How do I update tool images?

[yrnomad]

I am going through our block library one block at a time (electrical, fire alarm, intercom, low voltage symbols). I have to scale most of them to be 1=1 rather than 10=1, change the default text style, and make sure I've got consistent sizes.
A problem I've noticed on our tool palette that I insert from is, some of the tool images are so small that you don't see what they are, you have to go by the name.
When/how is this image created? I've tried to zoom extents on the file it's self, save it, then use "update tool image" on the pallet. But that didn't seem to help.
What am I missing?

[Secretagdan]

You can customize your toolpallets quite a bit. You can add custom images in place of your pictures. If you take a look at the attached images you can get a good idea of how to change them.

Otherwise I belive that the 'thumbnail' defaults to what ever your 'drawing preview' is when you open or save drawings. If you are zoomed out, that is what your thumbnail will show. If you try zoom extents, it may make the pictures a little bigger.

[yrnomad]

So, it looks like I'd have to have a folder (accessible to all users) that contains the image files... Is that correct?

[Secretagdan]

That is how I have mine set up, on the network. You can also export your created tool paletts to a file, so that others can import the same one you made.

[yrnomad]

Ok, I'm back on this, and have an additional frustration. I've been working on a set of blocks that are all basically the same, probably built from one of them. Anyway, their preview looks fine in DesignCenter, but when I add them to a palette 1 of the 4 has a tool image so small it's a magenta dot.
I've also had a problem with another set of blocks that were made from each other. The are a block with 1,2,3 or 4 character attributes and the square/rectangle around them gets bigger with each additional character. With about half of these blocks, the text in the tool image is shifted to the left, out of the frame.
I printed to a .png and tried to use it for an image for the first example, but it was too pale to read so I went back to the origianl image.
I'm flustered!
Any ideas?

[Ric]

I was about to reply and then noticed the post date. Did you ever get this resolved? I have a few blocks on my palettes with the same problem. I solved this before by recreating the block but the ones I have now are dynamic and were too labor intensive to create all over again.

[yrnomad]

I ended up creating the .png files with a special pen table. It helped, but now I'm going through our blocks and making some changes, so I have to update this .png image as well.

The other thing I don't like about this method is having to have a location to map the images to, rather than it being part of the original file. One of my users has a laptop and takes CAD home. So I have to make a special palette for him so the blocks and images come up when he is working from home...

[The_SuperVixen]

Any one have an update to this?

I've created a master file that contains all of my blocks. I then drag and drop the blocks onto my palettes. For many of them I can just hit the "update tool image" and it displays as a black and white version of how it appears in my master file. There are some however that appear as a blank box, only the text appears.

I tried "specify image" but the image in the default image directory displays as a blank box, just like on the tool palette. How does Autocad generate the images used for the tool palette icons and what is the variable that causes some to be created perfectly while others display as blank boxes?

I've attached some pictures.


TP_Images_1.jpg
TP_Images_2.jpg

Thanks for any help!

[resullins]

I'm having the same problems with a few certain tool palette images. I'm still working on a solution. I don't want to have to create an image manually for every tool on my palettes. That's a pain in the butt!

[The_SuperVixen]

Ditto, I would really love to avoid having to create images for each block!