Limitations of Tabcontrols

[Petrus Vorster]

I want an entire program to run from one form.
It looks clean and neat with a menu on the side and no pop-up of any overlapping forms, everything runs in a tabcontrol and I have reduced the tabs to invisible.
I use the Tabcontrol as its much easier to display child forms when the user re sizes forms than other methods of displaying child forms.

This project will contain a good 30 Forms+ as its a re-write of a previous tool. (So i know whats coming)
But its clear that when a specific TAB loses focus and another selected it doesn't unload the child form like when you would close a normal form.
This tells me the program is using far more memory this way. Is this correct?

How does this impact on the performance of a program?
What would the limitations be of such an approach? I don't want to sit another year behind a PC to find out at the last moment the project is doomed!
I have attached a picture of the early stages of the tool to show where I am going.

Any suggestions how to avoid possible pitfalls or disasters i may be in for will really be appreciated.

regards, Peter.

[Wilko Verweij]

Hi Petrus,
I do not have experience with a tabcontrol with 30 tabs, but I am using one with 5 tabs. It is 186 kb in size and runs fine. I would guess (no promise) that you approach works.
BTW looks nice!
Wilko

[Petrus Vorster]

Thanks Wilko.