PME Treasure

Add custom icons to PME

2 min read

Outcome

Use your own PNG as a PME item icon without storing it inside the add-on installation.

The folder button in PME’s Custom icon selector opens the active icons resource folder. Copy the file into that folder, then reload the icon collection.

Steps

  1. Open PME Preferences → Settings → Resources and confirm the active resource root.

  2. Open an item’s icon selector and switch to Custom.

  3. Press the folder button to open the exact icons folder PME is reading.

  4. Copy your icon there as a lowercase .png file, for example:

    sculpt_mask.png

  5. Return to PME and press the reload button beside the Custom icon selector.

  6. Choose sculpt_mask from the refreshed icon list.

  7. Save preferences, restart Blender once, and confirm that the icon still appears.

Use an icon from Custom layout code

PME indexes a custom icon by its filename without the extension:

L.label(text="Mask", icon_value=custom_icon("sculpt_mask"))

The same name can be used anywhere a Blender UILayout call accepts icon_value.

File rules in PME 2.1

  • The loader reads .png files from the active user resource icons directory.
  • Use a lowercase .png extension; the filename filter is exact.
  • Use a visible filename without a leading _; underscore-prefixed names are hidden from the selector.
  • The _intr_ prefix is reserved for PME’s internal icons.
  • Replacing a file on disk requires a reload before PME swaps to the new preview collection.

Pitfalls

  • An operating-system preview only displays an image; copy it into the active icons folder to add it to PME.
  • Keep user icons in the resource folder because an extension update can replace files inside the installed extension directory.
  • If no icon appears, verify the active resource root first; an old and a new Blender profile can point to different folders.
  • A failed image can leave the previous icon generation active. Fix the PNG, then reload again rather than repeatedly changing the menu item.

Sources

Graph View