WPF: How to specify units in Dialog Units?

Question

i\'m trying to figure out how to layout a simple dialog in WPF using the proper dialog units (DLUs).

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What\'s a dialog unit?

Answer 1

I know this is very old, but I thought I would attempt to do what the OP asked. And as such this is my attempt. BTW, before I continue, I should point out that for some reason, the OPs measurements didn't quite work out when using DLUs, but I think I've come reasonably close. Also please keep in mind I'm still a relative n00b when it comes to this stuff... so if I've done something wrong or blasphemous... apologies.

First I had to find a way to get the width and height of a given letter of a given font (In my case, Segoe UI at 10px)... which for that I used this SO answer: how-to-calculate-wpf-textblock-width-for-its-known-font-size-and-characters to which I made a static class to hold the resulting doubles:

public static class Fonts
{
    public static double HorizontalDluMultiplier;
    public static double VerticalDluMultiplier;

    static Fonts()
    {
        var formattedText = new FormattedText(
            "A",
            CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture,
            FlowDirection.LeftToRight,
            new Typeface("Segoe UI"),
            12.0,
            Brushes.Black);
        Fonts.HorizontalDluMultiplier = formattedText.Width / 4;
        Fonts.VerticalDluMultiplier = formattedText.Height / 8;
    }
}

Once I had the metrics I had to create a WPF converter that takes a given ConverterParameter (In this case a number in DLUs) and spits out a double of pixels. This is the converter I used...

public class HorizontalDluToPixelConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        return (Double.Parse((parameter as string))) * Fonts.HorizontalDluMultiplier;
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}

I think it goes without saying that I had a seperate Vertical version of the converter.

Once that was done, I was just a matter of laying out the window in XAML and when it came to setting heights and widths, using the converter. I used a single grid to lay out the entire window. but to set the column widths and row heights I used the converter like so:

    
    



    
    etc...


    
    etc... etc...

Hope this helps future people as well (if it is infact helpful heh)