Our Gauge product has just been updated with two new controls, lots of new features for the existing controls, and several bug fixes.  This update is part of build 4.5.0480 that was released this past Friday.

Here are some details on some of the major new features and controls...

New Features

Logarithmic Scales

The CircularGauge and LinearGauge now support logarithmic scales with a configurable base. Logarithmic scales can be useful when more sensitivity is needs for lower values, since smaller values are spaced further apart.

Glass Effect and Frames

All the gauge controls allow more customization of the frame rendered. The frame rim is now independent of the frame background, which allows you to mix and match the various effects supported by each. In addition, a new glass effect has been added, which produces a more stunning look.

Dynamic Sizing

The gauges now support being resized dynamically, so that the inner elements resize proportionally. This is accomplished by specifying percentage-based sizes, but fixed-based sizes can still be used if desired.

Scrolling Text

The DigitalGauge can now scroll the text displayed to the left or right using a configurable interval. This allows long text to be presented to the end-user using a marquee effect.

New Controls

Two new controls come with this update, an Led control and a ToggleSwitch control.

Led Control

The Led control is great for presenting simple state (on, off, blinking) information to the end-user. The led light is fully animated and customizable, with options for the light shape and colors.

ToggleSwitch Control

The ToggleSwitch control works much like the native WPF ToggleButton, but looks like a real-life switch. The switch is fully animated and customizable, with 2 styles to choose from.

Summary

There are too many other new features to list here, but check out the latest build to try them out for yourselves.

We're very happy to have just released WPF Studio v4.0.  This version is the culmination of several months of work and we're sure you'll love what you see.

Download Actipro WPF Studio v4.0 now

To celebrate, we'll be posting details about a special promotion for existing UIStudio for WinForms customers who are looking to get into the WPF arena.

Docking & MDI for WPF

Actipro Docking & MDI is a complete solution for easily adding a docking tool window and/or multiple document interface to your WPF applications. Allow your end users to drag and dock tool windows wherever they please, and to persist their customizations. Also use this product to fill the gap left by Microsoft not including an MDI mechanism in the WPF platform.

Docking & MDI has been implemented with flexibility in mind. It has more options than nearly any other competitive product out there and mimics Visual Studio 2008's capabilities. While it supports all the types of standard layouts you find in most docking window products, it also supports some extended functionality that you won't find anywhere else.

Check out more information about the product or try a live demo on our site.

Gauge for WPF

Actipro Gauge is a control suite that implements circular, linear, and digital gauge controls for the Windows Presentation Foundation framework. Each gauge control has tons of options available, providing for limitless possibilities.

Gauge controls are ideal for displaying several data points in a concise and compact area. Everything from car dashboards to medical and industrial equipment use gauges, and are quickly recognized and understood by users.

The circular and linear gauges are perfect for presenting a value, or values, bound by a specific range. The digital gauge is perfect for mimicking real-life LED displays.

Check out more information about the product or try a live demo on our site.

Other Enhancements

There were a lot of other minor enhancements and tweaks made throughout our WPF control products for this release.  We added several new demos and useful utilities as well.

Theme Browser

One great new utility found in WPF Studio is the Theme Browser.  A WPF Studio customer was kind enough to post a simple theme browser for our controls in the WPF Studio forums for the benefit of other customers.

We took this idea and ran with it, making a very helpful utility that lets you browse each Brush resource used by our products for the various themes.  The utility shows a preview of each Brush and even allows you to copy a DynamicResource reference accessing the Brush to the clipboard so that you can reuse it in your applications as long as the same theme is loaded.

This is really useful for those of you making some customizations to other controls and wanting to use the same Brushes as us so that you have a consistent look in your application.

String Resource Browser

Going along with the Theme Browser idea, we wanted to make a String Resource Browser.  All our products that display text in the user interface stores the default text in string resources.  You can customize or localize the text in code-behind via a single line of code for each item. 

The String Resource Browser lets you examine all the string resources used in our various products.  When you select a string resource, you have the ability to enter a customized version of it.  The Browser even generates the C# and VB code you can paste into your application to perform the customization.

We're just about ready to launch WPF Studio v4.0, probably in the next day or two.  Keep an eye on our site for the official release!

As another sample of what our gauges in WPF Studio v4.0 can do, here is a flight simulation gauges gallery that shows a collage of gauge controls related to a flight simulation.

The full XAML source for these control samples are in our v4.0 Sample Browser.

We've been working some long hours to get WPF Studio v4.0 completed and into your hands.  Both the Docking & MDI and Gauge products are now just about code complete for their first release.  We already have a lot of samples that demonstrate major areas of functionality.  We are now working on documentation and designer support.

As mentioned before, WPF Studio v4.0 includes a complete set of circular, linear, and digital gauges, all of which are native WPF controls.

I wanted to highlight some of the capabilities of our gauges so we came up with an automotive gauges gallery that shows a collage of gauge controls related to a car dashboard.

All of the controls above are vector drawn (meaning they scale cleanly to any size) and can be data bound to live data. 

Dampening, or the process of smoothing out transitions to new values, is fully supported too.  When enabled, as values change, the gauge needles smoothly animate to the new values like a real gauge would.

The full source for these control samples are in our v4.0 Sample Browser.  Stay tuned for some more sample screenshots soon.

We've had a lot of interest from customers regarding our product roadmap for WPF development.  I wanted to post where things currently stand and where our future development priorities lay.  I also would like to give customers the opportunity to voice their opinion as to what they would most like to see added to WPF Studio down the road.

In addition, we are now announcing a new WPF product that will be available after the WPF Studio v4.0 release:  PropertyGrid for WPF.

WPF Product Roadmap

Here is the roadmap for WPF development as of June 2008.

WPF Studio v4.0 Release

The WPF Studio v4.0 release will be available in the next several weeks.  We are still finishing up the two new products that have been added and are in the process of adding samples, documentation, etc. 

Actipro Docking & MDI for WPF

The Docking product implements docking tool windows and MDI functionality for WPF.  We haven't talked too much about the feature set yet, however we'll get into that closer to release time.  Rest assured though that themes are created for all Windows system themes, along with all three Office themes.  It also will offer a huge number of options.

Use the docking tag to search for info on this product in the Actipro blog.

Actipro Gauge for WPF

The Gauge product makes it easy to create any sort of circular, linear, or digital gauge.  These gauges can be used to represent data in digital dashboards, provide virtual instrumentation, and much more.

Use the gauge tag to search for info on this product in the Actipro blog.

After WPF Studio v4.0

The following two products have had work started on them but were placed on hold temporarily while we divert our development resources towards getting WPF Studio v4.0 out the door.

PropertyGrid for WPF

A new product, PropertyGrid for WPF, will provide property grid functionality similar to that found in Visual Studio and Expression Blend.  We will get into more details about the product following the WPF Studio v4.0 release.  However its development is already fairly far along, and we expect it to be ready within a few weeks after the WPF Studio v4.0 release.

SyntaxEditor for WPF

SyntaxEditor for WPF will provide the high quality code editing experience you expect from Actipro, the industry leader in syntax highlighting editing controls and components.  One SyntaxEditor for WPF design goal is to make a common document/parsing library so that it can be shared with the next Windows Forms SyntaxEditor v5.0 and CodeHighlighter.  We also have a ton of new features planned that we will start posting about in the future.

As a WPF Studio Customer, Will I Receive These Products for Free?

As long as your WPF Studio subscription is active when a product is released, you will be eligible to upgrade to the new version and get any new products added to WPF Studio for free.  Each WPF Studio developer license includes a free subscription that can be renewed at its expiration date each year.

What Would You Like to See Added?

Let's hear your comments on what you'd like to see added that hasn't been listed in our roadmap above.

Some suggestions from customers have included:

• Grid
• Chart/graph
• Scheduling
• Reporting

Please post a comment and rank in order of priority which of these (or your own suggestions) that you would like us to work on.

At Actipro, the opinions of our customers matter and your feedback really will help steer our long term future development efforts.

We've been hard at work over here on several new products for WPF Studio.  The first that I've been posting about is the WPF Docking and MDI product.  The Docking product is one of the new products that will be part of WPF Studio v4.0.

But we also have one other unannounced product coming to WPF Studio v4.0, and that is Actipro Gauge for WPF.  We're very excited to have teamed up with NextWave to help enhance their forthcoming gauge product and include a split of the code as an Actipro branded product, and part of WPF Studio.

Gauge for WPF Features

Gauge for WPF supports the creation of nearly any kind of gauge that you can imagine.  Basic gauge types include circular, linear, and digital gauges.  It includes a wealth of configurable properties, allowing you to completely customize the look and capabilities of your gauges.

What can you do build with Gauge for WPF? 

• Electronic measurement gauges
• Medical measurement gauges
• Industrial measurement gauges
• Knobs
• Digital panels
• Clocks and watches
• Thermometers
• Compasses
• Vehicle dashboards
• Flight simulation dashboards
• Any other sort of circular, linear, or digital gauge

What are some common use examples for these sorts of gauges?

• Business intelligence dashboards
• Executive summary dashboards
• Industrial or medical controls and readouts
• Software interaction with electronic equipment
• Simple digital readouts
• Vehicle simulation

Availability

Both Docking for WPF and Gauge for WPF will be included in Actipro WPF Studio v4.0.  We expect final release in the coming weeks.