>There are activeX controls on the form that depend on other Activex controls to be in existence when they are instantiated.If not, the controls are not usable.
>
>We have tried adding the objects to the form in the order we want them to instantiate. That works for a while. But, after a while, it appears that Foxpro has reordered the objects and they stop working. Is Foxpro trying to optimize the form? If so, by what criteria?

Hard to say, perhaps, if you changed some object (worked on it), the order has changed as well. This is just a guees, I don't know for sure.

I would probably try to add second ActiveX saved as a class to your form in run-time. This way you don't depend on inner workings of the form and you're confident in your code.