I have about 30 controls (various descendants of TGraphicControl) distributed across a form. To overcome limitations in redrawing them as some controls move I have taken control of drawing the entire form via an off-screen bitmap. I was hoping that the controls would still be available to receive mouse inputs by hiding the components (Visible := False) while still leaving them with Enabled := True, but this does not seem to work. In fact, it seems to be worse than that, because in the regions of the form where the controls have been hidden I do not get any Mouse click messages at all. I am only interested in responding to MouseDown and MouseUp events.
I have already tried drawing to a TPanel in front of the form while keeping Visible := True on all the form controls. However every time I change the TPanel image all the underlying controls try and repaint which plays havoc with the update rate redrawing the moving parts of the form image.
Does anybody know a way of doing this that will retain the mouse response across the whole of the client area. It is desirable that I don't have to write separate code for checking whether the mouse is inside the bounds of every control at each click.
Many thanks in advance for reading this,
Bob
I have already tried drawing to a TPanel in front of the form while keeping Visible := True on all the form controls. However every time I change the TPanel image all the underlying controls try and repaint which plays havoc with the update rate redrawing the moving parts of the form image.
Does anybody know a way of doing this that will retain the mouse response across the whole of the client area. It is desirable that I don't have to write separate code for checking whether the mouse is inside the bounds of every control at each click.
Many thanks in advance for reading this,
Bob
