thanks Cliff. The panel now loads up and I'll see how it goes from here..While i have used Atom to do some editing, it was on another version of the file and saved under another name. This was done to see if I could change the interface on accessories from Loconet2 to MRC, as it will be a couple of months before that system arrives, rather than delete every accessory and rebuild them.
i wonder if those invalid layout blocks were what was causing the problems with setting up sections.
Thanks again. chris.
SwissChris