How can I remove a UIView with rounded corners from its parent view?

Question

I\'m creating an iPad app for 3.2 and later. My app has an overlay view which has a semi-transparency that makes everything below it darker. In the middle of this view I am chop

Answer 1

If you change the cornerRadius property of a layer, you must also set clipsToBounds to YES on the associated view in order for the content to be clipped to the rounded corners.

Answer 2

What you're trying to do is called masking. You can use Core Graphics to mask the current graphics context. See Apple's documentation on the subject here:

http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/GraphicsImaging/Conceptual/drawingwithquartz2d/dq_images/dq_images.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP30001066-CH212-CJBHDDBE

Answer 3

Here's how I ended up getting it to work. This produces a hole with the same frame as the 'hole' UIView, cutting it out from self (UIView). This lets you see whatever is behind the 'hole' unhindered.

- (void)drawRect:(CGRect)rect {
    CGFloat radius = self.hole.layer.cornerRadius;
    CGRect c = self.hole.frame;
    CGContextRef context = UIGraphicsGetCurrentContext();

        // this simply draws a path the same shape as the 'hole' view
    CGContextMoveToPoint(context, c.origin.x, c.origin.y + radius);
    CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, c.origin.x, c.origin.y + c.size.height - radius);
    CGContextAddArc(context, c.origin.x + radius, c.origin.y + c.size.height - radius, radius, M_PI_4, M_PI_2, 1);
    CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, c.origin.x + c.size.width - radius, c.origin.y + c.size.height);
    CGContextAddArc(context, c.origin.x + c.size.width - radius, c.origin.y + c.size.height - radius, radius, M_PI_2, 0.0f, 1);
    CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, c.origin.x + c.size.width, c.origin.y + radius);
    CGContextAddArc(context, c.origin.x + c.size.width - radius, c.origin.y + radius, radius, 0.0f, -M_PI_2, 1);
    CGContextAddLineToPoint(context, c.origin.x + radius, c.origin.y);
    CGContextAddArc(context, c.origin.x + radius, c.origin.y + radius, radius, -M_PI_2, M_PI, 1);

        // finish
    CGContextClosePath(context);
    CGContextClip(context); // this is the secret sauce
    CGContextClearRect(context, c);
}