Calculating MM_HIMETRIC Units for the METAFILEPICT

• Microsoft Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) for Windows version 3.1

SUMMARY

To copy a Windows metafile to the clipboard, it is necessary to allocate memory for a METAFILEPICT structure and fill it out appropriately. This article shows one approach to filling out the METAFILEPICT struct when you want to provide a suggested size for playing back the metafile in addition to having it be scalable.

MORE INFORMATION

The first step in copying the metafile to the clipboard is to allocate global memory for the METAFILEPICT struct. After copying this structure to the clipboard, the memory that you allocated for the METAFILEPICT is owned by the clipboard and you should not lock it or modify it.

The METAFILEPICT struct is defined as follows:

typedef struct tagMETAFILEPICT {

   int     mm;
   int     xExt;
   int     yExt;
   HMETAFILE hMF;

The field mm in the METAFILEPICT specifies the mapping mode in which the metafile is to be played. In order for your metafile to be scalable, you should specify MM_ANISOTROPIC as the mapping mode for the mm field. The members xExt and yExt specify the width and height of the rectangle within which the metafile is played.

When the mapping mode is MM_ANISOTROPIC, the values for xExt and yExt should be in MM_HIMETRIC units. Of course you can always calculate the values yourself, but it's very easy to use the functions LPtoDP and DPtoLP to let Windows do the calculation for you. The LPtoDP function converts logical points to device points; DPtoLP converts device points to logical points.

You need a handle to a device context (hDC) compatible with the display in order to do the conversion. There are many ways to obtain a display hDC. The functions GetDC(NULL), CreateCompatibleDC(NULL), CreateDC("DISPLAY", NULL, NULL, NULL), GetDC(hWnd), and GetWindowDC(hWnd) all return a suitable display hDC.

If you call any of the above functions to obtain an hDC, unless you explicitly change the mapping mode, it is in the default mapping mode, MM_TEXT. In the MM_TEXT mapping mode, one logical unit equals one device unit.

If you used the MM_TEXT mapping mode to create your metafile, then it is quite likely that you will also know the width and height of your metafile in device units (pixels). In this case, to calculate values for xExt and yExt, just temporarily set the mapping mode to MM_HIMETRIC and call the function DPtoLP to convert the device units to MM_HIMETRIC units. For example:

pt.x = nWidth; pt.y = nHeight;

SaveDC(hDC); SetMapMode(hDC, MM_HIMETRIC); DPtoLP(hDC, &pt, 1); RestoreDC(hDC, -1);

Because the y-axis is inverted in the MM_HIMETRIC mapping mode, DPtoLP will return negative values for the y coordinate, and therefore you should specify yExt as a positive value. One way to do this is to use the C run- time library function abs to get the absolute value of pt.y.

If the mapping mode in which you created your metafile is something other than MM_TEXT, then you probably will know the width and height of the metafile in logical units. In this case, to calculate values for xExt and yExt you must first convert the width and height from logical units to device units before converting to MM_HIMETRIC units. To do this, the hDC that you use for the calculation must be in the same mapping mode that was used to create the metafile. If you created the metafile in the MM_ANISOTROPIC or MM_ISOTROPIC mapping mode, you must also set the window and viewport extents appropriately so that the scaling factor is correct in the call to LPtoDP.

pt.x = nWidth; pt.y = nHeight;

// assumes the hDC is in the appropriate mapping mode

SaveDC(hDC); SetMapMode(hDC, MM_HIMETRIC); DPtoLP(hDC, &pt, 1); RestoreDC(hDC, -1);

The hMF field in the METAFILEPICT structure should contain the handle to a Windows memory metafile. Because the memory allocated for any object that is placed on the clipboard is owned by the clipboard, this handle should be a copy of the metafile that you created. To fill in the hMF member, call the function CopyMetaFile.

The following function demonstrates the above approach of filling out the METAFILEPICT struct, and then copies the metafile to the clipboard:

//*************************************************************
//
//  CreateClipboardMetaFile()
//
//  Purpose:  Allocates and fills out a METAFILEPICT struct and
//                  copies the metafile to the clipboard.
//
//
//  Parameters:
//
//  HWND    hWnd     For OpenClipboard().
//  HDC     hDC      For LPtoDP & DPtoLP. The mapping mode
//                   must match the logical units that
//                   nWidth and nHeight are specified in.
//  int     nWidth   Width of the metafile in logical units.
//  int     nHeight  Height of the metafile in logical units.
//
//
//  Return: (void)
//
//*************************************************************

void CreateClipboardMetaFile(HWND hWnd,
                             HDC hDC,
                             HANDLE hMF,
                             int nWidth,
                             int nHeight)
{
   HANDLE         hMem;
   LPMETAFILEPICT lpMFP;
   POINT          pt;

   // Allocate memory for the METAFILEPICT struct
   hMem = GlobalAlloc(GMEM_MOVEABLE | GMEM_SHARE, sizeof(METAFILEPICT));
   lpMFP = (LPMETAFILEPICT)GlobalLock(hMem);

   // MM_ANISOTROPIC ensures that it is scalable on playback
   lpMFP->mm = MM_ANISOTROPIC;

   // Convert the object width and height into MM_HIMETRIC units.
   pt.x = nWidth;
   pt.y = nHeight;

   // First get the width and height into device units.
   // This assumes that the hDC is in the mapping mode that
   // matches the logical units that nWidth and nHeight are
   // specified in. If nWidth and nHeight are already in device
   // units, then this step isn't necessary.
   LPtoDP(hDC, &pt, 1);

   // Temporarily set the mapping mode to MM_HIMETRIC
   SaveDC(hDC);
   SetMapMode(hDC, MM_HIMETRIC);
   DPtoLP(hDC, &pt, 1);
   RestoreDC(hDC, -1);

   // Because the y-axis is inverted in the MM_HIMETRIC mapping mode,
   // DPtoLP returns negative values for the y coordinate.
   // Because of this, we should specify yExt as a positive value.
   // Also guard against the obscure case that the logical units
   // that nWidth was specified in would cause pt.x to be negative.
   lpMFP->xExt = abs(pt.x);
   lpMFP->yExt = abs(pt.y);

   // Fill in the handle to the metafile.
   // Make a copy of the metafile because the memory block allocated
   // for it will be owned by the clipboard. The memory allocated for the
   // METAFILEPICT struct will also be owned by the clipboard.
   lpMFP->hMF = CopyMetaFile(hMF, NULL);
   GlobalUnlock(hMem);

   // Copy the metafile to the clipboard.
   OpenClipboard(hWnd);
   EmptyClipboard();
   SetClipboardData(CF_METAFILEPICT, hMem);
   CloseClipboard();