stopping a window from drawing?

[jeff <jeff hype52 com>]

hi, ive seen the answer to this question before, but of course now that i need it i cannot find it anywhere.
basically im hiding and showing a few widgets together and i need to disable redrawing on my main window and 
then re-enable it afterwords so they appear "together". i know the obvious solution would be to put them in 
the same container but that wont work for this situation.

thanks
jeff
jeff hype52 com