How to make Panel Visible in WinForms?

Question

I have the following Code:

marathonPanel.Visible = false;
resultPanel.Visible = true;

but only the marathonPanel gets invisible and the resultPanel stays invisible. When I check the value of resultPanel.Visible it is set to false.

I also tried

resultPanel.BringToFront();<br>
resultPanel.Visible = true;

Can anyone help me?

Is something else setting the `Visibile` property back to `false`, such as an event handler? Is `resultPanel` nested within another Panel? — Reed Copsey, Aug 02 '13 at 20:49
I have the strange feeling that the resultPanel is a child of marathonPanel, so when you make the first invisible the child is invisible too. To test, try to move the resultPanel well out of the border of the marathonPanel — Steve, Aug 02 '13 at 20:51
ok, it was docked into marathonPanel. It´s impossible to see in Visual Studio — LostPhysx, Aug 02 '13 at 20:54

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Aug 02 '13 at 21:04

This happens when you design two overlapping panels in Visual Studio Form Designer. It is too easy to drag one panel inside the other and the dragged one becomes the child of the first.

I usually draw the panels in different locations. The first one in the expected place, the second one in a different place, then at Runtime move the second one on the same spot of the first one.

in Form_Load

 resultPanel.Left = marathonPanel.Left;
 resultPanel.Top = marathonPanel.Top;

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:50

This is a common designer accident, caused by Panel being a container control. Overlapping two panels is a problem. Your resultPanel will end up as a child of marathonPanel. So when you make marathonPanel invisible, the child will always be invisible as well.

Use View + (Other Windows) + Document Outline to fix the problem. Drag resultPanel and drop it on the form. Edit the Location property by hand, don't move the control with the mouse or the panel will suck it right back in.

Another way to do it is to intentionally mis-place it so it won't be sucked-up and fix the Location property in the form constructor. A more friendly hack that works better in the designer is to use a TabControl instead. Check the sample StackPanel in this answer.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 03 '13 at 09:42

There is another way to find out such issues . if you look at *.resx file , it will tell which control is taking place as parent and which is child

Also you can view this thing in Document outline which is available in Visual Studio.

How to make Panel Visible in WinForms?

3 Answers3