winforms designer: source compiles and runs but designer shows errorscreen

Question

I am working with winforms, .net 3.5 Visual Studio 2008. The code is compiling, the winforms designer suddenly stops showing forms, with different messages, for example

• 'Resco.Drawing.GradientColor' cannot be converted to type 'Resco.Drawing.GradientColor'

• 'Method not found: 'Void Resco.UIElements.UIControl.set_TextAlignment(Resco.Drawing.Alignment)'

• The variable 'ucMessageBox1' is either undeclared or was never assigned.

Again, the code compiles and runs, and no changes habe been made to the form or usercontrol, that cannot be displayed, since it xold be displayed

Sometimes it helps to clean and rebuild, sometimes it help do delete the .suo file. Sometimes it helps to shutdown and restart Visual Studio. Sometimes I do not find a solution but somewhen it works again.

I have two solutions with identical Source code for two Platforms, windows and windows embedded, sometime the same control is shown without problems in one solution but not in the other.

Answer 1

I have this same issue with VS using DevExpress. I find if I close the designer mode and re-open it, it will work. At worse, I restart Visual Studio and appears to fix the problem.

Answer 2

That often happens when I work with Telerik, to resolve the issue I often have to do:

• Repair the software library I installed for it.
• Remove the reference, then Add the reference to the .dll again.
• Ignore the designer mode and simply work in code behind.

Sadly, the last result is where I often find myself. Usually I'll simply code straight in code behind, as all the functionality exist but I don't have to deal with the issue every time I close / reopen Visual Studio. Since all the functionality exist in code behind, just unable to access the designer.

Honestly I'm not sure why it happens, but it happens often enough to where I avoid Telerik.