= Overview =

WxArt2D is a library for 2D graphical programming. WxArt2D is build on top of the wxWidgets GUI classes.
Basic primitives are derived from the base <<Dox(a2dCanvasObject)>> and managed in a drawing. The objects in this drawing are read from a file or created from the source code. The drawing can be made hierarchical by adding child objects to a parent canvas object. Because a canvas object is reference counted, there can be more the one parent on the same canvas object. A unique part, or level, in the hierarchy can be referenced and drawn at different multiple locations. Different parts of a <<Dox(a2dDrawing)>> can be displayed, using <<Dox(a2dDrawingPart)>>, in several windows at the same time. A drawing is traversed, starting at a chosen level in the hierarchy and with a given view port. Everything that it encounters within the view port will be drawn in a window using a device context. The device context target may be a window, a bitmap or even a file. A <<Dox(a2dDrawingPart)>> is used to display certain parts of a drawing, it uses 
an internal drawing context <<Dox(a2dDrawer2D)>> to do that.
While traversing a <<Dox(a2dDrawing)>> , the drawing context is used by the <<Dox(a2dDrawingPart)>> for drawing the the objects in the drawing. Everything that is drawn from within a drawing, is achieved by calling drawing methods on the <<Dox(a2dDrawingPart)>>'s its drawing context. Drawing context implementations are derived from <<Dox(a2dDrawer2D)>> . One can switch the internal drawing context of <<Dox(a2dDrawingPart)>> on the fly. For example to switch between anti aliased rendering and normal wxDc based rendering. 

Some Features:

 * Highly optimized rendering strategy for drawing and redrawing a hierarchy of 2d objects.
 * Updating changes in the drawing towards the <<Dox(a2dDrawingPart)>> takes place in idle time, with minimum effort for the user.
 * Coordinates are in world (doubles or integer), and objects are placed relative to parent object(s) with a matrix.
 * The visible part of a drawing and its size as shown on a window or bitmap can be set independently of the data within the document itself.
 * The document containing the hierarchy of 2d objects, can be displayed as several views.
 * Tool Classes to edit the displayed objects in a view.
 * Data can be read from a file and written to a file in SVG or CVG. New graphical file formats can easily be added.
 * <<Dox(a2dCanvasObject)>> is the base class for all primitives in a document, it can intercept/receive events in the same manner as wxWidgets handles events.
 * Complex canvas objects for displaying curves with markers are available.
 * Objects can be connected via pin objects, this makes graph/diagram display and editing possible. Pins can be added at run time as children of the <<Dox(a2dCanvasObject)>> itself.