Use of ARC Shape With Appearance Property in Expression Blend 4

Step 1: Open Expression Blend 4 -> Select Silverlight Application + Web -> Change Name and Location accordingly -> hit OK. A Blank Window appears on the Artboard.

Step 2: Select Shapes -> Arc as shown below:

Step 3: Draw an Arc as shown below:

Step 3: Go to the Property Panel located in the right corner of the workspace as shown below:

Step 4: Brushes: It contains 3-Properties as shown below:

Step 5: Select Solid Color Brush -> Select Fill Color -> Select Pink Color and fill in a color for the Arc and the effects are as shown below:

Note: To the right side of the Fill-Option see the small rectangular box filled with the color White. It is used to reset the changes:

Step 6: Select Stroke -> Select Solid Color Brush and choose the color Yellow and fill it in and the effects are as shown below:

Step 7: Select Gradient Brush -> Select Radial Gradient Brush -> Select Fill -> Select Green Color and effects are as shown below:

Step 8: Select Gradient Brush -> Select Radial Gradient Brush -> Select Stroke -> Select Sky Blue Color and effects are as shown below:

Step 9: Select Gradient Brush -> Select Linear Gradient Brush -> Select Fill -> Select Purple Color and effects are as shown below:

Step 10: Select Gradient Brush -> Select Linear Gradient Brush -> Select Stroke -> Select Orange Color and effects are as shown below:

Note: Here, the Gradient Brush contains 2 types; they are Radial and Linear.

Step 11: Appearance: It contains 17 properties as shown below:

Select Appearance -> Select Opacity and see the effect as shown below:



Select Visibility -> Select Visible or Collapsed.

Note: Here, when we select the Visible Option we are able to see the same image as shown above and if we select the Collapsed Option the image becomes invisible.

Select Effects -> Select New, a dialog box appears which contains 2 options ie; BlurEffect and DropShadowEffect

Select BlurEffect -> Select Radius and see the effect as shown below:

Select DropShadowEffect and see the effect as shown below:

Note: Here, we have to manage the Arc Shape by applying BlurRadius, Color, Direction, Opacity and ShadowDepth as shown above.

Select StrokeThickness -> Increase or Decrease the StrokeThickness and see the effect as shown below:

Select ArcThickness -> Increase or Decrease the thickness and see the effect as shown below:

Note: Here, we can manage the ArcThicknessUnit also as shown above.

Select StartAngle and EndAngle -> Increase or Decrease the units and see the effect as shown below:

Select GeometryEffect -> Select Sketch and see the effect as shown below:

Note: GeometryEffect contains 2 Options ie; None and Sketch.

Select Stretch -> Fill  and see the effect as shown below:

Select Stretch -> Select Uniform and see the effect as shown below:

Select Stretch -> Select UniformToFill and see the effect as shown below:

StrokeLineJoin contains 2-Properties ie; Bevel and Round.

Select StrokeLineJoin -> Select Bevel and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeLineJoin -> Select Round and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeDashArray -> Increase or Decrease the range and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeDashCap -> Select Flat and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeDashCap -> Select Square and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeDashCap -> Select Round and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeDasgCap -> Select Triangle and see the effect as shown below:

Select StrokeDashOffset -> Increase or Decrease the range and see the effect as shown below:

Summary

Through this article we are able to learn usage of an Arc Shape to design various types of shapes using the appearance property.