Mehrdad Ahankhah found the icons for AutoCAD's Arc command to be misleading. This tip provides his version of the icons and how to change them. "AutoCAD users will be very familiar with the icons discussed here, because they are used with the Arc command's options through menus, but there is a severe fault in the icons. They do not accurately depict what will occur if someone selects the item. "You can see that the icons illustrating options inside File>Arc (pull-down menu) or Home Tab>Draw Panel (ribbon) do not show the default positive direction for angle measurement (counterclockwise). In the following table, you can see the current icons and new, mirrored icons. In each case, the latter shows the correct situation. 
"To change these icons in the menu, first start the Options command and go to the Files tab. In the Search path, file names, and file locations area, find the Customization Files item, and open it by clicking on the plus sign to its left. Open the Custom Icon Location item, again by clicking the plus sign to the left. This is the folder where your icons are stored. Copy the icons enclosed in the New folder in the ARC_Icons.zip file to this location."Return back to AutoCAD and start the CUI command by typing CUI on the command line. Click in the area beneath the Command List: Find the Arc command options. When you click on each item found for the Arc command, its properties will be shown in the right side of the window. Under Images in the Properties area, you will find the names of two built-in bitmap images, small and large (16x16 and 32x32). Click on each of them to open a window showing the contents of the 'Custom Icon Location.' Press the OK button, because you want to replace it with a bitmap image named exactly the same as the built-in image. Repeat steps 20 and 21 for all the icons, then press the OK button." Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: There are many reasons to change an icon. Also, if you make a new command or macro in the CUI, you may want to use your own icon for it. It is recommended that you keep your custom icons in the Custom Icon folder. This way it will be much easier for you to take them with you after you upgrade AutoCAD to a new release, or if you change computers. Whenever you customize AutoCAD, especially if there are multiple workstations to manage, remember to keep it simple. The more customizations you put in place, the more work you are creating for yourself in maintaining them. |
