CUI icons resolution

[denys_gorkovchuk]

Hi everyone!

I am working on a new CUI for custom commands and I have two problems since already few years, which I can't solve in a beautiful way:

1) I can't find information regarding the resolution of icons.
There are very old guidelines, which say: small icon - 16x16 px, large - 32x32 px. But since a few years AutoCAD already have "adaptive" resolution icons, which are set to 24x24 (or 48x48 for large) if your screen scaling is 150% and 32x32 (64x64) for 200% scaling on 4k monitors. But in CUI settings there is still only 2 old options.

Is there a way to set more icons that just 16x16 and 32x32?
2) Is there some repository with basic AutoCAD icons? I wan't to create my icons in the same style and it would be great if I can use AutoCAD icons as a reference with transparencies, and not by copying them from the screenshot.

[pendean]

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@denys_gorkovchuk wrote:

....Is there a way to set more icons that just 16x16 and 32x32?...

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By chance you missed this in HELP in the program

https://help.autodesk.com/view/ACD/2025/ENU/?guid=GUID-110030E5-F82E-4920-BF47-AEFF483CF196

To answer your first question, No. But this post (and many others like it) offer tips on why scaling-displays may not be a good option:

https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-forum/4k-is-blurry/td-p/9517650

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@denys_gorkovchuk wrote:

...Is there some repository with basic AutoCAD icons? ...

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Nothing on a website anywhere if that is what you seek: but you ca create your own "go-by" with CUI command in the program, select an icon then 'export it'

or

See the very first link in this reply to learn more about CUI icons creation etc.

HTH

[denys_gorkovchuk]

1) That is what I have mentioned, that all manuals refer only to those two sizes of icons. But AutoCAD sine few years natively supports more sizes and correct scaling. But for some reason this is still not available for customization.
Scaling is something which need to be done, because monitors are increasing resolution. And working on 4k 28 inch monitor with 100% scaling is not comfortable.
2) The export option is similar to a screenshot. It exports in BMP without transparency. On small icons erasing the background is not very effective.

[pendean]

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@denys_gorkovchuk wrote:

1) ...But for some reason this is still not available for customization.
Scaling is something which need to be done, because monitors are increasing resolution. And working on 4k 28 inch monitor with 100% scaling is not comfortable.

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Autodesk has chosen to not give us users any options. Feel free to contact Autodesk and request any changes to the interface you want, it hasn't happened in the last 10-ish years but who knows, it could happen next version or sometime before 2050

https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Feedback-to-Autode...

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@denys_gorkovchuk wrote:

....It exports in BMP without transparency... .

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From HELP and the initial link I shared, explore these details, convert BMP to PNG works for all of us:

HTH

[denys_gorkovchuk]

Well, I have discovered few things.
New versions of AutoCAD have 5 icons for each icon size. So the icon 16x16 px has additional icons 24x24, 32x32, 48x48, and 64x64. It supports screen scaling from 100% to 300%. The only problem is how Autodesk creates those icons. It is a PNG file with 5 images inside. Technically, there are no software, which allows you to write multipage PNG file.

[justin_marini]

I'm late to the game here, but I've done a deep dive on icon scaling, so I figured I'd share.

AutoCAD icon resources are in a DLL; on my 2025 version, it's in C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2025\acadbtn.xmx .

The .rsrc\RCDATA location in that file contains all the icons AutoCAD uses. The icon image files have no extensions, but if you extract one and look at its file data, it's a TIFF.

TIFFs are often used for "pyramidal" image stacks that have the same image in multiple resolutions. AutoCAD uses screen scaling and toolbar/ribbon size to determine which resolution in a TIFF to use at a given time.

Autodesk seems to have a few requirements for its TIFF icons. Each icon image corresponds to a particular scaling, with 96 DPI being 100% scaling. 144 DPI is 150%, 192 DPI is 200%, 288 DPI is 300%, and 384 DPI is 400%.

Historically, they came in "small" (16x16) and "large" (32x32) sizes. 

• For the larger "32x32" TIFF icons, the file needs to have:
  • 5 images
  • 32px, 48px, 64px, 96px, and 128px square images, in that order
  • 96, 144, 192, 288, 384 DPI, respectively
  • Inch resolution units
  • Deflate compression
• For the smaller "16x16" TIFF icons:
  
  • 5 images
  • 16px, 24px, 32px, 48px, and 64px square images, in that order
  • 96, 144, 192, 288, 384 DPI, respectively
  • Inch resolution units
  • Deflate compression

Open-source and paid graphics programs can export a multi-layer image to multipage TIFF. Make sure each layer is the right size, and you may have to use another tool (lots of TIFF libraries out there) to set the correct DPI on each "page" - a critical step here. 

The final trick? Rename your .TIF file to .png to let AutoCAD use it (I'm sad that that works).