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That's weird, no way to figure this out if you haven't read or been told about it. Nevertheless, it explains everything. The mystery is *now* solved. Thanx!

After your later posts... now everything is cleared up - I can't believe it! There were too many misunderstandings and different behaviors, because I was starting A:M always after doing a "Reset settings" where A:M by default starts with "New Project" AND choreography, (so the toolbars disappear after clicking OK)... ...while some of you were starting it with "New project" but with an empty window! If I start it like that and THEN i try to add toolbars, A:M on my computer behaves exactly as yours (the toolbars are retained after clicking OK - and disappear after opening choreography)! Now the questions is... how we managed to get lost in that ...Odyssey of tests and posts? Short answer: We were too stupid ...(No, not exactly) Long answer: 1. We were confused partially because our initial conditions were not identical so we saw different behavior. I understand, most of you didn't want to reset A:M and lose your settings. 2. I was confused because... Here is my user experience: I wanted to customize the toolbars. In fact, all I wanted (since my screen res is high enough) was to place most of the available toolbars in fix, always visible positions (that's me). So after I did a "reset settings" I started the "Customize/Toolbars" dialog. There were 2 + 8 more toolbars, available for me to click and select. I selected the 8 lower ones as a test. They were selected indeed and they appeared on the window. I customized their placement on the menu and when I was almost happy with the result, I clicked "OK" supposedly to make my changes permanent. But then, all of the sudden, changes were lost! So I was confused because I was given a choice and when I responded to that choice, my response was 'violently' erased out without any feedback! In sort, this is a minor usability flaw, which caused a whole test & post adventure for all of us! (That's how difficult and important a proper user interface is...) So, to revise our bottom line, [To user interface designer]: Don't give the user invalid options. (in our case, the invalid ones should be e.g. grayed out as a form of feedback that they shouldn't be selected). I know and appreciate A:M designers' effort for the context aware toolbars. This is just something small they missed. Now, don't get me wrong. I sympathize A:M (that's why I paid twice) and I'm investing time to learn how to use it.

Thanx robcat2075! (sorry, I didn't notice your previous welcome!)

Why different? I was trying randomly the lower ones. Also, later I did mention that at some point one toolbar did stay on the menu. I know that, it's a good concept. Sometimes though, when I have enough space available I usually prefer the controls in absolute fix positions (like an ...aircraft cockpit !) Bottom Line final version: If the toolbars can be added at some computers and at some others cannot, on the same software version, then it is definitely a programming bug (verified by your screenshot and my tests and mtpeak2's). P.S. The few days I'm here, I find that this forum is indeed awesome, a little gold mine with lots of resources, tutorials and help in general... which I consider a big plus of course!

There are 8 more available (except draw and views that can be added). If there is no reason to add any of them, then why they are available in that customizing function?

There are plenty of available data to be based on, to isolate and identify a specific computer. And there is NO reason to restrict its use on just one partition. As you say there are many issues with many companies with similar policies (personally I have encountered too many issues in the past, that's why I'm a bit more sensitive on the subject) but also there are a few companies with the right customer-friendly policy. Guess which of them I respect more. Customer-company is a relationship which as all healthy relationships, should be based on trust. Then, you might be pleased to hear that today I actually managed to find and test it on a "different" computer (on my brother's PC on the upper floor)! All tests together to get the big picture: _____________________________________________ Computer #1: (Multiboot) Intel Core 2 Duo 6600 @ 2.4 GHZ Asus Motherboard ASUS P5N32-E SLI, Asus VGA 8800 GTX 4GB RAM Tested with CD v10.5 and web 15.0G: Partition C: XP Pro 32bit Service pack 3 Main working full of apps -latest updates Tested wigh A:M CD v10.5: Partition D: XP Pro 32bit Service pack 3 almost empty - updates a few months old Partition F: XP Pro 32bit Ultimate Service pack 1 almost empty - updates a few months old _____________________________________________ Computer #2: (Multiboot) Tested wigh A:M CD v10.5: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 @ 3.0 GHZ Motherboard GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R 4GB RAM Partition C: XP Pro 32bit Service pack 3 Main working full of apps - updates a few months old _____________________________________________ Conclusions: 1. in my registered partition (computer #1), web v15.0G behaves similar to cd v10.5 So this bug exists at least from v10.5 - no need to test specifically v15.0 on other partitions or computers. (it can't work in another part. or PC anyway -I also tried to copy the *.lic file on another partition as it was suggested) 2. Now since this toolbar-disappearing-behaviour was verified in different OSes and in different computers while on yours it cannot be reproduced, we are left with two possibilities: a] It might be a multi-core issue (if it cannot be reproduced in single-core PCs like robcat2075's PC). So it might "became" a bug after the appearance of dual core computers. b] You might have missed it (as I found a while ago) So to reproduce it: - Start A:M v15.0G, go to Help/Reset settings, exit. - Restart, go to Tools/Customize/Toolbars, - Select "Modeling", leave it or drag it to the upper bar and press OK. It should disappear. I found out that adding "Views" and "Draw" is working, but NOT adding "Modeling" and the rest toolbars bellow it! If you don't want to reset A:M, just try it as is. Bottom line: That was too much fuzzle for that simple bug, (I'm not even a beta-tester!) and more than enough to attract the attention of developer(s)...

Well, this is just NOT the case! I just reproduced the exact same problem on two other partitions on the same (multiboot) PC: One with XP Pro 32bit v2002 SP3 and on one with Vista Ultimate 32bit SP1, both fresh-restored from disk images with NO apps (except NOD32 Antivirus and Folder Guard). Both were intended for testing purposes (such as this one). On these partitions I installed the 10.5 version of A:M. (it installed on Vista with no problems!). So this is definitely a bug beyond any doubts -there are no conflicts or anything. Obviously it affects many people. Anyway, this bug is not that important... I just thought I should give a bug feedback, that's all. Btw, I thought the subscription license was limited on just one computer but when I tried to install it on another partition on the same multiboot computer, I received an error message saying that "this serial number has already been used". Limiting it on just one partition of one computer vs on just one computer is NOT the same thing!

Those didn't help. I even tried different resolutions. I tried to install V13, from the folder "V13" on ftp but it was for CD version and required a newer CD. So I installed V10.5 (the one I had) and the toolbars disappeared again. A minor difference: It was temporary accepted on the same toolbar line (until I hit OK). Thanks for this, it is pretty useful ! (I made an account there too). Fortunately this works! Of course someone has to construct new custom toolbars. I was about to try it but I thought I should post these bugs anyway. Actually, I rolled back to a previous partition image version without any hash software installed -just to be sure. At sometime while I was trying different things, one new toolbar stayed there, but only one -I wasn't able to add more no matter what. It just passed through a bug's ...hole! BTW, my system is a dual core 6600 @2400, 4GB ram, 8800GTX Windows XP Pro SP3 with all the latest updates installed from Microsoft and Nvidia. Generally a stable system. I suspect there is some conflict with some newer system files (dlls etc). In general, as a customer I would prefer 10 fold, a stable version vs a version rich in features. Thanks for the responses.

Hi, I had the 2003 CD version and some plugins but unfortunately I didn't use it much. Now I started again with animation, so I bought the subscription to have more features (or less bugs). Currently I'm using (trying to learn) 15.0G because there was a bug with real time rendering in shaded mode with the 15.0H version, so I'm sorry if the following problems have been corrected: 1. If I try to customize the toolbars just by adding more toolbars to the window (Tools/Customize/Toolbars), when I press "OK" all changes disappear (my screen resolution is 1920x1200 if that helps). 2. While there is enough space on the existing toolbar line for more toolbars (~45% of the horizontal space is free) it isn't possible to place there a toolbar, it creates a new line above the existing one instead (it still disappears after pressing "OK" though). BTW, is there a log with changes for each version to know exactly what I'm missing if I go a few versions backwards? (Hopefully not back to 2003!) Thanks.