WPF Graphics tools and libraries overview

Create professional graphics for your WPF and Silverlight applications from almost any 2D or 3D drawing application or from some of the most commonly used 2D or 3D file formats.

ViewerSvg and Paste2Xaml applications can open svg or metafiles and convert them into XAML for WPF or Silverlight. With ReaderSvg and ReaderWmf library it is possible to open svg or metafiles directly in your WPF application. There is also ZoomPanel control to simply add animated zooming and panning to your application.

Viewer3ds can convert 3ds files into xaml. For advanced 3D usage it is possible to use Reader3ds library and open 3ds files in your WPF application.

The following tools and libraries are available:

ZoomPanel sample screenshot   ZoomPanel control for zooming and panning
ZoomPanel is a WPF custom controls library that contains controls that provide powerful zooming and panning capabilities to any WPF application. The controls can be fully customizable to provide functionality for almost any zooming and panning scenario.
     
Viewer3ds screenshot   Viewer3ds and Reader3ds for 3ds files
Import 3ds files - one of the most widely used format for 3D objects. The package also includes a few sample applications about how simple is to use 3D objects in WPF.
Application with 3ds support: 3D Studio MAX®, Maya®, Blender (free), more in Links
Online free 3ds libraries: ShareCG, 3D Kingdom, Turbosquid, more in Links
     
ViewerSvg screenshot   ViewerSvg and ReaderSvg for svg files
Import vector drawings saved in svg or svgz files - svg is one of the most widely used file format for storing 2D vector images. Almost all vector drawing programs support importing or exporting from and into it.
Application with svg support: Adobe® Illustrator®, CorelDRAW®, Inkscape (free), etc.
Online free svg clipart library: Open Clip Art Library
     
Paste2Xaml screenshot   Paste2Xaml and ReaderWmf for metafiles
Read Windows metafiles (wmf), Enhanced Metafiles (emf) or get matafile objects from clipboard. It can also export embedded images that can be used in exported xaml.
Copy metafile from: Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft Visio®, Autocad, almost all other drawing applications
Online free metafile clipart library: Microsoft Office free Clip Arts

 

There are also the following Silverlight tutorials available:

Silverlight Excel   Silverlight Excel 
How to convert an excel graph with Paste2Xaml to a Silverlight application. To show the power of Silverlight we add a starup animation and a dynamicaly showing graph data on moving the mouse over graph's bars. The tutorial can be also used for WPF applications.
     
Silverlight EU Countries   Silverlight EU Countries
How to convert a map of EU countries in svg file to a Silverlight application with ViewerSvg. The tutorial will also show how to read the data from xml file and how to use data binding. The application will show the basic data about the country that is selected with the mouse. There is also a slider that shows when the countries were joining the EU.

 

There are also some sample applications (with full source code) that demonstrates how simple is to create great effects and user interface elements with libraries available on this site. The samples also demonstrates how powerful the WPF can be.

ReaderSvg Sample:
ReaderSvg Sample demonstrates how simple is to create great animated effects, scalable vector elements according to the window size, add triggers to some elements and more.

 

Svg ResourceDictionaryWriter screenshot   The prefered way of storing cliparts and other commonly used objects in WPF is to use ResourceDictionaries. To make the process of creating a ResourceDictionaries really simple, a ResourceDictionaryWriter sample applications is available with both Ab2d.ReaderSvg and Ab2d.ReaderWmf packages. The application is available with full source code, which makes the process fully customizable.

 


The following samples that demonstrate the use of Ab3d.Reader3ds library are available:
Animator3ds
Animator3ds sample demonstrates how simple is to play 3D animations created in 3D modeling application and stored in 3ds file. The sample is using a new Ab3d.Animator3ds class that is part of Ab3d.Reader3ds library. There are two sample animations available.
 
RobotArm (Transformer3ds)
RobotArm sample demonstrates how simple is to manipulate with the read 3D model. The sample uses the Ab3d.Transformer3ds class (part of Ab3d.Reader3ds) to rotate, move, change materials, lights and cameras of the 3D model of robot arm.
 
Buttons3dPanel sample Animated 3D Buttons Panel sample
Animated 3D Buttons Panel sample shows how to create 3D buttons that are animated when mouse moves over them. Under the buttons there is a nice reflection of the buttons. The models for the buttons are defined in 3ds files and read with Ab3d.Reader3ds.
 
Shading Sample
Shading sample with its complex 3D model pushes the WPF 3D engine to the limits. It also demonstrates the new Shading property of Ab3d.Reader3ds that defines how the Reader3ds library will apply shading to the read objects.
 
XAML Browser Application
XAML Browser Application sample demonstrates how it is possible to use all the power of Ab3d.Reader3ds library in the application hosted in web browser. The sample is a fully functional RobotArm sample that is slightly adapted for browser application.
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