Export diagram as image

First, I must give the caveat that we're working through our API design at the moment, so all of this is subject to change, it's only a CTP at this point, etc.

That said, the core functionality used by the Class Designer is currently available via the Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Diagrams.Diagram.CreateBitmap() API. Given an instance of your diagram, you can make this call, passing in a collection of shapes (or the collection Diagram.NestedChildShapes if you want to include all shapes on the diagram), and it will return a Bitmap object which you can choose to save to a file, place on the clipboard, etc.

If you want something even closer to the Class Designer experience, there is a class called Microsoft.VisualStudio.EnterpriseTools.Shell.DiagramExporter, in the assembly Microsoft.VisualStudio.Modeling.Sdk.Shell.dll (already referenced from your Designer project if you created a solution via the DSL designer wizard). You can construct an instance of this class given an object that implements IServiceProvider, and then it is just a matter of calling DiagramExporter.ExportDiagram (or ExportDiagrams to do multiple diagrams at once). This takes a path (paths) to your diagram file(s), the directory on disk you where you want the diagrams exported, the image format you want to use, and a boolean value indicating whether existing diagrams should be overwritten.

I know I've left some things a little vague in this explanation, if you try to use these classes and you can't figure something out, let me know.

Thanks,
Grayson Myers [MSFT]

GraysonMyersMSFT at 2007-9-8 >

In the meantime, you can continue to use the first method.

Thanks,
Grayson

GraysonMyersMSFT at 2007-9-8 >