About Managing and Sharing Custom Images

Custom images stored externally can be imported into the working customization file and exported from a customization file to a local or network drive.

In AutoCAD 2009-based products and earlier, custom images assigned to commands in a customization file were stored on a local or network drive as separate files or in a resource DLL that has the same name as the customization file. Resource DLLs are still maintained externally to customization files but starting with the AutoCAD 2010-based products, image files are imported into the customization file that contains the custom commands they are assigned.

Note: Starting with AutoCAD 2015-based products, if your CUIx file utilizes an external resource DLL for custom images, a separate resource DLL should be created for each theme: light and dark. The appropriate resource DLL is used based on which theme is currently applied to the user interface. The naming convention for the DLLs requires you to use the same name as the customization file, but also requires adding the suffix "_light" to the DLL that is to be used for the Light theme. For example, if a CUIx file named mymenu.cuix is loaded, the AutoCAD program searches for the resource DLL file mymenu_light.dll when the Light theme is current or mymenu.dll when the Dark theme is current.

You use the Image Manager, Button Editor dialog box, and Button Image pane in the Customize User Interface (CUI) Editor to manage custom images in loaded customization (CUIx) files. With the Image Manager, you can import and export custom images to and from a customization file. You can also use the Image Manager to see which custom images are currently stored in a loaded customization file, and you can delete those that you no longer need. You can also use the Button Editor dialog box and Button Image pane to import and export custom images.