Custom image for Toolbutton displays too small when deployed to device

[MatthewCarey]

I have a custom Toolbutton defined within the .apx file.

Taking a lead from one of the tutorials, I've taken an icon (.ico) from the sample data folder in Public Documents, saved it via Paint as a .bmp and selected this as the icon for my Toolbutton.

I've used the Compile function in ArcPad studio to embed it in the .apx file and the .apx file (ArcPad.apx) resides in My Documents/MyArcPad.

When I fire up ArcPad on the desktop, the custom button looks fine. When I use the same .apx on the Windows Mobile 6 deployment of ArcPad, the button takes up only the top-left quadrant of the allocated space for the button. Clicking the button shows that the regular space is allotted for the button, but the image is squashed into that quadrant.

I tried resizing the .bmp file to double the height and width, but when deployed it is still confined to the top-left quadrant.

Has anyone else encountered similar problems?

Thanks.

[TimHopper · Accepted solution]

Matthew,

This is a known issue in ArcPad and is currently logged as a bug.  It's an issue with high resolution devices, which most after the GeoExplorer 2008 / Juno SB are.

I've mostly seen this issue with 32x32 bitmaps, but I've seen it with other sizes as well.  You could try them as 16x16, but no guarantees. 😞

[MatthewCarey]

Thanks, bit of a bummer but good to know.

I finally came up with a less-than-optimal workaround:


- In ArcPad Studio, choose one of the ArcPad icons that I don't think I'll ever need from the drop-down for my button, with a name that begins with an '@.'

- This icon is not copied to the mobile device with the .apx, instead it looks for the same icon within this folder on the device : Program Files/ArcPad/Icons

- So, find the same icon on the mobile device (you have to do it visually as the filename will not match the description it's given in ArcPad Studio).

- Copy the icon from the mobile device to your desktop/laptop where you can edit it (I used Visual Studio, and ran into a snag where it could only edit a 24-bit icon but not a 32-bit one)

- Customize the icon as you wish (wield the eraser and start over if you want).

- Copy it back to your mobile device, replacing the older version of itself.

- Now ArcPad on your mobile device should use your custom icon without knowing that it's custom, and it displays it at the right size.

This worked for me but it might not be desirable for everyone to do this.

[TimHopper]

Nice workaround. I'll file that one away.

[JeffRoland]

Here's a better way to get your icons full size:

1. Save your 32x32 bitmap as a icon file format .ico (You may already have a graphics program capable of this. If not, then GIMP is a free program that can convert)

2. Configure your tool button image to the file name but leave out the .ico and leave out any file path. By default Arcpad will assume it's a .ico file and look inside the \icons folder where ArcPad is installed.

3. Copy the icon file to your mobile device where ArcPad is installed inside the \icons folder

Cheers, Jeff