based on the Syncfusion GroupBar and GroupView controls

User Guide Organization

The product comes with numerous samples as well as an extensive documentation to guide you. This User Guide provides detailed information on the features and functionalities of the Tools controls. It is organized into the following sections:

  • Overview - This section gives a brief introduction to our product and its key features.
  • Installation and Deployment - This section elaborates on the install location of the samples, license etc.
  • What’s New - This section lists the new features implemented for every release.
  • Getting Started - This section guides you on getting started with Windows application, controls etc.
  • Concepts and Features - The features of Essential Diagram are illustrated with use case scenarios, code examples and screen shots under this section.

Document Conventions

The conventions listed below will help you to quickly identify the important sections of information, while using the content:

Convention Icon Description
Note

Note in WindowsForms Diagram

Note:

Represents important information
Example Example Represents an example
Tip

Tip in WindowsForms Diagram

Represents useful hints that will help you in using the controls/features
Additional Information

Additional Information in WindowsForms Diagram

Represents additional information on the topic

Prerequisites and Compatibility

This section covers the requirements mandatory for using Essential Diagram control. It also lists operating systems and browsers compatible with the product.

Prerequisites

The prerequisites details are listed below:

Development Environments .NET Framework versions
  • Visual Studio 2013
  • Visual Studio 2012
  • Visual Studio 2010 (Ultimate and Express)
  • Visual Studio 2008 (Team, Professional, Standard and Express)
  • Visual Studio 2005 (Team, Professional, Standard and Express)
  • Borland Delphi for .NET
  • SharpCode
  • .NET 4.5
  • .NET 4.0
  • .NET 3.5
  • .NET 2.0

Compatibility

The compatibility details are listed below:

Operating Systems
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows Server 2008 (32 bit and 64 bit)
  • Windows 7 (32 bit and 64 bit)
  • Windows Vista (32 bit and 64 bit)
  • Windows XP
  • Windows 2003

Documentation

Syncfusion provides the following documentation segments to provide all necessary information for using Essential Diagram control in Windows application in an efficient manner.

Type of documentation Location
Readme [drive:]\Program Files\Syncfusion\Essential Studio\x.x.x.x\Infrastructure\Data\Release Notes\readme.htm
Release Notes [drive:]\Program Files\Syncfusion\Essential Studio\x.x.x.x\Infrastructure\Data\Release Notes\Release Notes.htm
User Guide (this document) Online

https://help.syncfusion.com/windowsforms/diagram/overview

(Navigate to the Diagram for Windows Forms User Guide.)> ![User Guide](Overview_images/Overview_img5.jpeg)

Note: Click Download as PDF to access a PDF version.

Installed DocumentationDashboard -> Documentation -> Installed Documentation.
Class Reference Online

https://help.syncfusion.com/cr/windowsforms/Syncfusion.html

(Navigate to the Windows Forms User Guide. Select

Diagram

in the second text box, and then click the Class Reference link found in the upper right section of the page.)Installed DocumentationDashboard -> Documentation -> Installed Documentation.

NOTE

You can refer to our WinForms Diagram control feature tour page for its groundbreaking feature representations. You can also explore our WinForms Diagram example that shows you how to render and configure the Diagram.