How to Set Grid Column MaxWidth depending on Window or Screen Size in XAML

Answer 1

Too lazy to actually write it up myself, but you should be able to use a mathematical converter and bind to your parent windows width (either by name, or with a RelativeSource ancestor search).

//I know I borrowed this from someone, sorry I forgot to add a comment from whom
public class ScaledValueConverter : IValueConverter
{
  public Object Convert(Object value, Type targetType, Object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
  {
     Double scalingFactor = 0;
     if (parameter != null)
     {
        Double.TryParse((String)(parameter), out scalingFactor);
     }

     if (scalingFactor == 0.0d)
     {
        return Double.NaN;
     }

     return (Double)value * scalingFactor;
  }

  public Object ConvertBack(Object value, Type targetType, Object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
  {
     throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
  }
}

Answer 2

I think the XAML-only approach is somewhat circuitous, but here is a way to do it.

<Page xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation" 
      xmlns:sys="clr-namespace:System;assembly=mscorlib"
      xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml" >

    <!-- This contains our real grid, and a reference grid for binding the layout-->
    <Grid x:Name="Container">

      <!-- hidden because it's behind the grid below -->
      <Grid x:Name="LayoutReference">
        <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
          <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
          <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
          <ColumnDefinition Width="*"/>
        </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
        <!-- We need the border, because the column doesn't have an ActualWidth -->
        <Border x:Name="ReferenceBorder" 
                Background="Black" />
        <Border Background="White" Grid.Column="1" />
        <Border Background="Black" Grid.Column="2" />
      </Grid>

      <!-- I made this transparent, so we can see the reference -->
      <Grid Opacity="0.9">
          <Grid.ColumnDefinitions>
              <ColumnDefinition x:Name="Column1" 
                                MaxWidth="{Binding ElementName=ReferenceBorder,Path=ActualWidth}"/>
              <ColumnDefinition x:Name="Column2" 
                                MinWidth="50"  />
              <ColumnDefinition x:Name="Column3" 
                                Width="{ Binding ElementName=Column1, Path=Width }"/>
              </Grid.ColumnDefinitions>

          <Label Grid.Column="0" Background="Green"/>
          <GridSplitter Grid.Column="0" Width="5" />
          <Label Grid.Column="1" Background="Yellow" />
          <Label Grid.Column="2" Background="Red" />
      </Grid>
    </Grid>

</Page>

Answer 3

Well, it seems that maybe there are ways to do it in XAML only, but not in a way which makes it feel better than doing it in code because the XAML-solution makes the markup harder to read and adds other problems. Thanks for the suggestions!