iphoneiosuiviewcalayerquartz-2d

UIView with a Dashed line


What I have:

enter image description here

To create this line, I basically have an UIView and I do the following:

void setLayerToLineFromAToB(CALayer *layer, CGPoint a, CGPoint b, CGFloat lineWidth)
{
    CGPoint center = { 0.5 * (a.x + b.x), 0.5 * (a.y + b.y) };
    CGFloat length = sqrt((a.x - b.x) * (a.x - b.x) + (a.y - b.y) * (a.y - b.y));
    CGFloat angle = atan2(a.y - b.y, a.x - b.x);

    layer.position = center;
    layer.bounds = (CGRect) { {0, 0}, { length + lineWidth, lineWidth } };
    layer.transform = CATransform3DMakeRotation(angle, 0, 0, 1);
}

Note: This code was found here on stackoverflow, so if someone can give me the reference to it I would appreciate.

What I want:

enter image description here

Ok so the "only" thing I need is to create this pattern on the UIView. I know I am able to do this using Quartz2D (a simple way to do it can be found here). But I want to do it by manipulating the CALayer and not going to to the draw method. Why? Because of the transformation I am making on my UIView, I am not able to draw correctly using the draw method.

Edit 1:

Just to illustrate my problem:

enter image description here

Normally what you have is UIView and then you basically just draw something in it (in this case a simple line). The solution I found to get rid of the "gray" area, was to instead of drawing something, just transform the UIView itself. It work well, if you want a fully filled line, the problem comes when you want a dashed one.


Solution

  • Note: The code from Prince did really help me out, so I will give him +10 for the tips. But in the end, I add to come with my own code. I will also add some context to it, so it can be useful for future readers


    The final code was like this:

    -(void)updateLine{
    
          // Important, otherwise we will be adding multiple sub layers
          if ([[[self layer] sublayers] objectAtIndex:0])
            {
                self.layer.sublayers = nil;
            }
    
            CAShapeLayer *shapeLayer = [CAShapeLayer layer];
            [shapeLayer setBounds:self.bounds];
            [shapeLayer setPosition:self.center];
            [shapeLayer setFillColor:[[UIColor clearColor] CGColor]];
            [shapeLayer setStrokeColor:[[UIColor blackColor] CGColor]];
            [shapeLayer setLineWidth:3.0f];
            [shapeLayer setLineJoin:kCALineJoinRound];
            [shapeLayer setLineDashPattern:
            [NSArray arrayWithObjects:[NSNumber numberWithInt:10],
            [NSNumber numberWithInt:5],nil]];
    
            // Setup the path
            CGMutablePathRef path = CGPathCreateMutable();
            CGPathMoveToPoint(path, NULL, beginPoint.center.x, beginPoint.center.y);
            CGPathAddLineToPoint(path, NULL, endPoint.center.x, endPoint.center.y);
    
            [shapeLayer setPath:path];
            CGPathRelease(path);
    
            [[self layer] addSublayer:shapeLayer];
    }
    

    In my case, the beginPoint and endPoint are movable by the user, by using KVO. So when one of them moves:

    -(void)observeValueForKeyPath:(NSString *)keyPath ofObject:(id)object change:(NSDictionary *)change context:(void *)context
    {
        if ([keyPath isEqual:@"position"])
        {
            [self updateLine];
        }
    }
    

    I did play a lot with Prince's code. I tried on the draw: method, which add a thin line between the dashed line (a bit weird...) and I also tried on initWithFrame:. By itself his code, without any modifications, would give me this kind of errors on the console:

    <Error>: CGContextSaveGState: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextSetLineWidth: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextSetLineJoin: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextSetLineCap: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextSetMiterLimit: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextSetFlatness: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextAddPath: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextDrawPath: invalid context 0x0
    <Error>: CGContextRestoreGState: invalid context 0x0