Dial-A-Gauge

Dial-A-Gauge is a practical and effective Visual studio component that provides .NET developers with a reliable means of extending the real world of gauges to the virtual world.

It comes with two customizable user controls namely RoundGauge that can be used to represent realistic gauges with presets, and SquareGauge that facilitates the virtual display of an analogue meter. Unlike the RoundGauge, the needle is a fixed line which color can be easily selected as a property if you want.

The best way of viewing this two objects in action is to launch the demonstration application that Dial-A-Gauge provides you with. After selecting the demo version you want to work with and saving it, you are able to view both abstract gauges in action.

The usage of this component is very easy. Simply open the Visual Studio application and make sure that your Toolbox section is available (in many cases, you can view it in the left pane of the application after you open a new Form, however, you can navigate to the View menu and enable it). After that, you can access the ‘Common Controls’ list, then select the ‘Choose Items’ from the context menu, then navigate to the location where RoundGauge.dll and SquareGauge.dll are saved and add them into your application.

Once the controls have been added to the Visual Studio toolbox, you can easily draw a new gauge onto the current form.

From the ‘Solutions Explorer’ section, simply right-click on your project and add a new reference, then use the available gauges in your project. This way, you are able to design, code, test and deploy user interface objects effortlessly. It helps you to create a good looking interface for your current application.

To conclude, Dial-A-Gauge comes in handy for .NET developers who need to create and customize the user interface for their application.