Transparency with custom AutoCAD 2009 icons

[swells132024]

I know this topic has had some discussion in the past, but I'm hoping there has been some progress on finding a solution. I created a bunch of icons for custom tools used in my office. They are .bmp files that are at most, 32x32 pixels @ 96 dpi. The trouble I'm running into is getting that nice bluish transparency effect when you roll over the icon. I've attached an image what I'm seeing. I set the background of my images to RGB 240,240,240, which looked like the closest match to what's there. There was some talk of making them 192,192,192 which AutoCAD would interrupt as "transparent". But that did not work. All of my icons are in a folder which I'm pointing to in my customization settings.

I'm also having a problem getting the icons to line up. In the same image notice how all the icons are kind of pushed up to the top rather than centered in the ribbon. Not a huge problem, but it'd be nice to have it look like everything else.

Thanks in advance for help and suggestions!

Scott

[RobertB]

I just tested icons with color 192,192,192 and they are transparent. Are you running the latest updates for 2009?

Make sure your background in the BMP is truly 192,192,192 by testing with a color picker in your graphic editor. I know of at least one editor that doesn't correctly handle setting that color.

[swells132024]

Maybe my process of making the icon is preventing me from getting the transparecny to work? Here's how we're doing it:

We start by opening the .dwg file in Illustrator then clean it up add the background color as a box sent to the back and save it out as a .bmp file. For whatever reason Illustrator will save out a 32x32 pixel image as 43x43. So we then take it into Photoshop and resize it. That seems to work and keeps the icon at the proper size.

I've attached what we see when making the background RGB 192,192,192. It ends up being a dark gray color. We have tried using Paint.net but can't get as good a result in image quality when importing a .dwg file. In fact, we have to use Illustrator to get a .dwg file to show up. Our only other option would be to save out a .dwg from AutoCAD as another file type. That usually ends up with a poor quality image. The Illustrator route has given us the best image so far. Again, these icons are being saved a .bmp files. Can you think of anything else I might be missing?

We are using the latest version of AutoCAD 2009. I just checked.

[swells132024]

Well, after a lot of testing I finally got a system down that worked for me. This is by no means the only way to make icons for AutoCAD, but they look good to me so it's what I'm going with. Here's how I did it:

Because most of the icons I'm making are for things like annotation symbols and blocks for appliances, furniture, etc... we made our icons from AutoCAD files.

First, I opened the CAD file in Adobe Illustrator and set up a template which was sized to 32x32 pixels @ 300dpi. Once the CAD file was placed, I edited things like line thickness and fonts and filling in areas I didn't want to show as transparent. Finally, I drew a box around the perimeter to ensure it would save as a 32x32 pixel file. I found that if you skip this step the Ai file will be the size of the image only and not the surrounding transparent area (not 32x32).

Second, I exported the Ai file as a .PNG file @ 300dpi and with a transparent background. I saved it at 300dpi instead of 72dpi because it ended up crisper and more readable in AutoCAD. This increases the pixels but you'll see in the next step how to fix that.

Next, I opened the .PNG file in Photoshop. I installed a plug-in called "ICOFormat" which lets you save Photoshop files as .ICO files. Once opened in Photoshop I erased the box around the perimeter and changed the dpi to 72. This automatically changed the icon back to 32x32 pixels. Then I saved the file as a .ICO. And that's it!

I know these steps mean you need Adobe software and it might seem like using a sledgehammer to drive a nail in the wall but it worked for me so I wanted to share how I got there since I've gotten so much help from people on this forum. I'm happy to answer any questions. I've attached the final outcome.

Thanks to everyone who helped me.

[jlong101]

...Then I saved the file as a .ICO. And that's it!...

If it is possible, I would like to know how you load ICO files into the menu image?