flutter - How to show a line being drawn from one point to another?

Question

I used canvas.drawLine to show a line but I want user to be able to see it being drawn from one point to another and also, if possible, control the duration of the animation. (something like progress bar but this is my custom widget)

Answer 1

use a custom CustomPainter class that passes Animation to the super constructor - that way the CustomPainter#paint() method is automagically called on each "frame" of the animation:

class MyCustomPainter extends CustomPainter {
  List points;
  Paint linePaint;
  Animation anim;
  Size size = Size.zero;

  MyCustomPainter(Animation anim) : super(repaint: anim) {
    linePaint = Paint()
      ..style = PaintingStyle.stroke
      ..color = Colors.red
      ..strokeCap = StrokeCap.round
      ..strokeWidth = 16;
    this.anim = anim;
  }

  @override
  void paint(Canvas canvas, Size size) {
    if (size != this.size) {
      print('new size $size');
      this.size = size;
      Rect r = (Offset.zero & size).deflate(linePaint.strokeWidth * 1.5);
      points = [
        [r.topLeft, r.bottomLeft], // begins
        [r.bottomLeft, r.topRight], // ends
      ].map((o) => anim.drive(Tween(begin: o[0], end: o[1]))).toList();
    }
    canvas.drawLine(points[0].value, points[1].value, linePaint);
  }

  @override
  bool shouldRepaint(CustomPainter oldDelegate) => true;
}

the complete working code would look like this:

import 'package:flutter/material.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(AnimatedPainterTest());
}

class AnimatedPainterTest extends StatelessWidget {
  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return MaterialApp(
      home: Scaffold(
        appBar: AppBar(),
        body: Builder(
          builder: (BuildContext context) {
            AnimationController controller = AnimationController(
              duration: Duration(milliseconds: 500),
              vsync: Scaffold.of(context),
            );
            return Column(
              children: <Widget>[
                RaisedButton(
                  onPressed: () => controller.forward(from: 0.0),
                  child: Text('press me to start the animation'),
                ),
                Expanded(
                  child: SizedBox.expand(
                    child: CustomPaint(
                      painter: MyCustomPainter(controller),
                    ),
                  ),
                )
              ],
            );
          },
        ),
      ),
    );
  }
}

and the result is: