I recently had to store many images that are StdPicture objects.
The problem is that each one create a new GDI object, and the (default) limit of max GDI objects is 1000.
(It is set on the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota)
One solution would be to store them in disk, but that would have been slow (to save and load), so I wanted to keep them on memory.
To convert StdPictures to byte arrays using API would have required a lot of work, since the pictures can be Icons, Bitmaps or Windows metafiles. Also if they were just bitmaps, they can be 8, 16, 32 bits, with palette or even monochrome.
To handle all possible formats would have required lot of code and testing.
But there is a very simple solution: use PropertyBags.
It is easy to store pictures into a PropertyBag object, and when needed back to StdPicture.
I had code like this (air code):
Turned to this:
It does not use any system GDI object.
It is of course a bit slower, but not much.
The problem is that each one create a new GDI object, and the (default) limit of max GDI objects is 1000.
(It is set on the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Windows\GDIProcessHandleQuota)
One solution would be to store them in disk, but that would have been slow (to save and load), so I wanted to keep them on memory.
To convert StdPictures to byte arrays using API would have required a lot of work, since the pictures can be Icons, Bitmaps or Windows metafiles. Also if they were just bitmaps, they can be 8, 16, 32 bits, with palette or even monochrome.
To handle all possible formats would have required lot of code and testing.
But there is a very simple solution: use PropertyBags.
It is easy to store pictures into a PropertyBag object, and when needed back to StdPicture.
I had code like this (air code):
Code:
Private mPictures() as StdPicture
Private Sub StorePictures()
Dim c As Long
ReDim mPictures(12000)
For c = 0 To 12000
Set mPictures(c) = [Some pic in StdPicture format]
Next
End Sub
Public Property Get MyPicture(Index As Long) As StdPicture
Set MyPicture = mPictures(Index)
End PropertyCode:
Private mPictures() as PropertyBag
Private Sub StorePictures()
Dim c As Long
Dim pb As PropertyBag
ReDim mPictures(12000)
For c = 0 To 12000
Set pb = New PropertyBag
pb.WriteProperty "i", [Some pic in StdPicture format]
Set mPictures(c) = pb
Next
End Sub
Public Property Get MyPicture(Index As Long) As StdPicture
Set MyPicture = mPictures(Index).ReadProperty("i")
End PropertyIt is of course a bit slower, but not much.