Using JLabel[] to create an array of image labels

Question

Hello, I am quite new to Java so I am not sure if the following is even the best way to do what i am trying to do ... but please advise:
I am making a JLayeredPane mapArea with grid lines where the user will be able to change the scale of the map and the grid lines can move along. The way I approached it is to create JLabel arrays that contains every single gird line i am going to use, add them to the map panel at the bottom-most layer and position them according to the scale. Below is the code that I wrote:
int i = 0;     //local index variable for the for loops below
JLabel[] vlineArray = new JLabel[50];
JLabel[] hlineArray = new JLabel[50];
ImageIcon[] vlineImageArray = new ImageIcon[50];
ImageIcon[] hlineImageArray = new ImageIcon[50];
for( i=0; i<50; i++ ){
     vlineImageArray[ i ] = new ImageIcon(GUI.class.getResource("vline.gif")); 
     hlineImageArray[ i ] = new ImageIcon(GUI.class.getResource("hline.gif")); 
// vertical line array
     for( i=0; i<50; i++){
     vlineArray [ i ] = new JLabel(vlineImageArray[ i ]);
mapArea.add(vlineArray[ i ],1);
// horizontal line array
for( i=0; i<50; i++){
     hlineArray [ i ]= new JLabel(hlineImageArray[ i ]);
     mapArea.add(hlineArray [ i ],1);
}}I tried to position these Jlabels in the array using setBounds:
i.e. vlineArray.setBounds(......)
But nothing showed... But if I simple create a vline by itself and add it to the map pane and setBounds. The vline shows up fine:
// this works
JLabel vlineImage = new JLabel(vline);
mapArea.add(vlineImage);
vlineImage.setBounds(.....);I also tried to post at the java programming forum
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=646495&tstart=15
But nothing worked.
Please help! Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

if I were going to draw grid lines over a map area, I would put a component the size of the layered pane in the layered pane which is transparent and can be given a scale and can override the paint method to paint the lines directly instead of trying to handle lots of labels like you're doing.