embed toolbar icons in vb.net dll

[dbroada]

I used to have a routine in VB6 that would create a dll to hold a series of icons that could be used on AutoCAD toolbars. (Of course I have forgotten how to do this.)

 

Along similar lines is it possible to add icon files to the dll being made by vb.net that can be used on an AutoCAD toolbar? And a better question, can somebody give a simple demonstration?

[BIGAL]

I just grouped my icons into 1 directory made by me and added this to the CONFIG Files Customization Custom-icons then it finds them. very easy.

[Tyke]

I just grouped my icons into 1 directory made by me and added this to the CONFIG Files Customization Custom-icons then it finds them. very easy.

 

How do you deal with the situation when the application is deployed on other machines not in your network? Are the icons then part of the dll?

[dbroada]

BigAl, thanks for your comment and your pm.

 

The reason I was asking was because you can/could add all your icons into a single dll file and that could be linked to a toolbar. One of my favourite things about VB.Net is that you can create a single dll file to distribute your routines. I was hoping to combine my icons into my routine.dll so that I can distribute them easilly. I have 8 machines in this office and we also have one DO in Scotland and one in Essex. The idea that I can send one file with minimal instructions is very nice. Asking others to create sub folders is easy, getting them to do it almost impossible.

 

As it is, I don't think I can combine icons into my dll using the express version of VB.Net. It may be possible on the full version but isn't very clear.

[MSasu]

If the images (BMP) were stored into a DLL with the same name as the menu file and stored into the same location, then those will be automatically recognized. I found out also that if the DLL is created using .Net, then it doesn't work. It works without issues with DLL files generated by Visual Basic 6.

It may be only a miss-setup, but I wasn't able to clarify this yet.

[MSasu]

On creating the DLL usign VB6, this is the tutorial I have used.

[dbroada]

On creating the DLL usign VB6, this is the tutorial I have used.

That's the tutorial I used in the past too!

 

I read somewhere yesterday that resource files couldn't be used with VS Express. At that point I gave up trying but I will try the Afralisp tutorial again to see if I can get something to work.

[BIGAL]

A bit further our custom Icons are on a server so that helps first, the second step is that we have a lisp to reset all the config stuff changing all the paths.

 

We have one user with a laptop who takes it out of the office so we just changed the pathing to be c: instead of network.

 

I think I understand where your coming from you may still have a VBA to do install but you may need extra directorys that are copied via the Dll to correct locations on either a local setup or on your main server. You can certainly do all the file copying stuff within VBA just like at CMD old DOS stuff.