Tutorials > How to create a custom shaped control

The custom shaped control is based on a mask that will determine the shape of the control: creating a mask is very simple because all you need is a picture file that can be easily created using an image editor. Here follows a little tutorial that will demonstrate how to proceed.

The first thing to do is to create a picture file, like the one you can see below, containing a bitmap that will be used as a mask for determining the button final shape.

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Now, the procedure differs if you want to perform the operation at Design time or at Runtime

DESIGN TIME:

•	Open the 3D Button Visual Editor application from inside the Visual Studio.NET IDE as described inside the chapter Editing control properties through the 3D Button Visual Editor application contained inside the How to use the product in your projects section.

•	As displayed on the picture below, select the Shape tab and click the "Use a custom shape" button: this will enable the Browse and Delete buttons and, if no custom mask was previously loaded, the mask will default to a rectangle:

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•	Now simply load the picture file containing the mask bitmap you just created by pressing the Browse button and see the effect on the 3D button under editing: note that, by default, the button will be automatically resized to the actual size in pixels of the custom mask.

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RUNTIME:

•	Set the Shape property to Shapes.Custom (5)

•	Set the PictureCustom property to the picture file containing the mask bitmap you just created.

•	The mask bitmap can also be loaded using the SetPictureFromHandle method with the index parameter set to Pictures.Custom (3)