You define an image tile menu by providing an ***IMAGE section in the menu file. This replaces the ***ICON section used in previous releases (***ICON is still valid but might not be supported in future releases).
AutoCAD LT displays images in groups of 20, along with a scrolling list box containing the associated slide names or related text. Image tile submenus are unlimited in length: if an image tile submenu contains more than 20 slides, AutoCAD LT provides Next and Previous buttons that the user can press to leaf through pages of images.
The Image section submenus are similar to those used in the Toolbars and Screen sections. As in Pop menu sections, the first line of the submenu is its title. The title is displayed as the label of the dialog box that contains the images. Each submenu should be separated by at least one blank line to clear out items from a previous submenu.
Image tile menu items use item labels to define the text of the scrolling list and the image itself. The label is followed by an associated menu macro.
Note: Image tile menus cannot contain name tags.
Labels in an image tile menu generally refer to slide file names instead of text labels that are displayed on the screen. The slide file name, which can be a single slide or part of a library, should appear exactly as you would enter it at the VSLIDE command. The slide file contains the image to show for that selection.
Image tile menu labels are displayed in a scrolling list box that can accommodate up to 19 characters per label. The slide file name is typically displayed; however, additional menu-labeling options are also available.
Table: Image Tile Menu Labeling Options
Image tile menu macros perform the same functions as other menu macros; however, you cannot use the menu macro repetition feature. These menu macros can contain menu commands, including $I= commands. It is possible, therefore, to construct hierarchical image tile menus in which a selection displays another image tile menu, and so on. Because the activation of these menus is sequential rather than nested, there are no limits to the complexity of the structures you can create.
The $I= macro command addresses the image tile menu. Before you can display an image tile menu you must load it. The following syntax loads an image tile menu.
$I=[menugroup.]menuname
The $I=* macro command displays the currently loaded image tile menu. For example, the following macros load and display the image menu IMAGE_POLY in the base menu.
$I=image_poly $I=*
The following example loads and displays the image menu MYBLOCKS from a partially loaded menu group MYGROUP.
$I=mygroup.myblocks $I=*
Preparation of Slides for Image Tile Menus