Using my testing, I found that after every shape you draw on the canvas, it recalculates and draws the pixels.
c = Canvas(root)
c.pack()
c.create_line(10, 10, 50, 50)
# Draws line on canvas immediately.
c.create_line(20, 20, 60, 60)
# Draws second line on canvas.
This seems highly inefficient as I'm trying to create dozens of shapes per frame (as in each simulation update). It would probably be better to wait until I've queued up all my draw commands, then tell the canvas to redraw the frame all in one go.
So far I tried creating a canvas using the interactive shell without calling mainloop or even update on the root, but after each draw function it redrew the canvas!
Something like this would be ideal:
c = Canvas(root)
c.pack()
c.queue_create_line(10, 10, 50, 50)
# Don't draw line yet.
c.queue_create_line(20, 20, 60, 60)
# Also don't draw yet.
c.draw_queue()
# Finally draw both lines at once.
Please let me know if there is a way to fix this problem.
Using my testing, I found that after every shape you draw on the canvas, it recalculates and draws the pixels.
The behavior you see is only because you are running from a python shell. In normal operation, the canvas will not update the display immediately. The only time the display is updated is when you call update() or your function exits and control is given back to the event loop. Because you are running from the pythons shell, the display is updated after processing each command.
Related
This maybe a very stupid question but I am having some troubles with tkinter. I am very new to using tkinter and wanted to learn something during my free time which I don't have much of. I have set up the canvas and everything but in a pickle when I try to dare a rectangle with negative points. I don't kow why, it just doesn't draw anything.
What I am trying to do is to draw a rectangle underneath one another.
I have attached the code below. It draws the rectangle which is filled with green, but when I try to draw the rectangle filled with red, nothing appears.
I really appreciate the help.
from tkinter import *
mainWindow = Tk()
drawingCanvas = Canvas(mainWindow, width=300, height=300)
drawingCanvas.pack()
drawingCanvas.create_rectangle(50, 25, 150, 75, fill="green")
drawingCanvas.create_rectangle(50, -200, 150, -100, fill="red")
mainloop()
I tried to plot the points using using a online plotter demos to check if the points are correct. It is, but whne I draw it in tkinter, the rectangle with negative points is missing/doesn't get drawn.
The top-left corner of the canvas defaults to 0,0. Since your objects are being drawn above that coordinate they aren't visible.
You can adjust the scrollregion after you've created the objects, and the canvas will be adjusted so that the top-left-most object is visible. You can do this with the following statement, which should come after you've created the items on the canvas:
drawingCanvas.configure(scrollregion=drawingCanvas.bbox("all"))
drawingCanvas.bbox("all") returns the bounding box of all of the items on the canvas. This is then passed into the configure method to change the scrollregion attribute of the canvas.
This works in this specific case since everything you draw will fit on the window. If you draw items far to the right or far below they won't be visible. This is a convenient way to adjust the viewable portion of the canvas which, as a side effect, adjusts what is displayed in the upper-left corner.
The rectangle with negative points is not missing but is drown outside of the screen. A tkinter Canvas starts at 0/0 on the top left of the screen so negative numbers will be drawn outside the window.
Change:
drawingCanvas.create_rectangle(50, -200, 150, -100, fill="red")
To:
drawingCanvas.create_rectangle(50, 200, 150, 100, fill="red")
I would like to make a python tkinter window with custom-moving widgets on a canvas to simulate motion. For now, I have one canvas, and one not-moving oval widget. I am having problems at the base level; mainloop(). I understand that it runs in wait for the user to do something, but I am having a hard time seeing:
How to control/see exactly what code mainloop() is reiterating (where, and only tkinter?);
How to properly interrupt it and return to it from another function, if it doesn't do it itself;
What code should be reiterated? All tkinter objects, or only updating changing ones? Use some kind of update operation instead? Finally;
What is the functionality difference between tkinter.mainloop() and window.mainloop()? Perhaps the previous questions will answer.
I have minor experience with Swift, and started learning the very similar Python yesterday evening. I've tried probably hundred of mutations to my code, which currently is in the test stage. I have moved everything in and out of the apparent range of the mainloop, and even got several hundred tiny Python windows all over the screen. Everything does one of two things: it does nothing, or gives me an error. Since I don't know what is even running, or if it is running, I can't diagnose anything. My goal is simply to move a circle one hundred pixels repeatedly. I've scanned around for sources, but—it may be me—a clear one is scarce. I have my code here all marked up. This page is closest to what I am looking for: Move a ball inside Tkinter Canvas Widget (simple Arkanoid game). Everything appears to be under mainloop. So, everything is redrawn every pass? Here, unfortunately, is my whole script; I can't only show pieces. It, for some reason, only brings up a small window, not a full-screen one. (Edit: I seem to have lost the screen size code)
import tkinter
import time
# Initial values for circle's corners and start idicator ('b'):
x1 = 10
y1 = 10
x2 = 210
y2 = 210
b = 0
# Window ('window')
window = tkinter.Tk()
# Canvas ('area')
area = tkinter.Canvas(window, width=1368, height=650)
area.place(x=0, y=0)
# Ovals to be placed on 'area'
oval1 = area.create_oval(x1,y1,x2,y2,fill='#42befe')
oval2 = area.create_oval(100,10,300,210,fill='#d00000')
# Turns b to 1 to start shifting when 'butt' is pressed:
def startFunc():
b = 1
print('b = 1')
# My button to activate 'startFunc'
butt = tkinter.Button(window, text='Start movement', command=startFunc)
butt.pack()
# Adjusts the x and y coordinates when they are fed in:
def Shift(A, B, C, D):
print('Shift activated.')
window.after(1000)
print('Edit and return:')
A += 100
B += 100
C += 100
D += 100
return(A, B, C, D)
# Problems start about here: my Mainloop section;
# I have little idea how this is supposed to be.
while True:
if b == 1:
# Takes adjusted tuple
n = Shift(x1, y1, x2, y2)
print('Returned edited tuple.')
# Changes coordinates
x1 = n[0]
y1 = n[1]
x2 = n[2]
y2 = n[3]
print(f'{x1}, {y1}, {x2}, and {y2}')
# Reiterate moving oval
oval1 = area.create_oval(x1,y1,x2,y2,fill='#42befe')
#Does this re-run 'window' relations outside here, or only within the 'while'?
window.mainloop()
It ought to show a 1368 by 650 window, not a tiny one. The button does nothing but print, which means the final 'while' is not running, despite the mainloop. It want it to loop inside the 'while' line, which should adjust coordinates and move my blue circle. The iteration may NOT touch the initial values, or else it would reset them.
In effect, calling mainloop is the same as if you added this to your code instead of calling mainloop():
while the_program_is_running():
event = wait_for_event()
process_the_event(event)
As a rule of thumb, mainloop() should be called exactly once after the UI has initialized and you are ready for the user to start interacting with your program. When it exits, you typically won't have any code after it, and your program will exit.
How to control/see exactly what code mainloop() is reiterating (where, and only tkinter?);
I don't know what you mean by "reiterating". It doesn't run any code except it's own internal code. It simply waits for events, and then dispatches them to handlers.
How to properly interrupt it and return to it from another function, if it doesn't do it itself;
It's exceedingly rare to do this in a running program. Typically, calling mainloop is the last thing your program does before the user starts interacting with it, and as soon as it exits your program quits.
However, to answer the specific answer of how to interrupt it, you can call the quit method of the root window. That will cause the most recent call to mainloop() to return.
What code should be reiterated? All tkinter objects, or only updating changing ones? Use some kind of update operation instead?
That question is hard to answer because it doens't make much sense. When you call mainloop(), it will watch for all events on all tkinter objects.
What is the functionality difference between tkinter.mainloop() and window.mainloop()
They have exactly the same effect and behavior. Tkinter oddly chose to make mainloop available from any widget. The most common way to call it is from either the tkinter module itself, or from the root window.
My goal is simply to move a circle one hundred pixels repeatedly.
The normal way to do that is to create a function that moves it one hundred pixels. Then, that function (-- or a function that calls it -- can put itself on an event queue to be run in the future.
For example, the following code will move a canvas object 100 pixels every second until the program exits:
def move_object():
the_canvas.move(item_id, 100, 0)
the_canvas.after(1000, move_object)
When it is called, it will move the item 100 pixels to the right. Then, it will place a new call to itself on the event queue to be picked up and handled in approximately 1000 milliseconds.
There are many working examples of using after on this site, including the question you linked to in your question.
Everything appears to be under mainloop. So, everything is redrawn every pass?
No, not exactly. The only objects that are redrawn are things that need to be redrawn. Moving objects on a canvas, resizing a window, dragging another window over your window, etc, all place an event on the event queue that tells tkinter "this object needs to be redrawn". The processing of that event happens automatically by mainloop. If nothing is happening in your application, nothing gets redrawn by mainloop.
It ought to show a 1368 by 650 window, not a tiny one
That is because you haven't given the main window a size. You've given the canvas a size, but you're using place which won't cause the containing window to grow or shrink to fit. As a beginner, you should completely avoid place and instead use pack or grid, because pack and grid will both automatically size your window to fit everything inside.
While it's tempting to use place for its perceived simplicity, in reality it usually requires you to do a lot more work than if you used one of the other geometry managers, and it results in a GUI that isn't particularly responsive to change.
while True:
You should almost never do this in tkinter. Tkinter -- and almost all event based programs -- rely on a steady flow of events. When you have an infinite loop, it cannot process those events. You can put an explicit call to update the screen inside your loop, but that is inefficient and should be avoided. If you need to do something periodically, create a function that encapsulates the body of your loop, then use after to get mainloop to run it while it is processing events.
window.after(1000)
You should almost never use after this way without a second argument. This usage is functionally no different than calling time.sleep(1) in that it prevents mainloop from processing events. You should structure your code to allow for a steady stream of events to be processed by mainloop.
while True: ... window.mainloop()
You definitely need to avoid calling mainloop inside a loop. A well behaved tkinter program should call mainloop() exactly once.
from Tkinter import *
root = Tk()
canvas = Canvas(root, width = 300, height = 300)
canvas.pack()
one = canvas.create_rectangle(100, 100, 500, 500, fill = 'red')
two = canvas.create_rectangle(200, 200, 500, 500, fill = 'green')
def move_rectangle(canvas, one):
canvas.move(one, 2, 3)
canvas.move(two,4,5)
def callback(event):
move_rectangle(canvas, one)
move_rectangle(canvas, two)
canvas.bind("<Button-1>", callback)
canvas.pack(expand = YES, fill = BOTH)
mainloop()
If I change Button-1 to anything else, nothing happens. Right now two different rectangles will move across the screen. I am trying to set up a bind for rectangle one and a different key bind for rectangle two. However I can't even seem to bind to anything other than Button-1. If I change Button-1 to Button-2 nothing happens, I have also tried Return and arrow keys with no luck.
If you change <Button-1> to <Button-2> in your code, the right mouse button should just work. There may be some weird platform-/version-specific oddities, but without knowing anything about your system, I can't comment.
But changing it to, e.g., <Left> is not going to work. Only the window with keyboard focus gets keyboard events. And since you don't have any text-entry-type auto-focusing widgets, and aren't doing anything to explicitly set focus, that's your root.
So, there are two fixes. Either one will work, and in your particular case (where a Canvas owns the entire root and there are no other widgets anywhere), I don't think there's going to be much difference between them.
Call canvas.focus_set right before mainloop.
Call root.bind instead of canvas.bind.
One more thing to watch out for: On many *nix systems, when you run a Tkinter script from the terminal, it doesn't actually jump to the foreground. So, it won't receive keyboard input until you click somewhere on the window.
I've created a simple application to display a scatterplot of data using Tkinter's Canvas widget (see the simple example below). After plotting 10,000 data points, the application becomes very laggy, which can be seen by trying to change the size of the window.
I realize that each item added to the Canvas is an object, so there may be some performance issues at some point, however, I expected that level to be much higher than 10,000 simple oval objects. Further, I could accept some delays when drawing the points or interacting with them, but after they are drawn, why would just resizing the window be so slow?
After reading effbot's performance issues with the Canvas widget it seems there may be some unneeded continuous idle tasks during resizing that need to be ignored:
The Canvas widget implements a straight-forward damage/repair display
model. Changes to the canvas, and external events such as Expose, are
all treated as “damage” to the screen. The widget maintains a dirty
rectangle to keep track of the damaged area.
When the first damage event arrives, the canvas registers an idle task
(using after_idle) which is used to “repair” the canvas when the
program gets back to the Tkinter main loop. You can force updates by
calling the update_idletasks method.
So, the question is whether there is any way to use update_idletasks to make the application more responsive once the data has been plotted? If so, how?
Below is the simplest working example. Try resizing the window after it loads to see how laggy the application becomes.
Update
I originally observed this problem in Mac OS X (Mavericks), where I get a substantial spike in CPU usage when just resizing the window. Prompted by Ramchandra's comments I've tested this in Ubuntu and this doesn't seem to occur. Perhaps this is a Mac Python/Tk problem? Wouldn't be the first I've run into, see my other question:
PNG display in PIL broken on OS X Mavericks?
Could someone also try in Windows (I don't have access to a Windows box)?
I may try running on the Mac with my own compiled version of Python and see if the problem persists.
Minimal working example:
import Tkinter
import random
LABEL_FONT = ('Arial', 16)
class Application(Tkinter.Frame):
def __init__(self, master, width, height):
Tkinter.Frame.__init__(self, master)
self.master.minsize(width=width, height=height)
self.master.config()
self.pack(
anchor=Tkinter.NW,
fill=Tkinter.NONE,
expand=Tkinter.FALSE
)
self.main_frame = Tkinter.Frame(self.master)
self.main_frame.pack(
anchor=Tkinter.NW,
fill=Tkinter.NONE,
expand=Tkinter.FALSE
)
self.plot = Tkinter.Canvas(
self.main_frame,
relief=Tkinter.RAISED,
width=512,
height=512,
borderwidth=1
)
self.plot.pack(
anchor=Tkinter.NW,
fill=Tkinter.NONE,
expand=Tkinter.FALSE
)
self.radius = 2
self._draw_plot()
def _draw_plot(self):
# Axes lines
self.plot.create_line(75, 425, 425, 425, width=2)
self.plot.create_line(75, 425, 75, 75, width=2)
# Axes labels
for i in range(11):
x = 75 + i*35
y = x
self.plot.create_line(x, 425, x, 430, width=2)
self.plot.create_line(75, y, 70, y, width=2)
self.plot.create_text(
x, 430,
text='{}'.format((10*i)),
anchor=Tkinter.N,
font=LABEL_FONT
)
self.plot.create_text(
65, y,
text='{}'.format((10*(10-i))),
anchor=Tkinter.E,
font=LABEL_FONT
)
# Plot lots of points
for i in range(0, 10000):
x = round(random.random()*100.0, 1)
y = round(random.random()*100.0, 1)
# use floats to prevent flooring
px = 75 + (x * (350.0/100.0))
py = 425 - (y * (350.0/100.0))
self.plot.create_oval(
px - self.radius,
py - self.radius,
px + self.radius,
py + self.radius,
width=1,
outline='DarkSlateBlue',
fill='SteelBlue'
)
root = Tkinter.Tk()
root.title('Simple Plot')
w = 512 + 12
h = 512 + 12
app = Application(root, width=w, height=h)
app.mainloop()
There is actually a problem with some distributions of TKinter and OS Mavericks. Apparently you need to install ActiveTcl 8.5.15.1. There is a bug with TKinter and OS Mavericks. If it still isn't fast eneough, there are some more tricks below.
You could still save the multiple dots into one image. If you don't change it very often, it should still be faster. If you are changing them more often, here are some other ways to speed up a python program. This other stack overflow thread talks about using cython to make a faster class. Because most of the slowing down is probably due to the graphics this probably won't make it a lot faster but it could help.
Suggestions on how to speed up a distance calculation
you could also speed up the for loop by defining an iterator ( ex: iterator = (s.upper() for s in list_to_iterate_through) ) beforehand, but this is called to draw the window, not constantly as the window is maintained, so this shouldn't matter very much. Also, a another way to speed things up, taken from python docs, is to lower the frequency of python's background checks:
"The Python interpreter performs some periodic checks. In particular, it decides whether or not to let another thread run and whether or not to run a pending call (typically a call established by a signal handler). Most of the time there's nothing to do, so performing these checks each pass around the interpreter loop can slow things down. There is a function in the sys module, setcheckinterval, which you can call to tell the interpreter how often to perform these periodic checks. Prior to the release of Python 2.3 it defaulted to 10. In 2.3 this was raised to 100. If you aren't running with threads and you don't expect to be catching many signals, setting this to a larger value can improve the interpreter's performance, sometimes substantially."
Another thing I found online is that for some reason setting the time by changing os.environ['TZ'] will speed up the program a small amount.
If this still doesn't work, than it is likely that TKinter is not the best program to do this in. Pygame could be faster, or a program that uses the graphics card like open GL (I don't think that is available for python, however)
Tk must be getting bogged down looping over all of those ovals. I'm not
sure that the canvas was ever intended to hold so many items at once.
One solution is to draw your plot into an image object, then place the image
into your canvas.
I have three questions that I could really use some help on. Hope I'm not asking too much.
1) I am designing a simple GUI that contains one frame and one panel. Let's say I have two images that I draw on the panel using dc. One image will be continually fade in and out (on a timer), and the second is stationary (doesn't change). The fading is accomplished by changing the opacity of the image and use dc.Clear() before redrawing the new version of the image.
My question is this: how would I draw the fading in/out image without affecting the second image which does not change? It seems like this causes unnecessary drawing as the stationary image will be redrawn alongside the fading image. Could I selectively clear just the first image without affecting the second? This is my drawing function:
def on_paint(self, event):
dc = wx.PaintDC(self)
dc = wx.BufferedDC(dc)
brush = wx.Brush('#3B3B3B')
dc.SetBackground(brush)
dc.Clear()
# Draw the first image (stationary)
dc.DrawBitmap(stationaryBitmap, 120, 0, True)
# Draw the second image (fading)
image = self.image.AdjustChannels(1, 1, 1, self.factoralpha)
fadingBitmap = wx.BitmapFromImage(image)
dc.DrawBitmap(fadingBitmap, 120, 0, True)
2) How can I bind an event to a wx.Image object? I would like to be able to click on the fading in/out image, though I can't seem to assign it an id. The goal is to bind an event similar to what I could do with a wx.StaticBitmap.
self.image = wx.Image("C:\image.png", wx.BITMAP_TYPE_PNG)
# Trying to bind an event, but no ID is assigned
self.Bind(wx.EVT_BUTTON, self.go_button, id=self.image.GetId())
3) Is it possible to place wx.DrawBitmap in a sizer? It appears that it only takes an x,y coordinate pair.
dc.DrawBitmap(bitmap, 120, 0, True)
Thanks everyone.
1) For the Performance, I would recommend using a MemoryDC and update the Drawing only it is required. See here: BufferedCanvas. You may want to use more than 2 buffers because you are using 2 images (see example).
2) I don't know about this, but have you tried to do the binding to a panel and fade the panel in/out?
You can directly paint on a wx.Panel.
Regards