Creting new buttons

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 8:43 pm

I've created a new button - needed larger buttons - with PSP (no fun, but that's another story). I put the new button file (a BMP) in the Themes directory. But when I try to specify use of that file as the button image I get "Invalid Path - The image file must be select from in or below the themes directory". WELL IT IS IN THE THEMES DIRECTORY! What am I doing wrong?

dlmorgan999 · Post by **dlmorgan999** » Thu Jun 09, 2005 11:50 pm

Hi Steve,

I've been able to create my own buttons but I've always put them in a subdirectory of the Themes directory. You might want to try that and see if it works.

-- Dave

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:14 pm

Dave - I put the new button in THEMES as well as one of its subdirectories. Neither worked - both locations resulted in the error message. I may try copying an existing standard HB button, renaming it, and treat it like a new button. Maybe it has something to do with how I created my from-scratch button. But its a BMP! How different can it be???

BTW, what are you using to create buttons?

dlmorgan999 · Post by **dlmorgan999** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 10:05 am

Hi Steve,

So just to confirm if HouseBot is installed at:

C:\Program Files\Meedio\Meedio HouseBot

then the buttons should be in

C:\Program Files\Meedio\Meedio HouseBot\Config\Themes

or below.

If you are doing this then I can't explain why it isn't working. I just tried using an image directly in the Themes directory and it worked.

As for how you create it, you can use almost any BMP or PNG file and it will work - it just won't look right when you press it unless the image is duplicated for pressed and unpressed. I use Photoshop to create mine.

-- Dave

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Sat Jun 11, 2005 8:41 pm

Dave, ok I can't explain it. I tried it again tonight and the end result is that its working fine now. I renamed the created button, ensured it was in a subdirectory of Themes, and it imported just fine. Tried several other tests using variations of the file name - no problem. The only thing that is different is that prior to doing al this I removed the old Cebotics Housebot installation with Win Add/Remove Programs. So the only thing I can think of is the Meedio Housebot version (2.20) I was and am using was looking in the Cebotics path to Themes and below and not finding the BMP when it was trying to import it into the panel. (I'm obviously making all this up since a really don't have clue.) But Strangely, I could "see" and select the BMP file when it prompts you to select the control to use. But after I selected it is when I got the error message. (Scott? You listening? Any of this make sense?)

The reason I asked about what you were using to create the buttons was I was looking for an easy way to create the sculpted look rather than just having flat rectangular boxes. My version of PSP is very old, so maybe a later version would make that sculpting easier.

Thanks for the moral support.

wallebalboa · Post by **wallebalboa** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 2:55 pm

Hello button designers..

I have also discovered that is not so easy to do buttons the housebot way.... i use photoshop and psp to make the button. they both have alot of nice templates. usally i save in .png, nice format with transparency and small files.. the tricky part is to get the "unpushed" and the "pushed" version side by side in the same file. do anybody have a software or a method in psp or photoshop to do this easy?

i have the same issue with symbols... ( doing symbols of open/closed door /window on all 4 sides of my house...) :roll:

however, graphically housebot is better then many major HMI/SCADA systems but with the web in every house the demand for nice look and feel is high...

balboa

Steve Horn · Post by **Steve Horn** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:06 pm

Brings to mind something I wondered about last week:Round buttons. How to do them. A round button image inside a square or rectangular image, with the areas outside the "button" transparent? A rectangular or square outer image would make the "pushed" image somewhat easier to create. )This assumes that buttom files can have transparency. Can they?

wallebalboa · Post by **wallebalboa** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 5:04 am

nema problema...

.png have transparent background and is also small files..

you are touching my "problem", how to get odd shaped buttons in same position for pushed and unpushed ( it looks soo wicked when the button moves when you push it...)

I have tried to extend one picture to the left and one to the right and then paste them together. this works fine for buttons with "total fill of the image" but if they are odd shape, photoshop past randomly....

there must be an easy way to do this....

regs

spike5884 · Post by **spike5884** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:12 am

I have been doing some research on this issue too. To me the best thing would be a simple utility that takes two images of the same size and puts them together. From what I have found, the closest thing is something called stitching. Used to stitch together seperate photos into a panaramic picture. Lots of utils out there to do this. Problem is cost. I have not found a good freeware/open source one yet that actually works easily. Prices seem to range from $30 to $$$.

Some that I have come across:

PanoTools

PTStitch

PanoWizard

AutoStich

PTOpenGui

Enblend

Most of the free utils seem to be based on PanoTools which is now defunct. Will keep looking into this.

switzch · Post by **switzch** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:20 am

I would suggest making the button on a large canvas in photoshop. Once you like what you have flatten the image, copy & paste the layer and move it using the arrow keys to the right. Once its lined up you can change the colour and then crop the entire image to the proper size. Make sure you crop it to an even number of pixels.

It may seem like a long process, but it actually is very quick after a while.

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:37 am

If you just want to duplicate a single button image so it's side-by-side, checkout the program in this post. You would still need to edit the combined image to add some effects to the right image to make it look pressed.

spike5884 · Post by **spike5884** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:18 pm

ScottBot wrote:If you just want to duplicate a single button image so it's side-by-side, checkout the program in this post. You would still need to edit the combined image to add some effects to the right image to make it look pressed.

Dude, where you been. Glad your back! :P

I forgot about your little util. In my case, I already have the two seperate images and just want to join them together. Any chance your util could be reworked to add that feature? Or create a new one?

Post by **ScottBot** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 10:08 pm

spike5884 wrote:Dude, where you been. Glad your back! :P

I've been really busy with a new project, so I've not had a chance to really contribute much lately.

Any chance your util could be reworked to add that feature? Or create a new one?

Try this one. If you use

Code: Select all

ImageDup combine [Source Image File Name 1] [Source Image File Name 2] [Destination Image File Name]

it should combine them. It expects both source images to be the same size. There *might* be some palette issues, but I haven't really tested this at all.

HouseBot

Creting new buttons

Creting new buttons

Buttons....

transparency...