Tools and libraries for WPF and Silverlight applications of the future

The wpf-graphics site contains tools and libraries that help you create graphical elements for WPF and Silverlight applications. The tools enable you to read data from some of most commonly used file formats and convert them into xaml. There are also class libraries that enable you to import the data into your applications at runtime.

With help from tools and libraries on my site it is possible to use almost any 2D or 3D drawing application to create user interface elements for WPF and Silverlight applications.

The following tools and libraries are available:

		ZoomPanel controls for zooming and panning ZoomPanel is a WPF custom controls library that contains controls that provide powerful zooming and panning capabilities to any WPF application. The controls can be fully customizable to provide functionality for almost any zooming and panning scenario.
		Viewer3ds and Reader3ds for 3ds files Import 3ds files - one of the most widely used format for 3D objects. Viewer3ds is also one of the first applications with animated 3D buttons. Application with 3ds support: 3D Studio MAX®, Maya®, Blender (free), more in Links Online free 3ds libraries: ShareCG, 3D Kingdom, Turbosquid, more in Links
		ViewerSvg and ReaderSvg for svg files Import vector drawings saved in svg or svgz files - svg is one of the most widely used file format for storing 2D vector images. Almost all vector drawing programs support importing or exporting from and into it. Application with svg support: Adobe® Illustrator®, CorelDRAW®, Inkscape (free), etc. Online free svg clipart library: Open Clip Art Library
		Paste2Xaml and ReaderWmf for metafiles Read Windows metafiles (wmf), Enhanced Metafiles (emf) or get matafile objects from clipboard. It can also export embedded images that can be used in exported xaml. Copy metafile from: Microsoft Excel®, Microsoft Visio®, Autocad, almost all other drawing applications Online free metafile clipart library: Microsoft Office free Clip Arts

There are also the following Silverlight tutorials available:

		Silverlight Excel  How to convert an excel graph with Paste2Xaml to a Silverlight application. To show the power of Silverlight we add a starup animation and a dynamicaly showing graph data on moving the mouse over graph's bars. The tutorial can be also used for WPF applications.
		Silverlight EU Countries How to convert a map of EU countries in svg file to a Silverlight application with ViewerSvg. The tutorial will also show how to read the data from xml file and how to use data binding. The application will show the basic data about the country that is selected with the mouse. There is also a slider that shows when the countries were joining the EU.

The following diagram shows how it is possible to import 2D vector drawing from almost any drawing application into WPF/Silverlight world:

There are also some sample applications (with full source code) that demonstrates how simple is to create great effects and user interface elements with libraries available on this site. The samples also demonstrates how powerful the WPF can be.

ReaderSvg Sample: ReaderSvg Sample demonstrates how simple is to create great animated effects, scalable vector elements according to the window size, add triggers to some elements and more.

	Animator3ds Animator3ds sample demonstrates how simple is to play 3D animations created in 3D modeling application and stored in 3ds file. The sample is using a new Ab3d.Animator3ds class that is part of Ab3d.Reader3ds library. There are two sample animations available.
	RobotArm (Transformer3ds) RobotArm sample demonstrates how simple is to manipulate with the read 3D model. The sample uses the Ab3d.Transformer3ds class (part of Ab3d.Reader3ds) to rotate, move, change materials, lights and cameras of the 3D model of robot arm.
	Shading Sample Shading sample with its complex 3D model pushes the WPF 3D engine to the limits. It also demonstrates the new Shading property of Ab3d.Reader3ds that defines how the Reader3ds library will apply shading to the read objects.
	XAML Browser Application XAML Browser Application sample demonstrates how it is possible to use all the power of Ab3d.Reader3ds library in the application hosted in web browser. The sample is a fully functional RobotArm sample that is slightly adapted for browser application.

DOWNLOAD All Ab2d and Ab3d tools, libraries and samples (4.40 MB) [8 Jul 2008]

With help from this site you should have everything to create WPF applications of the future!