problem with ContainerVisual.Transform - wpf

Question

in my custom control i have a ContainerVisual object and a DrawingVisual under it.
I override ArrangeOverride and calculate the rectangle that i want to draw in based on the given size and the control's padding.
after that i set my ContainerVisual object's transform to the upper left corner of the rectangle so that the methods that render the drawing would not have to take account of the rectangle and assume that the drawing origin is at point 0,0.
this does not work, and the drawing is displaced. if instead i set transform of the DrawingVisual object it works and the rectangle is displayed the way it is supposed to be.
i thought that if i set transform on the container, it will automatically be applied to the visuals under it. is that so?
thanks for any help
EDIT: Updated the source code to show complete code.
class MyControl : Control
{
private readonly ContainerVisual container = new ContainerVisual();
private readonly DrawingVisual drawing = new DrawingVisual();
private Rect rect;
private void RenderDrawing()
{
using (var c = drawing.RenderOpen())
{
var p = new Pen(new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black), 1);
c.DrawRectangle(null, p, new Rect(0, 0, rect.Width, rect.Height));
}
}
protected override Size ArrangeOverride(Size s)
{
var h = Math.Max(0, s.Height - Padding.Top - Padding.Bottom);
var w = Math.Max(0, s.Width - Padding.Left - Padding.Right);
var r = new Rect(Padding.Left, Padding.Top, w, h);
if (rect != r)
{
rect = r;
container.Clip = new RectangleGeometry(rect);
container.Transform = new TranslateTransform(rect.Left, rect.Top);
// replace the line above with the following line to make it work
// drawing.Transform = new TranslateTransform(rect.Left, rect.Top);
RenderDrawing();
}
return s;
}
protected override Visual GetVisualChild(int index)
{
return container;
}
protected override Size MeasureOverride(Size s)
{
return new Size();
}
protected override int VisualChildrenCount
{
get { return 1; }
}
public MyControl()
{
container.Children.Add(drawing);
AddVisualChild(container);
}
}
<Window x:Class="MyApp.MyWindow"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:c="clr-namespace:MyApp"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml">
<Grid>
<c:MyControl Padding="20" />
</Grid>
</Window>

Answer 1

Explanation of strange clipping behavior
Now that you have posted your full source code I was finally able to see what you were seeing. Your problem isn't in the transform at all: It is in the clip!
If you comment out the container.Clip assignment statement, you get identical results no matter whether you put the transform on container or drawing
If you uncommented container.Clip assignment statement, the clipping region is perfectly centered on when the drawing is transformed, but when the container is transformed the clipping area is offset, so that only the lower and right lines of the rectangle were visible (and not all of those)
The reason this occurs is that the geometry specified for container.Clip is part of the container, so it is affected by container.Transform but not drawing.Transform:
This can be better understood by looking at the upper-left corners of the container, drawing, rectangle, and clip area relative to the upper-left corner of the window:
When you set the transform on the drawing:
Container is at (0,0) relative to window (null transform)
Clip area is at (20,20) relative to window (null transform + RectangleGeometry)
Drawing is at (20,20) relative to window (null transform + TranslateTransform)
Rectangle is at (20,20) relative to window (null transform + TranslateTransform + 0,0)
When you set the transform on the container:
Container is at (20,20) relative to window (TranslateTransform)
Clip area is at (40,40) relative to window (TranslateTransform + RectangleGeometry)
Drawing is at (20,20) relative to window (TranslateTransform + null transform)
Rectangle is at (20,20) relative to window (TranslateTransform + null transform + 0,0)
So your problem isn't that the transform isn't happening: It is that the transform is moving the clip area too, so the clip area no longer coincides with the rectangle and you can only see two sides of the rectangle.
Answer given for original code (retained because it has some useful explanation)
In fact, the code you posted never uses "container" so all you will see is a blank screen.
In your actual code you are using "container" incorrectly, preventing the events from occurring in the correct sequence to cause its Transform to be picked up and passed to the MIL layer.
Remember that when a Visual has a Transform set, it is not the visual itself but that Visual's visual parent that actually handles that transform. For example, if you render a page to XPS using ReachFramework or do hit testing, the Transform on the outermost Visual is ignored.
Your understanding is correct: If your visual tree is built following all the rules, it doesn't matter whether your transform is on your "container" or your "drawing".
Since you are using Control anyway, I'm curious why you don't just let the normal UIElement-based layout system handle your layout needs.
First update (retained for the same reason)
Thanks for the code correction. It is as I suspected: You are building your visual tree incorrectly. If you are using AddVisualChild you also must also override GetVisualChild and VisuaChildrenCount. This is because Visual does not store a list of children: It is up to the subclass (your class) to do this. What is happening is:
When you call AddVisualChild the container's transform is null so that is what is passed down to MILCore.
Later when you change the container's transform, it uses its parent pointer (that was set in AddVisualChild) to signal that its transform data must be refreshed. This update requires part of the visual tree to be scanned using GetVisualChild and VisualChildrenCount.
Since you didn't implement these methods this part of the update fails.
You say you are "new to WPF." Are you aware that you are playing with some of WPF's most low-level and esoteric features, ones that would never be used in a most ordinary WPF applications? It is equivalent to starting to learn programming using machine language. Normally you would use templates with Path, Rectangle, etc for this purpose. Sometimes you might go lower level and use a DrawingBrush with a DrawingGroup containing GeometryDrawings, etc. But you would almost never go all the way down to DrawingVisual and RenderOpen! The only time you would do that is when you have huge drawings consisting of millions of individual items and so you want to bypass all the layout and structure overhead of the higher layers for absolute maximum performance.
Manipulating the visual tree yourself (AddVisualChild, etc) is also an advanced feature. I always recommend people new to WPF stick with UIElement and above for the first few months, using Control with templates. I recommend they use Path and other shape subclasses for their drawings, and use VisualBrushes when advanced drawing effects are needed.
Hope this helps.

Answer 2

the problem is with the container.Clip. it should be
container.Clip = new RectangleGeometry(new Rect(0, 0, w, h));