Smart Groups

In This Topic

Referencing the Group Shape Sheet from the Child Shapes Sheets
When to Use Groups
See Also

Smart Groups are smart shapes, which can contain other smart shapes. Smart Groups are represented by an instance the NSmartGroup class (derived from NSmartShape class). The shapes contained in a group are stored in an instance of the NSmartShapeCollection class, which can be obtained from the Shapes property. The following example creates a smart group with two child shapes:

C#	Copy Code
// create the group NSmartGroup group = new NSmartGroup(); // create shape1 and add it in the group NSmartShape shape1 = new NSmartShape(); group.Shapes.Add(shape1); // create shape2 and add it in the group NSmartShape shape2 = new NSmartShape(); group.Shapes.Add(shape2);

Copy Code

// create the group
NSmartGroup group = new NSmartGroup();
// create shape1 and add it in the group
NSmartShape shape1 = new NSmartShape();
group.Shapes.Add(shape1);
// create shape2 and add it in the group
NSmartShape shape2 = new NSmartShape();
group.Shapes.Add(shape2);

Visual Basic	Copy Code
' create the group Dim group As New new NSmartGroup() ' create shape1 and add it in the group Dim shape1 As New NSmartShape() group.Shapes.Add(shape1) ' create shape2 and add it in the group Dim shape2 As New NSmartShape() group.Shapes.Add(shape2)

Visual Basic

Copy Code

' create the group
Dim group As New new NSmartGroup()
' create shape1 and add it in the group
Dim shape1 As New NSmartShape()
group.Shapes.Add(shape1)
' create shape2 and add it in the group
Dim shape2 As New NSmartShape()
group.Shapes.Add(shape2)

Referencing the Group Shape Sheet from the Child Shapes Sheets

The shape sheets of the child shapes can reference the shape sheet of the group. This is achieved by adding the Group! prefix before the group local cell name (see Formula Cell References for more information about cell references). For example:

C#	Copy Code
// make the shape1 width half the width of the group shape1.Transform.Width.Formula = "Group!Width/2";

Visual Basic	Copy Code
' make the shape1 width half the width of the group shape1.Transform.Width.Formula = "Group!Width/2"

This yields to incredible flexibility and interdependency between child shapes their groups, which allows the creation of very complex shapes.

When to Use Groups

You would typically use groups, when you want to create shapes, which consist of several components with different appearance. This is because although smart shapes can be used to display several graphics paths (there can be several geometry sections in the smart shape sheet), they are all displayed with the same fill and stroke styles.