TextBlock filling vertical space - wpf

Question

I want to create a TextBlock (or some other element with text in it for display only) that is vertical (-90 transform angle), but I want that element to fill up the vertical space it is contained in, but have a defined horizontal amount (I'm using vertical and horizontal terms instead of height and width since it's swapped when I have the TextBlock go vertical), and have it aligned to the left side of the container.
I believe I understand how to make a TextBlock go vertical using RenderTransform or LayoutTransform. However, I cannot seem to get the 'docking' to work properly, whenever I change the vertical aspect of the container the TextBlock increases in horizontal aspect instead of vertical.
Here is what I have:
<UserControl
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
mc:Ignorable="d"
x:Class="AttendanceTracker.StudentView"
x:Name="UserControl" Height="172.666" Width="417.333">
<StackPanel x:Name="LayoutRoot" Orientation="Horizontal">
<Border BorderBrush="Black" BorderThickness="1" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" Background="#52FFFFFF" Width="139.667">
<TextBlock Text="My Title" TextWrapping="Wrap" FontSize="18.667" TextAlignment="Center" Foreground="White" Margin="-58.509,68.068,49.158,70.734" Background="Black" RenderTransformOrigin="0.5,0.5" Width="147.017" d:LayoutOverrides="Height">
<TextBlock.RenderTransform>
<TransformGroup>
<ScaleTransform/>
<SkewTransform/>
<RotateTransform Angle="-90"/>
<TranslateTransform/>
</TransformGroup>
</TextBlock.RenderTransform>
</TextBlock>
</Border>
</StackPanel>
Change the height of the UserControl and you will notice that the TextBlock increases in horizontal aspect instead of the desired vertical aspect.

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, then this should point you in the right direction:
<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
<TextBlock Background="Red" Text="My Title">
<TextBlock.LayoutTransform>
<TransformGroup>
<RotateTransform Angle="90"/>
</TransformGroup>
</TextBlock.LayoutTransform>
</TextBlock>
</StackPanel>
The key is to use LayoutTransform, not RenderTransform. This will ensure that another layout pass occurs after the transform occurs. Otherwise, the layout system is using the original bounding rectangle to layout the TextBlock.
Beyond that, I just got rid of all the Blend-generated cruft to see what was going on. Here's the result:
alt text http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1189/screenshottbv.png