Icon for add-in button in 64bits environment

[mr_ensing]

So, i'm hacking away at my first add-in. Read several papers and got it to work. Now i'd like to add an icon to the button.

I soon understood that i need to convert from system.drawing.image to Inventor.IPictureDisp.

The problem with that seems that everything is 64 bits nowadays. 

' Convert the Image to a Picture.
Dim picture As stdole.IPictureDisp
picture = Microsoft.VisualBasic.Compatibility.VB6.ImageToIPictureDisp( _
My.Resources.Smiley)

Example code like above (out of this paper) just doesn't work, due to it being obsolete and supported within 32 bit processes only.

Next up is Philippe Leefsma's utility class. To use this, i need to reference stdole.dll. If i do, it works, but i get a warning during build:

warning BC40059: A reference was created to embedded interop assembly 'stdole' because of an indirect reference to that assembly from assembly 'Autodesk.Inventor.Interop'. Consider changing the 'Embed Interop Types' property on either assembly.

If i don't refence stdole.dll, Visual Studio suggests i change stdole.IPictureDisp (in Philippe Leefsma's class) to IPictureDisp.

 

That works for a bitmap as well as for an icon (.ico).

Next up is trying to get it in the ribbon (for now it is a classic toolbar with one button floating over my Inventor window).

If there is a question, it is this: does this need to be so complicated? Might there be an easier conversion i haven't found yet?

[Anonymous]

I came acros this, Visual Studio doesn't like the VB6 method - I came across this method instead, which works OK for me:

Dim mIPictureDisp1 As IPictureDisp = PictureDispConverter.ToIPictureDisp(My.Resources.Tools)

Tom

[mr_ensing]

If you use PictureDispConverter, then i gues you are using  the utility class by Philippe Leefsma i mentioned?

[Anonymous]

Ah sorry, yes I am.
I remember that I spent quite a bit of time looking for a simpler solution, but I didn't find anything and ended up using Philippe's class.