Control Communications Stopped when within a Container Group Box

[ErnieAd]

Hi!

Maybe you can help us understand what is happening.

Within a form we had three Container Group Boxes with controls (gauges, etc.) on each.
The controls in the right most container communicated with the PLC whereas the controls in the other two containers stopped doing so all of a sudden.
Also, the properties were lost when it was running as the text written for the control did not show.
This can be seen in the difference in the screen shots below (one is in develop mode, the other is running).

When we  changed the font gdiCharSet property from 0 to 1 in just two controls, the font indications in the property form became bold and everything started working in all controls in both non-working boxes.

There must be logic for this to act this way somewhere but we don't know what's happening and what we should be doing to make this work all the time.  BTW, once the characters go bold, it doesn't seem to matter whether gdiCharSet is "1" or "0"; they stay bold.

We are new to vb.net but have programmed in VB6 for several years.

Thanks for your assistance!

Ernie Adsett

[Archie]

I'm not sure if I can explain why the text disappeared except for maybe the font color changing to something not visible. When adding items to group boxes, it will sometimes change your font.

What version of Visual Studio are you using? Visual Studio is known to have a hiccup once in a while and mess up the designer code which has strange effects. I have not seen this as much since using VS 2013.

[ErnieAd]

Regarding VS Versions, one of us is running VS 2013 Pro and another VS Community.  It responded the same way with both.
We will remove the boxes and use something else - too risky

Thanks lots for your response Archie.

Ernie Adsett 

[Godra]

Just a quick comment on the issue (not necessarily short).

Another explanation for text disappearing on the BasicLabel is because it is a value and a new value was received at Runtime (overriding the string that was set and visible in the Design Mode).

For this particular case, what is stated above might be incorrect if the original suggestion was that letters disappeared but numbers didn't (and no value was received at Runtime).

Slightly odd behavior exhibit all PilotLights since their texts disappeared but the "Slide Valve Position" text is still there.

All properties going bold when changing gdiCharacterSet from 0 to 1 is a normal behavior for all controls and right-clicking the word "Font" and then clicking "Reset" will set everything back to non-bold state.

If the GroupPanel's Font size is changed and then new controls dropped to the panel then these new controls seem to inherit that same Font size (which can then be changed individually). Not sure if this inheritance/change might be causing the issue.