I have a set of custom controls from a DLL that I’ve added to the toolbox, but I am seeing some strange behavior with the color properties not working as expected. Specifically, the designer code shows one thing, while the GUI properties list shows something contradictory.

Declaration in .Designer.vb:

Me.ExButton1 = New ExtelliorGUI.ExButton()

Later, in .Designer.vb file:

'ExButton1
'
Me.ExButton1.BackColor = System.Drawing.Color.Transparent
Me.ExButton1.BorderRadius = 0
Me.ExButton1.BorderSize = 1
Me.ExButton1.Design = ExtelliorGUI.ButtonDesign.Normal
Me.ExButton1.FlatAppearance.BorderSize = 0
Me.ExButton1.FlatAppearance.MouseDownBackColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(CType(CType(0, Byte), Integer), CType(CType(240, Byte), Integer), CType(CType(240, Byte), Integer), CType(CType(240, Byte), Integer))
Me.ExButton1.FlatAppearance.MouseOverBackColor = System.Drawing.Color.FromArgb(CType(CType(0, Byte), Integer), CType(CType(224, Byte), Integer), CType(CType(224, Byte), Integer), CType(CType(224, Byte), Integer))
Me.ExButton1.FlatStyle = System.Windows.Forms.FlatStyle.Flat
Me.ExButton1.Font = New System.Drawing.Font("Microsoft Sans Serif", 9.5!, System.Drawing.FontStyle.Regular, System.Drawing.GraphicsUnit.Point, CType(0, Byte))
Me.ExButton1.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.DarkOrchid
Me.ExButton1.IconChar = FontAwesome.Sharp.IconChar.CaretSquareRight
Me.ExButton1.IconColor = System.Drawing.Color.DarkOrchid
Me.ExButton1.IconFont = FontAwesome.Sharp.IconFont.[Auto]
Me.ExButton1.IconSize = 24
Me.ExButton1.Location = New System.Drawing.Point(390, 224)
Me.ExButton1.Name = "ExButton1"
Me.ExButton1.Size = New System.Drawing.Size(97, 40)
Me.ExButton1.SkinBorderColor = System.Drawing.Color.DarkOrchid
Me.ExButton1.Style = ExtelliorGUI.ControlStyle.Glass
Me.ExButton1.TabIndex = 24
Me.ExButton1.Text = "Build"
Me.ExButton1.TextAlign = System.Drawing.ContentAlignment.MiddleRight
Me.ExButton1.TextImageRelation = System.Windows.Forms.TextImageRelation.TextBeforeImage
Me.ExButton1.UseVisualStyleBackColor = False

In particular, note:

Me.ExButton1.SkinBorderColor = System.Drawing.Color.DarkOrchid

I didn’t modify that code; the designer put it there.

And yet in the GUI property list, I see something totally different:

What the GUI shows for the colors is completely different than .Designer.VB.

Further:

1. When I copy paste one of the custom controls, it doesn’t copy the color settings. Instead, it creates the copy with default colors.

2. Seemingly randomly, sometimes the color settings revert to their defaults.

3. I can adjust them in the GUI, and the change seems to be preserved at first, but it seems than I do something that might cause refactoring etc., that’s when my changes seem to get lost.

4. This morning, when I opened my Solution, I also noticed that the Toolbox section where I had added the custom controls vanished. It was like it was never there. I created a new section, browsed to the DLL and added the items, which seemed to “stick” through one close/re-open, but there’s something crazy going on here I can’t explain.

What could cause this to get out of sync or cause these particular properties to get “lost”?