Icon Update is found under Tools->Icon Update in DesignShop.
DesignShop includes a Windows 'shell extension' that displays icons for embroidery files in Explorer, Find Files, and File Open, Save, and Save As dialogs within DesignShop. The icon files with extensions such as .cpf, and .epf, which we call shadow files, that were produced by EDS III will continue to be used by DesignShop when available. For designs that were not produced by EDS III, for example those purchased as a library, these shadow files must be generated.
Icon Update scans your hard disk(s) searching for embroidery files. It keeps counts of expanded, condensed, and project (OFM) files that need to have their icons and design properties generated or updated. This only needs to be done when you first install DesignShop and whenever you copy embroidery designs from diskettes or CD-ROM libraries of designs.
Specify where you want Icon generator to look for files by using the Browse... button in the dialog.
Click Begin to start scanning.
Icon Update tells you what kind of files and how many need to be updated.
If you cancel Icon Update before it has completed its work then it will pick up where it left off when you run it again.
This all depends on the number of embroidery files that require icon generation/update. If all of your embroidery files were generated by EDS III it may take only a few seconds. If you have placed the entire Dakota Designs library on your hard disk and you have a slow computer it can require more than a day to complete its work. Progress will be indicated by the progress indicator and reduced counts of files but you should be aware that some files can take considerably longer than others to process.
Two things can cause Icon Update to fail. First, if it encounters non-embroidery files with extensions of EXP, CND, or OFM, a variety of failures can occur. The offending file can be read from the line that initially contained the Target root path so you can readily identify the source of the failure. In addition, a very small number of embroidery design errors cannot be correctly diagnosed in condensed files. This occurs fewer than three times in a thousand files among the more than fifteen thousand files used to test Icon Update and DesignShop. Should you experience such a failure, note the name of the offending file and either remove it or rename it with a different file extension and restart Icon Update.