Controlling the repainting of a Form 

In general, you can specify the order of the repainting of a control if you explicitly handle the WM_PAINT message sent by Windows.  You can handle the WM_PAINT message by augmenting the virtual Dispatch method via the BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP, END_MESSAGE_MAP macros.

KEYWORDS: WM_PAINT 

 
//in header... 
public: 
   void __fastcall OrderedRePaint(TMessage &Msg); 

BEGIN_MESSAGE_MAP 
    MESSAGE_HANDLER(WM_PAINT, TMessage, OrderedRePaint) 
END_MESSAGE_MAP(TForm) 
 

 

 
 

//---------------------------------------------------------------------------
//in Form's source...
void __fastcall TForm1::OrderedRePaint(TMessage &Msg) 
{ 
    TForm::Dispatch(&Msg); // Let everything else draw first
    // Finally draw your stuff
} 
 

 

 

There are some caveats in doing this.  Most importantly, you don't want to do anything in the message handler that will cause another WM_PAINT message to be sent.  This will cause a Stack Overflow (recursion).