Create a complex CGRect - ios

I have a view with a border of 10 pixels drawn on the method.
I need to update the border color and I use [self setNeedsDisplay] to make it redraw
the view.
Since I need to update only the border I want to use : [self setNeedsDisplayInRect:rect] so it will draw only the border.
How can I get a rect of only the border with out the other areas of the view?
Thanks
Shani

You can't because a CGRect is rectangle, so it is a convex shape that can't have holes in it.
But you can decompose the border into four rectangles and call [self setNeedsDisplayInRect:rect] four times.
Also, if you import QuartzCore, you can probably use the property borderColor of the view's layer:
#import <QuartzCore/QuartzCore.h>
// ...
view.layer.borderWidth = 10;
view.layer.borderColor = [UIColor redColor].CGColor;
// And to change it later
view.layer.borderColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor;

You could get four CGRects around each part of the border (top, right, bottom, and left) and call the method four times with each of them.

Related

Draw a plus (+) sign using CALayer

I am not good with CALayer but I need to draw a plus (+) sign and I don't want to use an image as I want to animate the drawing. Any help?
After all the down votes, I was able to do it myself. Here's how for others who might need this
CGFloat height = 2.f;
CGFloat width = 3.f;
CGFloat cornerRadius = 1.f;
CALayer *hLayer = [CALayer layer];//this is the left - right stroke
hLayer.frame = CGRectMake(0, CGRectGetMidY(self.bounds)-(height/2), width, height);
hLayer.cornerRadius = cornerRadius;
CALayer *vLayer = [CALayer layer];// this is the top - bottom stroke
vLayer.frame = CGRectMake(CGRectGetMidX(self.bounds) - (height/2), -3,height, width);
vLayer.cornerRadius = cornerRadius;
[self.layer addSublayer:hLayer];
[self.layer addSublayer:vLayer];
As luk2302 says, use a CAShapeLayer.
You can install a CGPath into a CAShapeLayer. You can get a CGPath from any UIBezierPath. (It has a CGPath property that lets you get to the underlying CGPath object for any UIBezierPath.)
I suggest reading up on UIBezierPath. It has methods moveToPoint and addLineToPoint.
You'd move to the top of your plus, add a line down, then move to the left of your plus and add a line across.
Note that you can also animate images, depending on the type of animation you are after. What kind of animation do you need to do?
Another simple way would be to use two UIView with the same background color and add them as a subview to another UIView. Then you can use the UIView animateWithDuration:... method to do your simple animations.

How to add a drop shadow to a view while masksToBounds is true?

So normally when you have a view and you want to add a drop shadow I do something like this:
UIBezierPath *shadowPath = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRect:diptic.bounds];
diptic.layer.masksToBounds = NO;
diptic.layer.shadowColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
diptic.layer.shadowOffset = CGSizeMake(0.0f, 0.0f);
diptic.layer.shadowRadius = 10;
diptic.layer.shadowOpacity = .5f;
diptic.layer.shadowPath = shadowPath.CGPath;
Where diptic is my UIScrollView.
The problem is that because diptic is a scroll view, that I have content in the scroll view that I don't want to be on the screen until they scroll to it, so I want to have masksToBounds set to YES but if I do that then I can't see my shadow..
you can see the description of the dartboard ("A basically new dartboard...") I want to be hidden until the user scrolls to it. Also, the rounded corners of the diptic isn't clipping the square corners on the top of the image.
Is there any way to be selective of what is masked and what isn't?
Put diptic into another view with the same bounds, that way you can mask diptic to bounds but apply the shadow to the containing view that wouldn't have its content masked to its bounds.

Making a CALayer transparent

Consider the following...
Say I have two CALayer's, one on top of the other. Each layer is the size of the entire iPad screen, the top layer obscures the bottom layer.
Is there some way to mark a portion of the top layer as being "transparent", so that the same section of the bottom layer shows through the transparent portion? In other words, is there a way to "cut out" a portion of the top layer to reveal the bottom layer underneath?
The CALayer mask property. You'll need to subclass CALayer to drawToContext: opaque black over the entire bounds, then do a CGContextClear(ctx, <your see-through box>);
Then create an instance of the layer, give it the same frame as your top-layer bounds, and set it to the mask property.
Yes, you can do it by making different alpha values for each layer,
basically the inner layer(super) one should have at least an alpha value of 0.7 and the outer layer(subLayer) should have less alpha value than its parent, lets say 0.3
Then the outer layer should reveal the inner layer.
But if you wanna do some better revelation, you could draw the outer layer, by setting radial gradient on it.
This is my sample code, but it I haven't drawn the radial gradient for the outer layer.
//
CALayer *innnerLayer = [CALayer layer];
innnerLayer.borderColor = [UIColor greenColor].CGColor;
innnerLayer.borderWidth = 0.8f;
innnerLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0. alpha:0.5].CGColor;
innnerLayer.frame = CGRectMake(70.0, 150.0f, 100.0f, 100.0f);
CALayer *outLayer = [CALayer layer];
outLayer.frame = innnerLayer.bounds;
outLayer.backgroundColor = [UIColor colorWithWhite:0.f alpha:0.3f].CGColor;
// add outer layer to inner layer
[innnerLayer addSublayer:outLayer];
// add the inner layer to main view
[self.view.layer addSublayer:innnerLayer];
// Experiment with different alpha values, but the outerAlpha
Are you using CALayer as a sublayer of your UIView? You have to set the backgroundColor of your UIView to clear like this:
self.backgroundColor = [UIColor clearColor];
Just setting backgroundColor property to NULL helped me.

Custom Button frame doesn't look as good as Round Rect UIButton

I'm trying to draw a custom button frame as follows:
UIBezierPath *stroke = [UIBezierPath bezierPathWithRoundedRect:self.bounds
cornerRadius:RECT_CORNECR_RADIUS];
[stroke stroke];
But for some reason the corner curves look thinker than the sides. If you look at the UIButton's default frame it's very uniform. A is a UIButton, B is a custom button.
Any ideas how I can make it more like the UIButton.
You are stroking the bounds of your button. This will draw your line centred over the edge the view, so half of the thickness of the line is outside the bounds and is not drawn. This is why it is full thickness in the corners. Use CGRectInset on your bounds rectangle (inset by half the thickness of your line) and stroke THAT rect.
The problem you have is probably due to antialiasing. You can try to change the antialiasing settings of CoreGraphics before drawing your beizerPath.
An easier solution is to use the CALayer of your button and its cornerRadius property. It would be easier to draw a rounded corner
If self is your custom button:
self.layer.cornerRadius = RECT_CORNER_RADIUS;
self.layer.borderWidth = 1.0f;
self.layer.borderColor = [UIColor blackColor].CGColor;
Of course don't forget to import the QuartzCore framework and import its header for this to work (#import )

Corner radius issue with UIButton

I want to add a corner radius to a UIButton. It is working fine but a problem occurs when I add image to it.
It does not round its corners with images, the image is shown in full rectangle form.
Please see the image, I have used the corner radius with red color and the output is as follow:
Please help.
Did you try to use set the masksToBounds: property? Fore example:
CALayer *layer = [myView layer];
[layer setMasksToBounds:YES];
[layer setCornerRadius:8.0];
That should do the trick.
you use -
myButton.imageView.layer.cornerRadius = 5;
but make sure that your image size is exact same as button size. its working for me.
yourButton.layer.cornerRadius = 10 //this value should be half of your button's height to make a circle
yourButton.clipsToBounds = true //this clips everything outside of bounds

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