Flash Builder 4 : Design View is not working properly

Question

I'm using Flash Builder 4 with 4.5 SDK and my application is a mixture of mx and spark controls. I'm also using Catalyst for skinning. Problem is Flash Builder 4 doesnt render the design view for some specific item renderers, custom components etc and i'm unable to work in design view where cosmetic changes are required.

My machine is AMD Turion Dual Core Mobile 500 2.20 Ghz, 4GB Ram, and Windows 7 64Bit

What could be the cause of this problem? Is it due to my mx/spark combination or my AMD Machine?

Any solution

Thanks

Answer 1

Design view does not work with custom components. It never has and I question if it ever will. This is not the best answer, and I am sorry. Most Flex developers quickly abandon design view and stick to code view. You could also check out Adobe Catalyst for quick prototyping which works much better for designing your application, but I wouldn't rely on its code generation as it is not always optimal, especially for states.

Answer 2

I had the same issue with no preview of my design (only gray background) in design mode. Changed my current theme in the Appearance Panel from Wireframe to Spark... that fixed the problem.

Answer 3

Why dont you try updating your flash builder.

Even I had same problem in Flex builder 3- I used the update package to upgrade to 3.0.3 and it started working immediately...

You can download the latest Flash Builder update patches from- http://www.adobe.com/support/flex/downloads_updaters.html

and update to 4.0.1

Answer 4

Max hope you figured it out by now. I run into the same problem. It happened after I installed cfeclipse and subclipse. Here is what i did to resolve it.

Right click on your project :

Add/Change Project Type >> Add Flex Project Type

Answer 5

I'm not sure if this is the same issue as I was having. I was creating a custom component via an actionscript class.

In this particular case, I am extending BorderContainer and was not seeing my measuredWidth and measuredHeight settings in the overridden measure method reflected in design view.

I also tested with a simple graphics drawing in the updateDisplayList method. Nothing.

I need these changes reflected as the user of our components expect to see in design view what will be seen when the application is run.

Finally I created a Library of my source and using another project linked to that library, just like a user would be doing when my source is compiled etc.

That seems to have done it.

Apparently, if testing within a regular project, design view doesn't do much when it comes to custom components and dynamic (live) changes in design view. Compiling a library of the source and linking to that seems to make it different.