>>reinstalled codemine and vfp7, still the same behavior. used the create form to get what I needed.
>
>This may sound primitive (and obvious), but did you check in Tools/Options that the classes and builders are set to the proper Codemine directories and classes?

Many times, in fact I even set the default form template to the form I was trying to use. Still created it from the basic native VFP form. There must be something corrupt in the registry. I uninstalled VFP7, cold booted and reinstalled. All my preferences and screen layout were just as they had been before the install.