Datasheet

You can also import 3D objects and animation from Zam 3D, which also exports into XAML code.

You simply add the xaml file into your project and open it in a document window. Then you can

cut and paste its objects into any other window, page or user control in your project. And you can

import any 3D object in the popular OBJ format, along with its accompanying MTL (material) file.

The XAML code output by Blend is designed to integrate with projects created with Visual Basic

.NET and C#, the popular programming languages from Microsoft. When you create a project in

Blend, you can choose between Visual Basic .NET or C# code for your code-behind files.

Each document in Blend, such as a window or page, has an accompanying code-behind file which

you can use to connect your user interface elements to advanced functionality provided by Visual

Basic .NET or C# code. For example, when you want to create code for an object (such as a button,

for example) in Blend to make it respond to some event (such as a mouse click, for example), then

you type in a name that you want to give to the event handler, and Blend generates the code to cre-

ate the event handler and opens Visual Studio which pastes the code into the code-behind file and

opens to the correct place for you to enter your code into the event handler. If you don’t have

Visual Studio, you can still open the code-behind file and Blend automatically generates code and

places it into the clipboard, which makes it easy for you to paste it into the code-behind file. Then

you can type more code into the method that Blend created. (Using Notepad is good for this,

although it doesn’t offer nearly the functionality of Visual Studio, which provides you with

IntelliSense auto-completion, debugging aids, and lots more. But Notepad can be handy for a few

lines of code here and there.)

Developers working in Visual Studio and designers working in Blend can work on the same project

at the same time. When the project is modified and built in either application, a message appears

in the other application, asking whether the project should be updated in that application.

For information on importing graphics from Expression Design, see Chapter 7 and

Chapter 10.

For information about using Visual Studio to publish applications and create XAML browser applica-

tions for the Web, see Chapter 4.

For more information on modifying and adding code in Blend, see Chapter 20.

For more information on importing 3D art and animation from Zam 3D, see Chapter 12.

Exploring Examples of Innovative User

Interfaces

Blend makes it easy to integrate video, audio, animation, 3D, and vector graphics into your user

interfaces and thus to take advantage of the extra graphics power of the Windows Presentation

Foundation. You may find it useful to merge this use of rich media in interface design with other

innovative ideas, such as, for example, user interface ideas taken from the trailblazing work of

designer Kai Krause in the 1990s, which we describe next. These ideas may not be useful in every

CROSS-REF

Designing Next-Generation User Experiences

Part I

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