delphi component to animate show/hide controls during runtime - delphi

Question

In Delphi I show/hide controls during runtime and it does not look good as controls suddenly appear or disappear , so any one know a component that can do the show/hide (using visible property) but with some sort of animation ?
thanks

Answer 1

Give it a go with AnimateWindow. Only for WinControls, well, it doesn't look stunning anyway:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
if Button2.Visible then
AnimateWindow(Button2.Handle, 250, AW_HIDE or AW_VER_NEGATIVE or AW_SLIDE)
else
AnimateWindow(Button2.Handle, 250, AW_VER_POSITIVE or AW_SLIDE);
Button2.Visible := not Button2.Visible; // synch with VCL
end;
edit: A threaded version to hide show multiple controls simultaneously:
type
TForm1 = class(TForm)
..
private
procedure AnimateControls(Show: Boolean; Controls: array of TWinControl);
procedure OnAnimateEnd(Sender: TObject);
public
end;
implementation
..
type
TAnimateThr = class(TThread)
protected
procedure Execute; override;
public
FHWnd: HWND;
FShow: Boolean;
constructor Create(Handle: HWND; Show: Boolean);
end;
{ TAnimateThr }
constructor TAnimateThr.Create(Handle: HWND; Show: Boolean);
begin
FHWnd := Handle;
FShow := Show;
FreeOnTerminate := True;
inherited Create(True);
end;
procedure TAnimateThr.Execute;
begin
if FShow then
AnimateWindow(FHWnd, 250, AW_VER_POSITIVE or AW_SLIDE)
else
AnimateWindow(FHWnd, 250, AW_HIDE or AW_VER_NEGATIVE or AW_SLIDE);
end;
{ Form1 }
procedure TForm1.OnAnimateEnd(Sender: TObject);
begin
FindControl(TAnimateThr(Sender).FHWnd).Visible := TAnimateThr(Sender).FShow;
end;
procedure TForm1.AnimateControls(Show: Boolean; Controls: array of TWinControl);
var
i: Integer;
begin
for i := Low(Controls) to High(Controls) do
with TAnimateThr.Create(Controls[i].Handle, Show) do begin
OnTerminate := OnAnimateEnd;
Resume;
end;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button5Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
AnimateControls(not Button1.Visible,
[Button1, Button2, Button3, Edit1, CheckBox1]);
end;