>>One thing you can do is set up the base grid the way you want it on a scratch form then open the x.Designer.cs file and copy the >>relevant bits of the Form designer generated code into the InitLayout() of the subclass. You'll need to delete the 'this.grid1 (or >>whatever) from each property but it's probably better than trying to do it all manually.

tried that but got myself in an awful mess, will give it another go.

I have found that if I create a "user control" with the grid, I can amend the user control class and that updates in the form. Is this an acceptable method of coding? don't quite understand the difference between a "User Control" and a straight forward class.


Gary.