David-

That is exactly how you set what the form designer uses when a new form is created. Set the Tools/Options/Forms Form class to yours. Click on Set As Default. Then when you CREATE a FORM, the form designer will be displaying a new one base on your class instead of the VFP base form.

If what you are asking is about changing existing forms from one class to another, then my preference is to just hack the SCX (after making a backup!) and change the CLASS and CLASSLOC memos for the form record. Which will be after all the dataenvironment records.

>I know I can do this by setting a form template in the Tools/Options, but I have not been able to discover how to do the same thing when running the form designer.
>
>Assuming I have no form template specified, my goal is to replace the vanilla form that the FD opens up with, with a custom form I have defined as a class. The programmer's guide implies that you can drag the form class from the PM, but in this case, the FD seems to want you to drag it into a formset. (Which makes perfect sense, since a form cannot contain a form). What I want to do is effectively replace the vanilla start up form with my own from within the FD.