By popular demand: BITBLT() made easy

BitBlt() is by far the most commonly used WIN32 API function in .Net today.

Since many of you have said you have found it tough to use from within the .Net universe, I have written a wrapper class so you can include simple support for fast graphical operations...

Its called BlitterChip. (I decided to name it after a famous bit of Atari hardware from the mid 80's ... don't ask :D)

Its a simple class, no member variables, no nothing apart from Blit(). Blit() is a set of functions that call a hidden BitBlt() function. There are currently 4 versions of the Blit() function. Each one takes a different list of parameters, they are all suited to different situations.

I have included a demo project to show how it works. Enjoy.

Any questions, please PM me :)

If you like it, gimme a rating. :D

Revised - NOW DOES SCREENGRABS!! :D

Usage of new feature:

VB Code:

'take a small snapshopt of the start button area...
Dim MyRect As Rectangle = New Rectangle(0, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Bottom - 100, 100, 100)
Dim MyPic As Bitmap = BlitterChip.ScreenGrab(MyRect)

The bitmaps that this function returns can be used like normal.

Note: MSPaint.exe doesn't like bitmaps when you use Bitmap.Save(...) to save them as BMP files. This is a known problem with MSPaint and should not be a cause for concern :)

Note: BlitterChip.vb is simply a text file, with an odd extension, that you can open in Notepad (I was a bit puzzled for a second).

I have download it and opened it and it is just fine. :)

That is the VB.Net standard code file extension. Nothing odd about it. *.vb is already on the forum's recognised OK list anyway.