>>>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.

Did you go into the registry and delete the Softclassics references before reinstalling Codemine? I've found that this was sometimes necessary to get everything "showroom fresh."