tornadofx-guide

9. Shapes and Animation
Shapes and Animation
JavaFX comes with nodes that represent almost any geometric shape as well as a Path
node that provides facilities required for assembly and management of a geometric path (to
create custom shapes). JavaFX also has animation support to gradually change a Node
property, creating a visual transition between two states. TornadoFX seeks to streamline all
these features through builder constructs.
Shape Basics
Every parameter to the shape builders are optional, and in most cases default to a value of
0.0 . This means that you only need to provide the parameters you care about. The
builders have positional parameters for most of the properties of each shape, and the rest
can be set in the functional block that follows. Therefore these are all valid ways to create a
rectangle:
rectangle {
width = 100.0
height = 100.0
}
rectangle(width = 100.0, height = 100.0)
rectangle(0.0, 0.0, 100.0, 100.0)
The form you choose is a matter of preference, but obviously consider the legibility of the
code you write. The examples in this chapter specify most of the properties inside the code
block for clarity, except when there is no code block support or the parameters are
reasonably self-explanatory.
Positioning within the Parent
Most of the shape builders give you the option to specify the location of the shape within the
parent. Whether or not this will have any effect depends on the parent node. An HBox will
not care about the x and y coordinates you specify unless you call setManaged(false)
on the shape. However, a Group control will. The screenshots in the following examples will
be created by wrapping a StackPane with padding around a Group , and finally the shape
was created inside that Group as shown below.
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