GUI AnchorLayout broken when using ScrollArea #2818

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1. eruvanos

   added

   guiRelated to arcade GUI (sub module arcade.gui)Related to arcade GUI (sub module arcade.gui)

   on Jan 29, 2026
2. eruvanos

   self-assigned this

   on Feb 15, 2026
3. eruvanos commented on Feb 15, 2026

   

   eruvanos

   on Feb 15, 2026

   Last edited by eruvanos

   Member

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   Within the code Layouts are given a size, but the size_hint is not set to None, which means the defaults apply and the sizes are overwritten.

   UIBoxLayouts have default: size_hint=(0,0) and calculate size_hint_minbased on children. UIAnchorLayout have defaultsize_hint=(1,1) and use a fixed size_hint_min which is None by default.

   In the code scroll_box checks minimal size of children (a UIBoxLayout with dummies ; UIAnchorLayout: 0,0)
   and resizes, which causes the UIAnchorLayout to collabs and it gets drawn above the UIBoxLayout.

   ---

   Another thing:

   self.entry_box_2 = gui.UIAnchorLayout(
     width=self.width, height=150, children=(gui.UIDummy())  # there is a `,` missing -> (gui.UIDummy(),) 
   )

   While the code does not crash, the constructor gets only the dummy and not a tuple, which causes the internal code to loop over the children of UIDummy, but there are non.

   ---

   The "fixed" code:

   import arcade
   from arcade import Window, gui
   from arcade.gui import experimental
   
   
   class TestWindow(Window):
       def __init__(self):
           super().__init__()
           self.manager = gui.UIManager()
           self.manager.enable()
   
           self.entry_box_1 = gui.UIBoxLayout(
               vertical=False,
               width=self.width,
               height=150,
               space_between=15,
               children=(gui.UIDummy() for _ in range(5)),
           )
           self.entry_box_2 = gui.UIAnchorLayout(
               width=self.width, height=150, children=(gui.UIDummy(),), # 👈 fixed tuple creation
               size_hint=None # 👈 added to fix size
           )
           self.entry_box_2.add(gui.UIDummy(), anchor_x="left") 
           self.entry_box_2.add(gui.UIDummy(), anchor_x="right") # 👈 added another dummy on the right
   
           self.scroll_box = gui.UIBoxLayout(
               width=self.width,
               height=4 * self.height,
               vertical=True,
               children=(
                   self.entry_box_1,
                   self.entry_box_2,
               ),
               size_hint=None # 👈 added to prevent shrinking to child size
           )
   
           self.scroll_area = experimental.UIScrollArea(
               x=0,
               y=0,
               width=self.width,
               height=self.height,
               canvas_size=(self.width, 4 * self.height),
               children=(self.scroll_box,)
           )
           self.manager.add(self.scroll_area)
   
       def on_draw(self):
           self.clear()
           self.manager.draw()
   
       def on_key_press(self, symbol: int, modifiers: int):
           self.manager.debug()
   
   
   win = TestWindow()
   win.run()
4. eruvanos commented on Feb 15, 2026

   

   eruvanos

   on Feb 15, 2026

   Last edited by eruvanos

   Member

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   Result:

   

   ---

   Things that came to my mind to improve the code:

   • Layouts might print a warning when width/height is given, but size_hint not set
   • UIAnchorLayout could also make use of the children to calculate size_hint_min so it is consistent and works better in UIBoxLayouts.
   • Constructor could warn if a UIWidget is given (unsure, there might be use cases to do that, but rare ones)

   What do you thing?
5. DragonMoffon commented on Mar 15, 2026

   

   DragonMoffon

   on Mar 15, 2026

   CollaboratorAuthor

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   I def think the first two should be implemented as warnings as they cause very intuitive issues and are almost always going to be unintentional. The last one I could see being useful when you have one child of a layout that you want to fill the layout fully. Maybe the last one should just be a type hint so type-checking complains but it's not actually prohibited?