[RESOLVED] Multi-threading Difficulties

[intraman]

Okay, so here is the difficulty. I have a main form on which there are controls I need to manipulate. This manipulation is quite resource intensive for a few seconds as it makes call to API's of other running MS Office software products.

I also have a loading form on which there is an animated loading gif picture. In order to ensure that the animated gif runs, I have had to fire the control manipulation onto a new thread but this is causing difficulties. I'll explain further:

1. I have Form A on which there is a datagrid
2. I have Form B on which there is a loading style animated gif
3. I create a new background worker thread on Form A which should make the API calls and populate the datagrid.
4. Thread 2 (the worker thread) doesn't like this because it isn't thread safe. So instead, I have had to use the Invoke method to access Thread 1 again to manipulate the controls; making the entire process pointless.
5. Because Thread 1 is having to work again, the loading form freezes.

In short, what should I do? I have considered creating yet another thread, but i'm not sure whether or not this would help. In short, how can I keep Thread 1 smooth when another Thread has to access it using the Invoke method because otherwise it isn't thread-safe. :/

Argh!