SandDock Extensible Rendering

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All drawing in SandDock is performed by renderers that are distinct from the controls themselves. All SandDock renderers inherit from a common base, which can also be inherited from by the developer to completely customise the look and feel of the controls.

SandDock ships with three renderers, that mimic Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2005 and Office 2003. In each case the document and docking drawing looks very different. Whatever renderer you decide to use, it is easily choosable via properties on the object or control you are designing and exposes properties to further configure its appearance. For instance, if you choose the Office 2003 renderer, you are able to specify alternate colours for any part of the interface it draws.

Figure 1 - Office 2003 style Windows and Documents, with the Windows XP Luna Blue Theme

Figure 2 - Office 2003 style Windows and Documents, with the Windows XP Luna Olive Theme

Figure 3 - Visual Studio 2005 style Windows and Documents

Figure 4 - Visual Studio 2003 style Windows and Documents