>The View deffinition was destroyed. I think my real question is, how can I bring these free tables into a DBC for this application and be certain that they will remain available to other applications. I've had trouble with that in the past. They unexpectedly appear to be exclusive to the other applications.
>

You can programmatically do a CREATE SQL VIEW on the fly if necessary.

>Also since the SQL builder rairly produces code that actually works, how can I edit the code in a view? Is there a trick?

The generated SQL code is stored in the .DBC; you can always go in after the fact and edit the code by hand and recompile the .DBC. Since the View Builder is very limited compared to the overall capability of the underlying language, there's a lotr of incentive to mov3 away from reliance on the relatively easy but lightweight tool you're using now.

You might try using something else to maintain your .DBC; Erik Moore's eView is an excellent substitute with a great deal more functionality and reliability than the native VFP View Builder. And as mentioned, you can add a view via code as necessary. A tool like Stonefield's SDT makes it relatively painless to send out updated views just by sending out updated metadata files and applying them on the fly at client sites