DashCommand™ has built-in support for skinning. This page will give you an introduction on how to create skin sets for the software. The DashCommand™ software comes with a few example skins (located in the skins sub-folder of the main installation folder). The example green skin and the example red skin are shown to the right. This tutorial will be broken down into the following sections: Skin Sets Skin Files Button Skins Checkbox Skins Text Skins

A skin set contains all the files necessary to render the skin. Each skin set is a zip file that contains the following files:

• button.dxl
• button_pressed.dxl
• checkbox_checked.dxl
• checkbox_unchecked.dxl
• status_text.dxl

Each file inside the skin set zip file is one of the skin files. To edit the skin files, you must use the DashXL™ editor. You can launch the DashXL™ editor by running the DashCommand™ software and clicking on the Tools menu and then click on the DashXL Editor menu item.

Once you have the DashXL™ editor running and have opened your skin file, you will be able to customize it by adding new objects, shapes, & text. The DashXL™ editor is also used to create custom dashboards for the DashCommand™ software.

After you have finished editing all your skin files you just need to use your favorite zip compression tool to package them all up into a skin set zip file.

Button skins are made up of two skin files: button.dxl is the skin file for a normal button (in a non-depressed state), and button_pressed.dxl is the skin file for buttons that have been clicked or depressed. Each button skin file can have as many objects or shapes as you want or need to create the look you desire. But there are two special objects that are required to be in every button skin file.

The first required object is the %BUTTON% object. This object can be a picture, path, container, or any other object that you like, but you need to make sure the object description is set to "%BUTTON%" (without the quotes). The purpose of this object is so that the DashCommand™ software knows what the button frame looks like, and will be able to detect mouse clicks that are either inside or outside of this button frame. So typically you would create a rectangle (or semi-rectangular path) that represents the button and set its description to "%BUTTON%". Please note that you can create a container object with many child objects beneath it and set the container to be the %BUTTON% object. In this case, mouse clicks in any one of the child objects are treated as if they are button clicks.

The second required object is the %BUTTON_TEXT% object. This object must be a Text object. It can be placed anywhere you want, even as a child object of the %BUTTON% object. When rendering the button skin, the DashCommand™ software will set the %BUTTON_TEXT% object's text string to be the button's text label. This ensures that each button has its own label, even though it is using the same button skin file.

Checkbox skins are made up of two skin files: checkbox_checked.dxl is the skin file for a checkbox that has been checked, and checkbox_unchecked.dxl is the skin file for checkboxes that have not been checked. Each checkbox skin file can have as many objects or shapes as you want or need to create the look you desire. But there are two special objects that are required to be in every checkbox skin file.

The first required object is the %CHECKBOX% object. This object can be a picture, path, container, or any other object that you like, but you need to make sure the object description is set to "%CHECKBOX%" (without the quotes). The purpose of this object is so that the DashCommand™ software knows what the checkbox looks like, and will be able to detect mouse clicks that are either inside or outside of the checkbox. Just like the button skins, you can create a container object with many child objects beneath it and set the container to be the %CHECKBOX% object. In this case, mouse clicks in any one of the child objects are treated as if they are checkbox clicks.

The second required object is the %CHECKBOX_TEXT% object. This object must be a Text object. It can be placed anywhere you want, even as a child object of the %CHECKBOX% object. When rendering the checkbox skin, the DashCommand™ software will set the %CHECKBOX_TEXT% object's text string to be the checkbox's text label. This ensures that each checkbox has its own label, even though it is using the same skin file.

Currently there is only one text skin, and that is in the skin file status_text.dxl. This skin is used when the DashCommand™ software needs to display a status text string for the user. The skin file can have as many objects or shapes as you want or need to create the look you desire. But there is one special objects that is required to be in the skin file.

The required object is the %STATUS_TEXT% object. This object must be a Text object. It can be placed anywhere you want, and given any size you want. When rendering the text skin, the DashCommand™ software will set the %STATUS_TEXT% object's text string to show the appropriate text label.