Output control in Bitmap

Question

I want to implement previews/thumbnails in my project, therefor i need the graphical output of a control as bitmap. I have a third party control which loads documents and displays them. Is it possible to fetch the output of an control and store it in a bitmap object without adding it to the UI? And If how?

Edit: I probably should said that before, but i don't know if that's important. The ThirdParty Control is an OCX(ActiveX control).

Answer 1

in a Form do:

Bitmap myBitmap = new Bitmap(button1.Width, button1.Height);

// button1.Draw..., not 'this.Draw...'!
button1.DrawToBitmap(myBitmap, button1.DisplayRectangle); 

myBitmap.Save(@"C:\test.bmp");