A Bidule skin is a collection of colour settings and images which change the appearance of the patchbay and interface.

So how do you change Bidule skins?

Bidule skins are selected from the Preferences dialog. Select Edit > Preferences, then make sure the User Interface tab is selected. Select the desired skin from the Skin drop-down menu, and click the Apply button.

NOTE: When a skin is applied while Bidule is running, the patchbay and bidule colours will change, but the toolbar button images and colours will not be loaded until you restart Bidule.

How do you load a new skin?

There are two ways to load a new skin into Bidule, making it available in the Preferences dialog:

a) If you have the skin files uncompressed in a folder, place that folder in the /skins folder (located in the same folder in which Bidule is installed). Mac users wanting to create and edit a skin need to do it in the following folder: HOME/Library/Application Support/Plogue/Bidule/Skins.
Restart Bidule, and the new skin will be found and added to the Skins drop-down menu in the Preferences dialog.

b) If you have the skin compressed to a .zip file (for instance, if you down- loaded the skin from the Internet), then open the Preferences dialog in Bidule to the User Interface tab. Click the Install skins button, and browse to locate the skin .zip file. Select the skin, then click Open. Click the Skin drop-down menu, and select the new skin.

Making new skins

The best way to make a new skin is to start with an existing one, and modify it until satisfied with the results. The "default" skin is probably the most complete choice to begin with.

Rename your copy of the default folder to whatever title you want to give to your skin.Open your skin folder, then examine the files inside.

There are 4 graphic files, and one text file:

• button.png and button_down.png are the images that Bidule will use to create the edges of the toolbar and bidule buttons. The first is the button in an unpressed position, and button_down.png shows how the outside edges of the button will appear while it is pressed.
  Edit these files in an image editor to customize what the buttons will look like in your skin.
• mute.png is the icon displayed in the patchbay next to a bidule when its processing mode has been set to Mute.
• pt.png is the icon displayed in the patchbay next to a bidule when its processing mode has been set to Bypass.

Depending on how you like to work, you can edit these images before or after you edit your skin's colours. To edit the colours, open the skin file in a text editor (such as Notepad).

Let's examine how each part of this file can be modified to create your own skin

name=Tutorskin author=Kerrydan author.url=http://www.bidule-faq.tk description=Tutorskin passthrough.image=pt.png mute.image=mute.png
All these entries should be self-explanatory. Note that you can change the image files used for the processing mode icons. Any replacement files you use must be completely square, in PNG format. You can use transparency.
pbutton.up=button.png pbutton.down=button_down.png pbutton.color.up=236,236,236 pbutton.color.down=210,210,210 pbar.color=168,168,168
These button images represent the image files used to create the external edge of buttons. Feel free to change these to the images of your choice. Any replacement files you use must be completely square, in PNG format. You can use transparency. pbutton.color.up and pbutton.color.down represent the colour underneath the button text, when the button is up and down (respectively). Colour numbers are RGB values. pbar.color sets the colour of the bar on which the buttons sit.
body.font.color=255,255,255,255 defective.color=255,0,0,255 outline.color=51,51,51,255 background.color=73,77,81,255
Where an entry has four numbers, the first three are the RGB values of a colour, while the fourth is the alpha value for that colour; aka, its transparency value. body.font.color sets the colour for the bidule name font. defective.color sets the base colour of any VST plugins disabled because the dll can't be located. outline.color is the colour of the thin border that frames every bidule. background.color sets the colour of the patchbay itself.
radar.font.color=255,255,255,255 radar.box.color=128,128,128,255 radar.content.color=189,139,19,255
radar.font.color would seem to apply to a font associated with the radar. I have yet to see one. radar.box.color sets the colour of the thin radar frame. radar.content.color sets the colour for the occupied area in the radar.
selectionbox.color=255,255,255,255 body.status.active.font.color=0,204,0,255 body.status.inactive.font.color=128,128,128,255
selectionbox.color defines what colour of the selection box takes when you drag across the patchbay to select multiple bidules. body.status.active.font.color is the colour of the little sync indicators next to each bidule, when synched or master status is activated. body.status.inactive.font.color is the colour of the little sync indicators next to each bidule, when unsynched or inactive.
bidule.window.background.color=160,160,160 application.window.background.color=160,160,160
bidule.window.background.color=160,160,160 sets the colour of the main part of the default bidule window. Do not confuse this with the pbar.color, which only covers the toolbar portion at the top of a window. In this image, the pbar.color is set to 168,168,168 while the window.background.color is slightly different: 160,160,160.
body.center.position=32,0,64,32 body.left.position=0,0,32,32 body.right.position=96,0,32,32
Uncertain what effect these three entries have.
body.color.top=90,123,154,255 body.color.bottom=46,79,110,255 body.color.hover=217,174,71,255 body.color.selected=194,150,14,255
Each bidule is made up of two colours: a top colour fading into a bottom colour. The entries body.color.top and body.color.bottom establish these two colours. body.color.hover sets the colour a bidule becomes when you hover over it with the mouse. body.color.selected is the colour which all selected bidules take on.
cable.sample.stipple=NO_STIPPLE cable.sample.color=110,143,175,255 cable.sample.color.selected=58,133,210,255 cable.sample.color.hover=180,199,217,255
cable.sample.color, *.selected, and *.hover are pretty well self-explanatory, and apply to the cables that connect audio sample data. cable.sample.stipple=NO_STIPPLE sets the pattern for the cables of the chosen type. Stipple options are: NO_STIPPLE for solid lines, DOTTED for a line composed of dots, DASHED for a line composed of dashes, and DASH_DOT_DASH for a line composed of alternating dots and dashes.
connector.sample.color=20,20,20,255 connector.sample.color.selected=222,222,100,100 connector.sample.color.hover=150,150,125,100
connector.sample.color sets the colour for all sample-data connectors. connector.sample.color.selected sets the colour for all sample connectors when the attached bidule is selected. connector.sample.color.hover sets the colour a sample connector takes on when you hover the mouse over it.
cable.midi.stipple=NO_STIPPLE cable.midi.color=200,200,200,255 cable.midi.color.selected=228,228,228,255 cable.midi.color.hover=231,231,231,255 connector.midi.color=200,200,200,255 connector.midi.color.selected=228,228,228,255 connector.midi.color.hover=189,139,19,255
These are all identical to the previous entries for the sample-data cables and connectors, except that they apply to MIDI data.
cable.magnitude.stipple=NO_STIPPLE cable.magnitude.color=176,94,11,255 cable.magnitude.color.selected=237,125,12,255 cable.magnitude.color.hover=221,153,85,255 connector.magnitude.color=200,100,0,255 connector.magnitude.color.selected=237,125,12,255 connector.magnitude.color.hover=255,255,255,100
These are all identical to the previous entries for the sample-data cables and connectors, except that they apply to magnitude data, used by the spectral bidules.
cable.frequency.stipple=NO_STIPPLE cable.frequency.color=200,200,0,255 cable.frequency.color.selected=243,243,13,255 cable.frequency.color.hover=226,226,160,255 connector.frequency.color=200,200,0,255 connector.frequency.color.selected=243,243,13,255 connector.frequency.color.hover=255,255,255,100
These are all identical to the previous entries for the sample-data cables and connectors, except that they apply to frequency data, used by the spectral bidules.
connector.hover.delta=1
When you hover over a connector, it increases in size by the factor specified here. The number in the default skin is 1, which means no size increase.
connector.in.spacing=7 connector.out.spacing=7
These two entries establish the amount of space between each connector, on the top (input) and bottom (output) of each bidule. This space includes the 1 pixel used by the outline.color border around the bidule. So, if the .spacing is set to 7, then exactly 5 pixels of "patchbay" space exist between each connector.1 pixel on either side of the two connectors is used by the bidule's outline.

Sharing Bidule skins

The best way to share a Bidule skin you have created, is to zip the four graphics and the skin text file into a single zip file. The compact file is now easy to send, and it is simple for another user to load it using the Install skins button in the Preferences dialog box. Your zip file should contain ONLY those five files, and should not have any subdirectories (as per the image below).