Addins - Using the Inventor Themes Light / Dark

[NachoShaw]

Hi

Getting addins to adopt the light / dark themes to some has been a challenge. I went through an arduous task of creating a skin based on the dark theme and i had to fill in a lot of blanks. Then the other day i was looking for a library in the Inventor 2024/Bin folder and came across this-

Autodesk.iLogic.ThemeSkins

A quick reference add and look inside and found the themes were under a DevExpress skin manager. I have a DevExpress subscription so i set up a skin class to pull out the theme and applied it to my custom addin form. Worked like a charm so here is the code for anyone who wants to do the same. a DevExpress subscription is required (unless i make a special library as a tool i guess).

you need references to the following

using DevExpress.LookAndFeel;
using DevExpress.Skins;
using DevExpress.UserSkins;
using DevExpress.Utils;
using DevExpress.XtraEditors;
using Autodesk.iLogic.ThemeSkins;
using DevExpress.Skins.Info;
using System.Reflection;
using Inventor;

This code gets the theme skin and registers it, then checks what theme style you currently have in Inventor and switches the theme to the inventor theme

public YourClassName()
{
    // This call is required by the designer.
    InitializeComponent();

    string DarkTheme = "inventor dark theme";
    string LightTheme = "inventor light theme";

    string AdeskLib = "Autodesk.iLogic.ThemeSkins.CustomSkins.";

    SkinManager.EnableFormSkins();

    var valDark = new SkinBlobXmlCreator(DarkTheme, AdeskLib, typeof(CustomThemeSkins).Assembly, null as string);
    var valLight = new SkinBlobXmlCreator(LightTheme, AdeskLib, typeof(CustomThemeSkins).Assembly, null as string);

    SkinManager.Default.RegisterSkin(valDark);
    SkinManager.Default.RegisterSkin(valLight);

    Inventor.ThemeManager oThemeManager = AddinGlobal.InventorApp.ThemeManager;
    Inventor.Theme oTheme = oThemeManager.ActiveTheme;

    switch (oTheme.Name)
    {
        case "LightTheme":
            this.LookAndFeel.SetSkinStyle(LightTheme);
            break;
        case "DarkTheme":
            this.LookAndFeel.SetSkinStyle(DarkTheme);
            break;
    }

    LookAndFeel.UpdateStyleSettings();
}

And also in dotnet

Imports DevExpress.LookAndFeel
Imports DevExpress.Skins
Imports DevExpress.UserSkins
Imports DevExpress.Utils
Imports DevExpress.XtraEditors
Imports Autodesk.iLogic.ThemeSkins
Imports DevExpress.Skins.Info
Imports System.Reflection
Imports Inventor

Public Sub New()

    ' This call is required by the designer.
    InitializeComponent()

    Dim DarkTheme As String = "inventor dark theme"
    Dim LightTheme As String = "inventor light theme"

    Dim AdeskLib As String = "Autodesk.iLogic.ThemeSkins.CustomSkins."

    SkinManager.EnableFormSkins()
    Dim valDark As New SkinBlobXmlCreator(DarkTheme, AdeskLib, GetType(CustomThemeSkins).Assembly, DirectCast(Nothing, String))
    Dim valLight As New SkinBlobXmlCreator(LightTheme, AdeskLib, GetType(CustomThemeSkins).Assembly, DirectCast(Nothing, String))

    SkinManager.Default.RegisterSkin(valDark)
    SkinManager.Default.RegisterSkin(valLight)

    Dim oThemeManager As Inventor.ThemeManager = AddinGlobal.InventorApp.ThemeManager
    Dim oTheme As Inventor.Theme = oThemeManager.ActiveTheme

    Select Case oTheme.Name
        Case "LightTheme"
            Me.LookAndFeel.SetSkinStyle(LightTheme)
        Case "DarkTheme"
            Me.LookAndFeel.SetSkinStyle(DarkTheme)
    End Select
    LookAndFeel.UpdateStyleSettings()

End Sub

Hope that helps

[jjstr8]

I don't have DevExpress, so I tried the brute-force method. I gave up (for the time being) on making all my windows support light/dark mode. I ended up just supporting it in simple dockable windows, since a mismatch sticks out pretty bad. I added an event that any of them can subscribe to to listen for a theme change. I also tweaked my icons to work for both themes, but it's easy enough to swap them on a theme change. 

[Mustafa.Salaheldin]

Thanks @NachoShaw I figured this out too. The point that I still investigating is how to apply the Inventor default theme to my custom DevExpress UserControl. I don't want to use the iLogic Theme, I want to use Inventor Theme.

[NShawAcacia]

Hi

I included a vb.net version that works direct in Visual Studio on a project solution. Happy to help you get there if you need bud, just give me a bit of what you're trying to do. connect privately if you need

[Mustafa.Salaheldin]

@NShawAcacia Thanks, but again, your code applied the iLogic skins, not the Inventor skin, and by the way there is a direct call to the theme register then skin apply, rather than re-implementing the CustomThemeSkins class.