Tutorials > How to manage 3D control templates

The definition of "3D control template" is very simple: a collection of settings, stored inside a file with .3BT extension, that will be applied to the control all at once. The use of 3D control templates can simplify the support for skinned applications.

There are two kinds of button templates:

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Normal template: can be saved and loaded at Design-time using the procedure described above or at Runtime using the SaveTemplate and LoadTemplate methods. Inside this kind of template all the button settings are stored apart from binaries file paths (for pictures, textures, sounds and cursor) and button position over the form.

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Extended template: can be saved and loaded at Runtime using the SaveTemplateEx and LoadTemplate methods. Inside this template are stored all of the control settings, including also extra information about the pathnames of binary files such as pictures, sounds or cursor and the control size; note that when using this kind of templates you will have to use the SetTemplateBinDir method in order to setup one or more directories over the target machine from which to get the binary files for pictures, animations, textures, sounds and cursor.

When developing an application targeted for .NET Framework 2 to 4 you can manage 3D control templates directly from the control's context menu, opened by right-clicking the control with the mouse, or through the 3D Button Visual Editor: both scenarios are described inside the tutorial How to manage 3D control templates at design-time with .NET Framework 2 to 4

When developing an application targeted for .NET 5 or higher, the context menu mentioned above is not available so you will have to manage 3D control templates through the 3D Button Visual Editor application as described inside the tutorial How to manage 3D control templates at design-time with .NET 5, 6 and Core 3.1