The problem here is you are iterating the root tools of the toolbars manager. They do not have InstanceProps because they are not instance tools, so getting their InstanceProps returns null. You should instead iterate the instance tools of the ribbon:

For Each tab as RibbonTab in Me.UltraToolbarsManager1.Ribbon.Tabs
 For Each group as RibbonGroup in tab.Groups
  For Each tool as ToolBase in group.Tools
   tool.InstanceProps.PreferredSizeOnRibbon = .RibbonToolSize.ImageOnly
  Next
 Next
Next

I am having the problem with setting the "ButtonTool.InstanceProps.PreferredSizeOnRibbon = " on the fly. there is a drop down in the Toolbar that lets the user decide the style they want - Image, Large/Small or text only but everytime I try set the property above an object error occurs "Obj ref not set to an instance of an object" - its nothing. Tools are already set in the designer side of things not in code - images and captions.

Code sample:

For Each myToolBase As Infragistics.Win.UltraWinToolbars.ToolBase In Me.uToolbarsManager.Tools

     myToolBase.InstanceProps.PreferredSizeOnRibbon = Infragistics.Win.UltraWinToolbars.RibbonToolSize.ImageOnly 

Next

 Is there another way to get to the InstanceProps? Should I use the RootTool method?

Any help would be much appreciated!

firstdata said:

Is there a way to accomplish this without the use of a "Root" ButtonTool?  I have acheived the desired look with the smaller ButtonTools (without the creation of a root ButtonTool) but not the large one. In my first post I failed to mention that not only is the button not showing up large, but the image is not showing either.

Yes and no again: There is no way to not use a root tool. But if you add a tool instance to a toolbar, menu, or ribbon group, without a corresponding root tool being in the toolbars manager, I believe a root tool will be cloned from the tool added, so even though you are not specifying a root tool, one is used internally.

My guess is you created the ButtonTool instance with the constructor and passed it to the Add method of the RibbonGroup's tools collection. The problem with this is if the toolbars manager is not between BeginInit()...EndInit() calls, it assumes it is currently displaying and it clones the tools passed into the Add method. So the tool displayed in the toolbars manager is not the tool you created with the constructor and set properties on. Use the code I posted instead and set the display properties on the tool returned in the AddTool method. That is the actual tool instance being displayed in the ribbon.

firstdata said:

I tried to use your code also... I'm not sure if I have an older version or maybe missing a hot-fix because the compiler required me to cast the Group.AddTool method back to a ButtonTool... even though it is suppose to return a ToolBase.

Sorry, that was my mistake. I just typed the code manually and didn't try to compile it. You do need to cast back to a ButtonTool.

Thank you for your reply Mike.  Is there a way to accomplish this without the use of a "Root" ButtonTool?  I have acheived the desired look with the smaller ButtonTools (without the creation of a root ButtonTool) but not the large one.  In my first post I failed to mention that not only is the button not showing up large, but the image is not showing either.

"The ribbon is probably resizing the paste button tool to a smaller size due to a lack of space. You can prevent this by setting the MinimumSizeOnRibbon to Large as well." 

There where only a few tools on the tab to begin with... so I don't know if that would have been the case.  Setting MinimumSizeOnRibbon to Large doesn't seem to work either.

"ButtonTool pasteButtonRootTool = new ButtonTool("Paste");
pasteButtonRootTool.SharedProps.AppearancesLarge.Appearance.Image = Paste32x32;
pasteButtonRootTool.SharedProps.Caption = "Paste";
this.ultraToolbarsManager.Tools.Add(pasteButtonRootTool);
ButtonTool pasteButtonInstanceTool = this.ultraToolbarsManager.Ribbon.Tabs[0].Groups[0].Tools.AddTool("Paste");
pasteButtonInstanceTool.InstanceProps.MinimumSizeOnRibbon = INFRATOOLBAR.RibbonToolSize.Large;" 

I tried to use your code also... I'm not sure if I have an older version or maybe missing a hot-fix because the compiler required me to cast the Group.AddTool method back to a ButtonTool... even though it is suppose to return a ToolBase.