topic Re: Custom Icon Inventor in Inventor Programming Forum

Custom Icon Inventor

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 09:22:22 GMT

Hi,

I am trying to create a custom Icon for my macro... several online sources say that if I place an bmp image along with the macros. IVB file ussing the following format

ModuleName.MacroName.Small.bmp

ModuleName.MacroName.Large.bmp

and place these in the same directory of my IVB file that my Icons will change to the image I have defined. This just dosnt work for me and the default Macro icon image is still used. the module futhermore runs fine...

I cant personally see whats going wrong but I get the feeling I may have not defined my macro properly????

Source of information:

http://modthemachine.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/03/buttons-for-vba-macros-in-the-ribbon-user-interface.html

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

mr_ensing — Sat, 10 Nov 2018 16:36:49 GMT

Edit: it seems i reacted on an old thread. Oh well.

Check the resolution of the images. 16x16 pixels for small. 32x32 pixels for large.

Other than that, i don't see much wrong with it. I ran a quick test:

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

Anonymous — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 12:52:22 GMT

hi.

where is this directory where to put the icone files?

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

mr_ensing — Sat, 15 Dec 2018 13:01:32 GMT

As per the link in the post:

This is done in exactly the same way as described before, by creating a bmp file, saving it in the same directory as the .ivb file, and naming it correctly.

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

kfc10 — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 20:13:43 GMT

Hi,

Yes the bmp image type is working. For a dark background, it doesn't meet my expectations.

I need to create a transparent background. That is, for the png image type, or for using the ico type. Vba does not work for these types. Please confirm my findings. Or is there any other trick for using png and ico?

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

mr_ensing — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 20:38:36 GMT

Is far as I know, with VBA, .bmp-files are your only option. So yeah, transparency is not a possibility.

For icons with transparency, you'll have to create a addin I guess.

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

kfc10 — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 07:04:47 GMT

Thank you for answer. I stay at the Global Forms panel there I can put ico images. It's sad, that it does not work for program version 2022.

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

freesbee — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 06:49:45 GMT

I can confirm that in VBA area the only option is bmp, so no transparency.

In the addin area, then more flexibility is offered (ico files are supported if I remember it right).

By the time of concept of DarkMode (2017) I have strongly asked to offer support for Cobalt, Amber and Dark themes at least on AddIn level...

...unfortunately the result was that "Amber" has been discontinued in dark mode (even if many of us love "Dark/Amber"), and I have never seen anything on how to switch icons between light and dark mode.

I have received a wonderful "Inventor UI Guidelines for Custom" (attached) that helps you making your addin consistent with the rest of the program, but never something specific on the "Light/Dark" theme switch.

@jason_hetu: Maybe somebody at Autodesk could clarify the real situation?

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

jason_hetu — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:55:01 GMT

Hi everyone,

I talked with some of the developers who have some more detailed information on solutions to these issues.

Light and Dark theme:
Before creating a button (ControlDefinitions.AddButtonDefinition), check the value of Application.ThemeManager.ActiveTheme.Name. This is a string that can be either "LightTheme" or "DarkTheme". Choose your icons based on that.

To support a change in theme during a session:
Listen to the ApplicationEvents.OnApplicationOptionChange event. In your event handler, look at the current value of Application.ThemeManager.ActiveTheme.Name and compare it to a value that you have previously cached. If it has changed, iterate over your cached ButtonDefinition objects and change their StandardIcon and LargeIcon properties.

(You can cache the value in the event handler when the BeforeOrAfter argument is EventTimingEnum.kBefore. Then check if the value has changed when the BeforeOrAfter argument is EventTimingEnum.kAfter).
Amber Support:
We continue to support amber but only for the light theme. We are not creating any new icons in the amber style but will leave all the ones that currently exist. The reason we don't have an amber option in dark theme is that these icons are built for the light theme and will have aliasing issues with light pixels at the edges or not have the correct level of contrast due to the fact that they are designed to work on the light background color.

The developers said that you can check the API to get the icon style similar to the theme color and update accordingly (amber or cobalt).
Icon Transparency Support:
There have been some similar questions asked and answered in this: Inventor Beta Forum Post.
If you are not a member you can sign up here: https://feedback.autodesk.com/

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

freesbee — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:58:10 GMT

...thank you so much Jason.

Great answer, as usual from you!!

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

g.georgiades — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:18:54 GMT

Hi,

For transparency in the VBA icons, Inventor sets all magenta pixels (255, 0, 255) as transparent.

You have to restart inventor to see icon changes.

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

mr_ensing — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 10:47:00 GMT

I tried that years ago, but it did not work. Forgot all about it.

Just tried again, works fine now. Thanks for the reminder.

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

mr_ensing — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 20:44:07 GMT

Some experiences with transparency by using magenta. There is transparency, but only full transparency.

So not what i tried to do:

The result of that is:

Icontest1 has a white background, magenta for Icontest2.

So no fuzzy edges and everything is fine

Re: Custom Icon Inventor

jason_hetu — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 03:02:52 GMT

Usually what we do if we need to create these type of icons is we will use the background color. Then fill in the part we want to be transparent with the magenta color. This will provide a similar result to your final image but it will look smoother. We use this type of icon for the browser. You may notice that hovers with different background colors show a little of this aliasing but it is better than no transparency.