Flash Catalyst:Release Notes

From Adobe Labs

This document contains some of the known issues and workaround related to the Beta 2 version of Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™.
Please uninstall existing versions of Flash Catalyst before installing a new build. The Flash Catalyst Beta 2 build is 253292.

Table of contents

1 Overview

2 Minimum System Requirements

3 Installation

4 Known Issues

Overview

Flash Catalyst is a professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating the user experience of applications and interactive content without coding. The public beta is available for Windows and Macintosh platforms.

Minimum System Requirements

Windows

2GHz or faster processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with SP2 or greater, Windows Vista® Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise with Service Pack 1
1GB or RAM (2GB Highly recommended)
1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on flash-based storage devices)
1,024x768 display (1,280x800 or greater recommended) with 16-bit or greater video card

Macintosh

Intel® processor
Mac OS X v10.5.7 or later
1GB of RAM (2GB Highly recommended)
1GB of available hard-disk space for installation; additional free space required during installation (cannot install on a volume that uses a case-sensitive file system or on flash-based storage devices)
1,024x768 display (1,280x800 or greater recommended) with 16-bit or greater video card

Installation

Before installing Flash Catalyst, any previously installed Catalyst builds must be uninstalled.

Windows

Uninstall existing build, if any. Use Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel, then delete the unzipped installation folder if one exists. By default, the folder is located at \Desktop\Adobe Flash Catalyst.
Download Flash Catalyst for Windows
Double-click the installer

Macintosh

Uninstall existing build, if any. For Mac i10 and later builds, a link to the uninstaller is located in the main Adobe Flash Catalyst application folder. For Mac builds prior to i10, run the uninstaller from /Applications/Utilities/Adobe Installers/Adobe Flash Catalyst
Download Flash Catalyst for Macintosh
Double-click the installer

Known Issues

Application Install

Before installing Flash Catalyst, any previously installed Catalyst builds must be uninstalled. You should also remove any copy of unzipped Adobe Flash Catalyst installer folder (Windows) /disk mount image (Mac) from your system before a new installation begins.

Windows and Macintosh

We highly recommend you reboot your system after an install.
Uninstall does not completely remove Flash Catalyst if it has been installed on an external drive. Please use default installation directory when possible.

Windows

Uninstall existing build s. Use Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel, then delete the unzipped installation folder if one exists. By default, the folder is located at \Desktop\Adobe Flash Catalyst.
If you had installed an earlier Catalyst Build, on Windows, after uninstalling Flash Catalyst, you may find an item called “Creative Suite CS4 Wrapper” in the Start - Control Panel – Add/Remove dialog. Usually, if you re-invoke the Add/Remove dialog, this item will no longer appear. If it still appears please select it and uninstall it.
You need to run the uninstaller for Community Help(if you had an earlier Catalyst build) or Adobe Help in order to uninstall it.
Flash Catalyst will not launch when installed to a folder with double byte characters in the name. Renaming the folder to remove any double byte characters resolves this.

Macintosh

An uninstall link named “Uninstall Adobe Flash Catalyst” is located in the Adobe Flash Catalyst application folder. You must use the link to uninstall Catalyst. Throwing away the application folder is not a valid way to uninstall and may cause issues.

Components

TIP: To add a label to a custom button, edit the button, create a text object inside the button and assign it to the “Label” part via the context menu’s Convert to Button Part option or in the HUD’s Convert Artwork to Button Part dropdown.
All required parts of a component must exist in all states of the component; otherwise, the "Component Issues" warning will continue to show and there may be an error at runtime.
The Component Issues warning sign is sometimes displayed even after assigning all required component parts.
Properties of an object that are different in other states are not preserved when the object is converted to a component.
Dragging or pasting a component into itself can cause data loss or malfunction.
If you run into any problems editing a rotated component by double-clicking, then select the component and use Modify > Edit Component, Edit Component in the context menu, or the Edit Component Appearance buttons in the HUD.

Drawing and Selection

TIP: If the artboard does not match your expected result, it can be manually refreshed by pressing Cmd+option+R (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+R (Windows) [Old Artboard refresh shortcut Cmd+R/Ctr+R shortcut now is used to show/hide Rulers.] or by choosing View > Refresh Artboard. There is also a Refresh icon at the far right of the black bar over the artboard. Quitting and restarting Catalyst, then reopening your project can also restore the artboard.
Rotating imported 3D assets is currently unsupported.
Bounding boxes around text are not correct for all fonts.
The transform tool does not currently work for scaling selected items.
Masks cannot be edited in Flash Catalyst.

File Saving (FXP files)

Files created during pre-release or beta versions of the software are not guaranteed to be compatible with future releases of Adobe® Flash® Catalyst™.
On windows: fxp projects currently shows up as generic project icons.

Font Embedding

The “Publish to SWF…” command has an option for embedding fonts. Font embedding currently has the following limitations which will be addressed post Beta.

Embedded fonts are currently only generated for imported content (not the Text tool or for paste from other tools or with Ai roundtrip).
Unused embedded fonts are not cleaned up. This can cause slow publish times as all embedded fonts are compiled into the SWF.
Due to an issue with Mac OS 10.6 TTC font collections the following font families are excluded from embedding:
- "American Typewriter"
- "Baskerville"
- "Cambria"
- "Chalkboard"
- "Cochin"
- "Copperplate"
- "Didot"
- "Futura"
- "Gill Sans"
- "Helvetica Neue"
- "Hoefler Text"
- "Lucida Grande"
- "Marker Felt"
- "Menlo"
- "Optima"
- "Papyrus"
- "Heiti SC"
- "Heiti TC"

Fonts are currently not resolved when an FXP is opened. This can cause compilation errors when attempting embed fonts if any of the fonts in the project are missing or installed in a different location. This commonly happens when moving a project between multiple computers.
Fonts are not embedded when you preview a project using the Run Project command. However you can choose to embed fonts in published SWF files and AIR applications (File>Publish to SWF).
Font subsetting in published SWFs is not available at this time.
Small differences in text layout may occasionally occur when comparing text on Flash Catalyst’s artboard to a published SWF in which fonts are embedded.
PostScript Type 1 and Multiple Master fonts are not supported in Flash Catalyst.

General

Adding a large number of states / pages to a project or component can cause performance issues. One way to reduce the number of pages for a project is to encapsulate them in a custom component. This works especially well for objects and controls that will be present in multiple pages of a project (such as a menu bar).
Items in rotated groups may behave unexpectedly when nudged, moved, or resized.
When a rotated item is selected, operations like group/ungroup or create component may unexpectedly move the item.
Undoing an image compression operation on Windows does not currently delete the created compressed image file. You can use the trashcan delete button in the library panel to remove the compressed image file.
Importing swfs in different states can cause duplicate IDs which may prevent your projects from compiling. To workaround this, delete the problem swf[s] from your artboard and add it again from the Library Panel.
Arrange Z Order functionality may not work properly within groups, AI files, and edit in place.

Heads Up Display (HUD)

Occasionally the HUD will fail to open when double-clicking an FXP to open it on Windows. Selecting Window > Reset Workspace from the menu bar will correct this.

Import

TIP: It’s a good idea to Run your project after importing assets to identify any potential compile issues early.
On Windows, when importing very complex Photoshop files, text may lose formatting and display as Arial 12pt on the artboard. Can also occur with some AI files. Restarting your computer and deleting the workspace should resolve the issue.
Systems with very little available RAM may not successfully import some files. To improve this, try importing directly from the Welcome screen or, if possible, increasing the amount of RAM available.
Artwork files that are large or contain many items may not import or may perform slowly after import. To improve performance, select complex artwork that does not need to be interactive (for example, static icons composed of many vectors) and click Optimize Vector Graphics in the HUD.
Optimize Vector Graphics is only available when the selection contains only vector graphics and/or text. This function is not available if the selection contains other items such as images or components.
Optimized graphics inside components might not always display immediately. To work around this, select View > Refresh Artboard.
Artwork that contains layers using blend modes or filters not supported in the Flash Player should be flattened prior to import in order to preserve fidelity.
On Windows, the application might crash when importing large FXG files into an existing project.
Files must have a valid file extension in order to import.
Imported video/sound or swf files with non-ascii characters will not load properly at runtime.

Illustrator Import

TIP: This release contains a new importer for Adobe Illustrator content. If you experience issues with AI content that previously imported properly into Flash Catalyst, use the following workaround:
- Open the AI file in Adobe Illustrator CS4.
- Choose File > Save As and save the file as an FXG file.
- Import the FXG file into Flash Catalyst.
Symbols in Adobe Illustrator are being broken apart on import into Flash Catalyst.
Filter effects such as glows and dropshadows may appear to have a smaller blur radius when you import them into Flash Catalyst. You can work around this by editing the filter parameters after import using the Properties panel, or by saving the file as FXG from Adobe Illustrator CS4 and importing that FXG file into Flash Catalyst instead of importing the AI file directly.
Opacity masks that are applied to text, or groups or layers containing text will be flattened to bitmaps on import.
AI files containing linked PNG images fail to import correctly. To work around this, embed the images in AI before importing.
Edit in Adobe Illustrator does not currently work with multiple selections in Flash Catalyst. To work around this, group multiple items before selecting Edit in Adobe Illustrator.
Images that are rotated while being edited in Adobe Illustrator no longer accept width and height changes in the Properties Panel.

Photoshop Import

To preserve the appearance of adjustment layers in Adobe Photoshop files (.PSD), flatten the image layers to which they are applied on import.
Layer masks in Adobe Photoshop files (.PSD) will be flattened on import.
Some paragraph text layout attributes may not be preserved correctly on import.
To maintain the appearance of drop shadows in Adobe Photoshop files, flatten the Text and Shape layers to which they are applied on import.
Checking on a layer in the Advanced dialog during PS import brings in the content but does not make it visible.
By default the content of invisible layers is not imported via the Advanced import dialog. To work around this and import the document with layer visibility and content according to the last document state, right-click any layer and choose “Check All” from the context menu.
If multiple layer comps exist in a Photoshop file, the document will be imported into Catalyst according to its appearance when last viewed in Photoshop. Selecting a different layer comp via the Advanced dialog has no effect.
Unless Image layers are flattened on import, blend mode, opacity settings, and masks applied at the layer group level in Photoshop files are ignored.
To preserve the appearance of a layer that contains text on a path, choose to outline or flatten the layer on import.

Layers Panel

TIP: The light blue highlight on a Layer indicates the insertion point for new objects, the darker blue highlight indicates selected items, and the blue square indicates that the layer contains a selected object.
TIP - turning on visibility for a layer group doesn’t turn on all its children. Visibility for layer children must be managed individually.
In some cases, renaming components may cause Layers Panel to cease functioning correctly. This will require a restart of Catalyst to correct.
After dragging an item between layers or groups, the item may end up in the correct group/layer but in an unintended order. This does not happen when dragging an item within a layer or group.

Library Panel

Deleting an Object in an Optimized Graphic from Library Panel will break your Project. Remove all instances of the Optimized Graphic to recover from this state.
If you use the Library panel to delete or rename an image that’s used in a symbol imported from an FXG file, your project will fail to compile. To fix this, undo the delete or rename, or delete all instances of that symbol in your project.
Editing your project very quickly after renaming a component or asset may cause data corruption. It’s recommended that you wait half a second after renaming a component or asset.
On windows, renaming FLV or FV4 files in the Library Panel that are on the Artboard will create duplicate files. One with the original name and one with the new name. To rename a video file without creating a duplicate, first delete the file from the Artboard.
In some cases, Flash Catalyst projects can list all default component skins as Custom Components. Dragging these fake components to the Artboard can result in Catalyst applications that will not run correctly. If your project suddenly contains two dozen or so components with names like “VolumeBarTrackSkin”, do not drag any of these components onto the Artboard.

TextTool

Thermo now allows for some basic on board editing using the Text Tool (T). But when the text contains some special characters like “{“ or “}” the resulting project might not render properly in the browser window.
Selecting only whitespace and applying formatting to it will result in that whitespace not rendering at runtime.
Statefully setting the content or formatting for text may cause runtime errors. To work around this, create different text objects for each state and adjust their visibility as needed for each state.

Timeline

Occasionally objects in Timeline Panel may appear out of sync with other parts of the application and may appear in red. Selecting another transition in the panel will correct this.
Smooth transition applied for a group resize might not be smooth. You might see some flickering.
Move/rotate transition on Optimized Graphic currently does not play. Gives a Runtime error.
No auto-effect generated for shapes whose opacity changes between states.
Fade effects don't look right on shapes whose opacity changes between states.
Effects applied to objects within groups may not appear as expected. If effects for objects moving within groups do not appear as expected, select the group in the timeline and from the "Add Action" menu, add a resize. Select the resize effect bar in the timeline and in the properties panel, change the drop down from "Relative" to "State Transition".
Previewing transitions and action sequences in the timeline does not always match runtime behavior.
Transitions may appear choppy when used with “rollover” and “rollout” interactions. This most often occurs if the rollover involves objects changing size. To resolve this add rollover and rollout interactions to an invisible square that denotes the rollover area.
Effects may not play correctly when using a 3D Rotate in conjunction with other effects in a state-to-state transition.
When multiple Rotate 3D effects are applied to different objects within the same transition or action sequence, the rotation may not appear as expected for all objects. To work around this, group each object that has a Rotate 3D applied by selecting each object individually and pressing Cmd/Ctrl-G, using the right click context menu or top level menus.
Effect duration for the currently selected transition in the timeline can be lost after import. Should this occur, drag out the effect bars again to the desired duration, or to quickly set duration for multiple effects, use the smooth transition button.

TIP: Press ESC, double click the artboard, or use the breadcrumb trail above the upper left of the artboard to exit editing a component.
The appearance of object and state thumbnails may not match objects on the artboard.
Colors may shift between the CS tools and Catalyst and/or the running project.

Undo / Redo

Undoing layer reordering when editing a component may not work correctly. To refresh the Layers panel in this case, exit editing the component, then double-click on it again to edit it.

Video

Working with multiple videos on windows may result in crashing.

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