InfoStrat.VE - Bing Maps 3D for WPF and Microsoft Surface

Project Summary
This control provides a WPF interface for the Bing Maps 3D control, complete with data binding for camera control and WPF-based pushpins. All Win32 restrictions (air space control, no rotation or visual brush) are eliminated. Microsoft Surface and Win 7 Touch are also supported.

Project Details
Bing Maps 3D (formerly Virtual Earth 3D) has many applications, but until recently has only been practical on the web with a javascript interface. WPF applications could not use it to its full potential without requiring a WPF wizard and some XAML magic due to Win32 interop limitations.

The solution is here: InfoStrat.VE

Created by InfoStrat, this project provides a VEMap control for WPF, SurfaceVEMap control for Microsoft Surface, and Win7TouchVEMap control for Windows 7 Touch. SurfaceVEMap and Win7TouchVEMap each derive from VEMap and adds multi-touch manipulation support.

For examples of Microsoft Surface solutions we've built with this control go to our InfoStrat Surface gallery.

InfoStrat.VE allows WPF and Microsoft Surface developers to take full advantage of Bing Maps 3D with minimal overhead. Simply reference the dll, add a single VEMap control to your XAML, and you have a map! The control eliminates the Win32 Interop restrictions, so you can do everything with this VE control that you could do with any native WPF control, including:

* Overlay items (no more transparent windows!)
* Rotate and transform the map within the interface (no more boring rectangles, bring on the 360 degree interfaces!)
* Use the map within a Visual Brush (you know you want faded reflections!)