Programmatically add images and position them on WPF canvas

Question

I am trying to write a C# WPF app which will be able to generate a number of images (representing planets) and then move them about relative to each other. I've got a standard C# winform app which does this but I'm trying to convert this to WPF to get around the horrible refresh problems when moving images around quickly.

I've been a software developer for more than 20 years, been working with .Net/C# for 7 years but have never used WPF until this week and am scratching my head a bit.

I have a bitmap image which I am using for all the images and now need to programmatically add any of a number of images to a canvas and then put them in set positions. The section of code I currently have to add each of the images is

            string BodyName = "Body" + BodyCount.ToString();
            Image BodyImage = new Image
            {
                Width = moonBitmap.Width,
                Height = moonBitmap.Height,
                Name = BodyName,
                Source = new BitmapImage(new Uri(moonBitmap.UriSource.ToString(), UriKind.Relative)),
            };

            MainCanvas.Children.Add(BodyImage);
            MainCanvas.SetTop(BodyImage, NewBody.YPosition);
            MainCanvas.SetLeft(BodyImage, NewBody.XPosition);

(NewBody.YPosition and NewBody.XPosition are both double).

This looks to me as though it will add any number of images to the canvas. However the SetTop and SetLeft methods, which I think are the methods I need to use to position the images won't compile and I get the following message from the intellisense

"Member 'System.Windows.Controls.Canvas.SetTop(System.Windows.UIElement,double)' cannot be accessed with an instance reference; qualify it with a type name instead."

As a newbie to WPF I presume I'm doing something stupid. Can anyone tell me how I should be doing this?

Thanks

Solution

SetTop and SetLeft are static methods of Canvas class and you're referring to them through Canvas instance. Try referring to these methods by the class name:

Canvas.SetTop(BodyImage, NewBody.YPosition);
Canvas.SetLeft(BodyImage, NewBody.XPosition);