Adding Icons to Sub‑Menu Items and Changing Them Dynamically

[Corpora Geometrica]

I have two questions about handling menu items through the Archicad API.

1. Icons for sub‑menu items
Is it possible to associate an icon with the "Sub-menu Item" provided in the following GRC file snippet?

'STR#' ID_ADDON_MENU "Add-On Menu Strings" {
/* [  ] */ "Main Menu Item"
/* [  ] */ "Sub-menu Item"
/* [ 1] */     "First Command Menu Item^E3^ES^EE^EI^ED^ET^10002"
/* [ 2] */     "Second Command Menu Item^E3^ES^EE^EI^ED^ET^10003"
}​

'STR#' ID_ADDON_MENU_PROMPT "Add-On Menu Strings" {
/* [  ] */ "Main Menu Item"
/* [  ] */ "Sub-menu Item"
/* [ 1] */     "First Command Menu Item"
/* [ 2] */     "Second Command Menu Item"
}​

Writing something like "Sub-menu Item^10001" (or using other escape sequences) has no effect during menu registration, at runtime the menu label simply shows the escape codes as plain text:

GSErrCode __ACDLL_CALL RegisterInterface (void)
{
	GSErrCode err = ACAPI_MenuItem_RegisterMenu (ID_ADDON_MENU, ID_ADDON_MENU_PROMPT, MenuCode_UserDef, MenuFlag_Default);

	return err;
}​

I noticed that Archicad itself shows sub-menu items with icons at the same nesting level as mine (even for other add-ons), but I cannot reproduce this through the API. Are those icons assigned internally?

2. Changing icons dynamically 

Is there a way to change dynamically the icons associated with the sub or at least with the command menu items at runtime?

[Ralph Wessel]

1. Your method for adding icons to menus in grc files looks ok to me - are the icon resources also present in the add-on, i.e. do you describe these icons in a grc file too? Certainly this is possible.
2. I don't know of a function to change the icon. There are methods to set a menu item as ticked or disabled, or to change the text.

[Corpora Geometrica]

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time and effort to look into my question — I really appreciate your support.

Yes — the icons are explicitly described in the Sources/AddOnResources/RFIX/AddOnFix.grc file. For example:

#include "ResourceIDs.hpp"

'MDID' 32500 "Add-On Identifier" {
    MDID_DEVELOPER_ID
    MDID_PRODUCT_ID
}

'GICN' 10001 "SubMenuItemIcon" {
    "SubMenuItemIcon"
}

'GICN' 10002 "FirstCommandMenuItemIcon" {
    "FirstCommandMenuItemIcon"
}

'GICN' 10003 "SecondCommandMenuItemIcon" {
    "SecondCommandMenuItemIcon"
}

The string identifiers ("SubMenuItemIcon", "FirstCommandMenuItemIcon", and "SecondCommandMenuItemIcon") correspond directly to the SVG filenames stored in Sources/AddOnResources/RFIX/Images:

• SubMenuItemIcon_18x18.svg

• FirstCommandMenuItemIcon_18x18.svg

• SecondCommandMenuItemIcon_18x18.svg

Here, the suffix (_18x18) defines the base size of the icon.

During the successful build process, these SVGs are automatically converted into multiple rasterized formats, which can be located under Make/Build.Win.x64.28.0.0.INT/AddOnResourceObjects:

• SubMenuItemIcon.png

• SubMenuItemIcon&96.ico

• SubMenuItemIcon&192.ico

• SubMenuItemIcon@2.00x.png

(and similar file sets for FirstCommandMenuItemIcon and SecondCommandMenuItemIcon).

In addition, the intermediate and compiled resource files — AddOnFix.grc.i and AddOnResourceObjects.res — are also generated correctly as part of the build, confirming that the resource pipeline is working end‑to‑end.

One detail I have noticed: if I use the escape sequence ^10001 for the command menu items, the corresponding icon appears as expected. However, at the sub‑menu item level the same approach does not display the icon. At runtime, the sub-menu item label simply shows the escape codes as plain text: Sub-menu Item^10001. This suggests that while the resource is correctly defined and built, the sub‑menu items may not support icon references in the same way as command menu items.

So yes — all icons are declared in the .grc file and provided as SVG resources, with the build system generating the required PNG/ICO variants automatically.

[Ralph Wessel]

Looks like this is a Windows project. If so, have you defined a .rc file for the add-on resources? And does that include the output from converting the images?

For example, if I define images in a file called "AddonImagesFix.grc", this results in an output file called "AddonImagesFix.ro" from the resource conversion. I then include that in the Addon.rc file like this:

#include "AddonImagesFix.ro"

[Corpora Geometrica]

Yes, this is indeed a Windows project. I also have a folder at: Sources/AddOnResources/RFIX.win, which contains an AddOn.rc2 file with the following content:

#include "AddOn.grc.rc2"
#include "AddOnFix.grc.rc2"

1   ICON    LOADONCALL MOVEABLE IMPURE  ACAP.ico

Both AddOn.grc.rc2 and AddOnFix.grc.rc2 exist and are generated in the build output under: Make\Build.Win.x64.28.0.0.INT\AddOnResourceObjects, where the AddOnFix.grc.rc2 file includes valid references to the icons. For example:

I10001&96   ICON "SubMenuItemIcon&96.ico"
I10001&192  ICON "SubMenuItemIcon&192.ico"

So, the resource conversion step is producing the expected .rc2 files, and they are properly included in the project’s resource script.

If instead of the original .grc file I use the following simplified variant — where the sub‑menu item is treated as a single command menu item and no additional command menu items are declared:

'STR#' ID_ADDON_MENU "Add-On Menu Strings" {
/* [  ] */ "Main Menu Item"
/* [  ] */ "Sub-menu Item^E3^ES^EE^EI^ED^ET^10001"
}

the expected icon is displayed correctly.

The issue arises as soon as I introduce grouped command menu items under the sub-menu item (i.e., when the submenu points with a right arrow to its child items). In that case, instead of rendering the icon, the label itself is shown as plain text, including all the escape sequences, for example: Sub-menu Item^E3^ES^EE^EI^ED^ET^10001.

[BerndSchwarzenbacher]

Hi,

I've also tried this a while ago (~3 years ago from my notes) and found the same restriction as you did. I vaguely remember that I even found the restriction documented but couldn't find anything about it again. So it might not actually be documented anywhere.

Hope that helps,

Bernd

[Ralph Wessel]

Sorry, I misread your original question. You want an icon associated with the child menu within the parent menu. I've never tried to do this. Your resources etc all look fine so I can only assume that this isn't supported.

[Akos Somorjai]

Hi,

I've just trid it on macOS with the Archicad 29 SDK, and it works for me.

I added the MoreOptions_16x16.svg icon from DG_Test to the Interface_Functions/RFIX/Images folder, then modified the Interface_FunctionsFix.grc resource:

'GICN' 32222 "More options" {

"MoreOptions"

}

'STR#' 32501 "Strings for the Menu" {

/* [ ] */ "Test"

/* [ ] */ "Interface Functions (AutoState)"

/* [ 1] */ "2D, 3D, Section, Elevation, Interior Elevation^ES^EE^EI^E3^32222"

...

After building the add-on, the icon appeared in the menu:

Could you please check this?

Best, Akos

[Corpora Geometrica]

Hi Ákos,

Thank you for your reply.

This setup works for me as well (I tried to outline a very similar configuration earlier). However, in the example you described, I would like to assign an icon not to the "2D, 3D, Section, Elevation, Interior Elevation" command menu item, but to its parent sub-menu item: "Interface Functions (AutoState)".

There are also precedents for this in the factory Archicad setup. For instance, take a look at "Design/Connect/Triming bodies", or "Files/Interoperability/IFC/IFC Project Manager"... — in these cases, the bolded menu items already have icons assigned to them. I assume that the icon associated with the Connect menu item is handled internally, whereas the icon assigned to IFC should be coming from an add‑on.

[Corpora Geometrica]

Thanks for clarifying — that matches what I suspected as well. I am still hoping someone might know of a workaround or undocumented option, so any further insights would be much appreciated.