Cartoonish Toolbar Icons


PLANSAHEAD
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   Good morning all. Is it just me or do the toolbar icons look a bit more 'cartoonish' or caricature like in X-7 ?  They appear amateurish, like a $9.99 software program, and even a little blurry and not sharp to me. I know its a small point, but it seems like that feature has taken a step backwards instead of forward in looking more like a professional software program, kind of like Pong would look next to GTA or some newer gaming software. I have trouble enough with the size of the icons with my fading eyesight, :blink: but they appear bloated and unclear to me now. And like others I am experiencing extending lag time in plan regeneration. On the other hand, kudos to Chief with the latest release(s), I have had no bugs or real issues to speak of, even bringing forward decade old plans.....fantastic stuff !  

 

Anthony Thompson

Plans Ahead LLC

Branford, Connecticut

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   Thanks for the reply. I was a Beta tester, but I did not know there was a forum dedicated to that testing phase. I did make a 'report' regarding this however. I too will adjust to the icons, although its kind of silly and also I do find them more difficult to distinguish from one another because of their fuzzy and blocky appearance.

    I do not have a lot of customers 'looking over my shoulder' while I work, I find the complexity (good) of the software precludes what used to be a routine revision session with clients sitting in. However my software is open and continuously on screen when they come in, and I think it would look more beneficial and valuable to me if the icons did not look like they were from Turbocad 1988. Again, a small point, not worth chastising Chief Architect (?) (formerly ART) over, because the program and upgrades are fantastic. And I loved the '80's..... :D

  Tony T

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  • 1 month later...

Anthony, yes, I agree I liked X6 icons a lot better.  I had posted about this earlier not knowing if it were just me thinking this or what.  The previous icons had looked good with variation in color and depth.  Now they are harder to distinguish and look too similar.  Hope they come out with the old dashboard icons again or advance the next version with a more developed appealing icons like they had before.

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You guys do know that you can edit the icons to look

like whatever you want them to. They are just .PNG

files. You can edit them in Photoshop or PSP or even

in Paint.

 

new%20icon_zps7o7u3trd.png

 

Here I spiced up the background of the Stair Icon as an example.

 

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The icons for Toolbar buttons and new high definition icons scale to fit screen resolutions and increased DPI (128pixels in X7 vs. 20pixels in X6). So, if you have a larger monitor with high DPI they look sharper. The trend for icons in general is a flat look, which is a change in the look they now have.

post-29-0-15959200-1425996969_thumb.png

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You guys do know that you can edit the icons to look

like whatever you want them to. They are just .PNG

files. You can edit them in Photoshop or PSP or even

in Paint.

 

new%20icon_zps7o7u3trd.png

 

Here I spiced up the background of the Stair Icon as an example.

 

Rich how about a step by step guide to doing that.  I would love too!

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You guys do know that you can edit the icons to look

like whatever you want them to. They are just .PNG

files. You can edit them in Photoshop or PSP or even

in Paint.

 

new%20icon_zps7o7u3trd.png

 

Here I spiced up the background of the Stair Icon as an example.

 

When done with them all Rich , please post to the Symbols Library :)   Thx.

 

M.

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For those of you who would like the old X6 Icons in X7 , I changed them back to the X6 ones to "see" if it would work , and so far so good but YMMV as there are new Tools in X7 ,so far I see one red square ...fixed below****. 

 

the How Too:

 

- Close X6 and X7 if Open

 

- Rename C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X7 (64 bit)\resources\buttons     to

 

- C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X7 (64 bit)\resources\buttons_Large      ( ie they are backed up)

 

 

- Copy Buttons folder from X6  ie

 

- C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X6 (64 bit)\resources\buttons          to

 

- C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X7 (64 bit)\resources\

 

****Because there are 40+ new icons in X7 ,copy the contents of the Buttons_large folder  back into the Buttons Folder

Not copying the Conflicted files (1370, check box for conflicts)  ,this way you don't have to figure out which ones are already in there.

 

 

Now  ReOpen X7 and see if everything is working ok

 

 

To revert back  delete the folder

C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X7 (64 bit)\resources\buttons

 

and rename

 

C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X7 (64 bit)\resources\buttons_Large     to

C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier X7 (64 bit)\resources\buttons

 

Mick

 

 

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I'm trying hard to find a reason to download my upgrade and so far you guys aren't helping. Crashes, icons from Teletoons, and problems with layout font....

 

I'm not excited about the loony tunes icons either but its not that bad. I'm getting used to them. X7 is great and giving me no problems so don't let that stop you from enjoying the benefits of X7.

 

Good Job CA!!!

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I think they are a massive improvement, someone spent a lot of hours doing it as well, so very grateful for the cleaner look. I wouldn't mind taking it one step further and make them less colorful in some cases, but I know I'm in stark minority on that.

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Spent the better half of my business day going over X7. Update went very smoothly. While some of the icons are slightly different, I'm OK with them as I've suffered through ACAD;s 2008 to 2014 GUI that looks like cartoon threw up. CA's is acceptable. I threw together a quick house to test out the software and it performed nicely...as did X6. All in all, good job, especially the cabinet update. I really like the back splash fix. I wonder what X8 will bring us....CAD perhaps? Anyway, back at it tomorrow...

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Oh really, I can't believe you guy's what is more important the Icons or how the program works?

I like it as it has a retro feel to it and things always come and go in fashions and sometimes old comes back?

I think as Designer's we should all be aware of that and I like the colors but we all have different tastes.

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Rich how about a step by step guide to doing that.  I would love too!

 

 

 

When done with them all Rich , please post to the Symbols Library :)   Thx.

 

M.

 

JJ, I see that Mick has pretty much picked up

the ball and run with it but the process is easy.

 

Using the image editing software of your choice

navigate to the "buttons" (what Chief calls them)

folder. Most likely it will be:

C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier\resources\buttons

and then open the Icon you want to change.

 

Creating icons is a mini art form in and of itself

(get it? mini art form ;) ). Talk about a minimalist

canvas, X6 gives you 20 x 20 pixels to work with.

Although I haven't downloaded it yet I guess that 

has been increased to 128 x 128 pixels for X7.

 

You can do anything you want from here. You can

copy and paste content or you can draw it from

scratch pixel by pixel. Once you have what you

want just save it to the "buttons" folder and the 

next time you open chief you will see your revised

icon. Be advised it's probably a good idea to save

the original to another location so that you can go

back to the default icons if you wish to later. Also

be advised that there are lots of icons in the buttons

folder and it might take some searching to find the

one you want. If you aren't sure if you have the

correct icon you can edit it and then check to see

if the icon you wanted to change has in fact changed.

Remember that you will have to close Chief and then 

restart it every time you change an icon for the changes

to take effect.

 

new%20icon-2_zpsj5bhahsv.png

 

Here are a couple of other icons I have changed to

make them more recognizable (the Library Browser

and the Mouse Orbit Camera icons).

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JJ, I see that Mick has pretty much picked up

the ball and run with it but the process is easy.

 

Using the image editing software of your choice

navigate to the "buttons" (what Chief calls them)

folder. Most likely it will be:

C:\Program Files\Chief Architect\Chief Architect Premier\resources\buttons

and then open the Icon you want to change.

 

Thanks Rich  :)

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I like those Rich , would you mind posting the 3 you have shown here please ...and thanks :)

 

played in X7 tonight , no issues with my X6 icon Change that I found.

 

M.

 

Here you go Mick. Here are a handful of icons I created

for X6 to replace ones I found to be less than intuitive.

 

1) Mouse-Orbit Camera - I overlaid the sphere icon with

    CA's original mouse-orbit camera icon and added a

    little color to the background to make it more visible.

2) Save - I replaced the hackneyed 3 1/2" floppy icon

    with a simple "S".

3) Library Browser - I never could find those little books

    on a shelf so I replaced them with highly visible letters.

4) Record Walkthrough - What a brown circle had to do

    with recording walkthroughs I'll never know so I made

    what for me is a more intuitive icon.

5) Project Browser - Ditto the Library Browser above.

6) Straight Stairs - Just added some color to Chief's

    transparent background to make it easier to find.

 

I guess I really need to get on with upgrading to X7.

Compared to the 20 x 20 pixel format of X6, X7's 128

x 128 format will be like night and day. Heck with 128

x 128 I can make the Mona Lisa. :)

post-126-0-73052400-1426136231.png

post-126-0-72135400-1426136285.png

post-126-0-03574600-1426136316.png

post-126-0-23275400-1426136342.png

post-126-0-60984100-1426136364.png

post-126-0-05143500-1426136380.png

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